Thread: white smoke & no pickup TD5

Originally Posted by Alex 110

thanks everyone for your responses to date...
In detail - yes, I thought white smoke was unburnt diesel, but I'm not sure why...
I can check the turbo tomorrow, I'll let you know what I find...
Its my daily driver, so not using it is hard, but I'll try...
I have to take the rocker cover off in the near future so I can check the injector seals then, but I'll wait to do that until I have the new seals so I can replace them as I go...

Any further suggestions?

Had a white smoke problem ....had changed fuel pump tried to restart engine...unburnt fuel ...cause by heaters in cyls not working....put down to battery being a bit flat.....charged battery engine fired up no white smoke
have not seen any for 18 months....am happy camper....thexprinter 2000 td5 333,000k

Thanks thexprinter, but my white smoke problem is not just at startup or with a cold engine, its anytime I accelerate.
Although my battery is a bit old & reads only 12.4v when its linked to the new deepcycle which reads 12.85v it should be OK

My guess is faulty injector or lack of compression in one or more cylinders.

I would have the injectors serviced and a compression test done as a first step.

I'd go with injectors too, get them looked at and go from there.
Other than that it sounds exactly like a turbo issue, but that's already been said and tested.

ULP in diesel fuel is another possibility. drain a bit of fuel out and have a sniff. also, if the fuel feels unusually cold on the hands for diesel, it is likely to be petrol contaminated....


jc

Thanks Justin, I just checked my fuel receipts & guess what? $20 of vortex 95 went in the tank shortly before the problem started. That's what happens when you've been using a commodore & both need fuel at about the same time. My bad. I feel like a real dill.
I traveled about 50km with the mix in the tank. Am I likely to have stuffed the injectors?
Obviously I now need to drain the tank & the fuel lines - anything else I need to do? (apart from take more care at the servo)

how much was in the tank when the ulp was added?.
me personally, fill the tank with diesel and change out the fuel filter, the injectors are either stuffed or not so a percentage of ulp in the diesel you might get away with it.

OK, so I drained the fuel tank, refuelled it after a 3km walk to the nearest servo to get a jerrycan of diesel. Started it up, a bit of white smoke for a couple of minutes til the pipes cleared, now its running better than it has for a long time - a puff of black smoke under hard acceleration (WOT to 4000rpm), but that's probably turbo wastegate adjustment - I had to play around with the rod to disconnect it & check the wastegate wasn't jammed.
Before anyone else jumps in I did not say I played around with my rod
So I'll be shortening it up until just before overboost & I'll be happy again.
Alex