Friend On road (1,000 miles from home) truck started smoking, White

[07HEMI4ME]

I'M posting this for a friend.
Truck is a 93 e350 7.3L, truck is stock (235K) high cube truck, van front end.
As subject says, starting noticing it while going down the road, as a puff of white smoke every once in a while. Get to destination (DC)truck is idling and white smoke is noticeable.

Would this be an injector? I do not know much about this year.

Truck is running OK right now, he will be in DC until Monday am than back to Cape Cod for a few days and back to South Florida.

If injector, is it advisable to try to make it back to the cape and even South Florida?

[skimballc]

If its white, I'd have your buddy check his coolant level and see if its dropped. White smoke equals water. If coolant level has dropped, it could be head gaskets or cavitation, so also check oil for water contamination.

[yaric008]

[ QUOTE ]
I'M posting this for a friend.
Truck is a 93 e350 7.3L, truck is stock (235K) high cube truck, van front end.
As subject says, starting noticing it while going down the road, as a puff of white smoke every once in a while. Get to destination (DC)truck is idling and white smoke is noticeable.

Would this be an injector? I do not know much about this year.

Truck is running OK right now, he will be in DC until Monday am than back to Cape Cod for a few days and back to South Florida.

If injector, is it advisable to try to make it back to the cape and even South Florida?

[/ QUOTE ]

Could be an injector. I believe white smoke can be unburnt fuel. If it smells sweet then it's coolant. Anyways, check the oil and the rad. If all looks okay, it's probably alright.., if it's cavitation, he may as well just run the engine into the ground because he's going to basically have to replace it anyways.

[Mr_Roboto]

Water or retarded timing.

If it's water a coolant stop leak should get him where he's going. Barr's (pelletized) is good, JB radiator stop leak is better.

[cleatusj]

Look at valve covers to see if a pushrod is sticking up thru it or dented from inside. My "86 6.9 did this and would still run great by seat of pants gauge. That's why it got a 7.3.

[07HEMI4ME]

Thanks for ther info, I will call him and pass it on.

[07HEMI4ME]

Just changed oil 2 weeks ago and it still looks and smells new, Coolant is at correct level.

[skimballc]

If thats the case and if I were him, then I'd just keep truckin' and deal with it when I got it back home, keeping a close eye on everything while on the road. Been there done that enough times in old rigs.

[Mr_Roboto]

Also I find that people sometimes don't NOTICE when their vehicles do things all the time. Then when they are actually sitting their looking and notice something, they think it is unusual.

I do jumpstarts and the customer asks why the exhaust is so smoky. It's just they always start the car and go, they don't look at it.

[skimballc]

Amen to that. That's why whenever I work on one thing on the truck, I always end up finding something ELSE I suddenly think needs attention. Sometimes just reading these forums makes my truck "break".

[Mr_Roboto]

LOL!

I'm fortunate to be a hillbilly. I recognize that my trucks are broke, however as long as they still go they are OK.

[cleatusj]

With 950k on '86 and yerry few problems and 54K on '88 with lots of air I wonder about my diaonostic abilities. Being a tennessee river billy raised in texas just won't let me quit 'til one of us gets this thing fixed.

[07HEMI4ME]

My neighbor called me today, He made it back to the Cape no other problems except for killing mosquito's and dropped it off at the ford dealer, Mech said it is burning oil and that is it until he gets into it deeper.

[yaric008]

[ QUOTE ]
Sometimes just reading these forums makes my truck "break".

[/ QUOTE ]

Now that's a funny quote.