White smoke under acceleration until warm

[BugJEB34]

I need some advice from someone smarter than myself on what may cause my issue. I am getting white smoke under acceleration until the truck gets to operating temp then it goes away completely and I can't make it smoke. No smoke whatsoever at idle just a puff of black just as it starts. I just recently replaced a head gasket so EVERYTHING has been taken off my truck recently and I'm not sure where to begin to start if I have a connection that may be fouled up. One thing I do need to do after reading some of Mopar's articles on injector and fuel line reinstalling after the change and I have realized I need to first take the tubes back out and clean the tips of them as well as tighten the fuel lines onto the tubes before I tighten the injector down to ensure I tight seal. That being said I do smell fuel when the truck is running and an near positive I am getting air intrusion, I just want to make sure while I have it all apart that I check anything that may need checked. Since the replacement of the head gasket I am getting no fluid mixing, no bubbles in the coolant, and no overheating issues, so I don't think its the head gasket again. I am going to re-torque while I have everything apart just as a precaution just to check, but like I said many of you know much more than I do, so while I'm working I want to make sure I check anything that could be problematic. Thanks in advance for any advice.Jason

[angus]

I need some advice from someone smarter than myself on what may cause my issue. I am getting white smoke under acceleration until the truck gets to operating temp then it goes away completely and I can't make it smoke. No smoke whatsoever at idle just a puff of black just as it starts. I just recently replaced a head gasket so EVERYTHING has been taken off my truck recently and I'm not sure where to begin to start if I have a connection that may be fouled up. One thing I do need to do after reading some of Mopar's articles on injector and fuel line reinstalling after the change and I have realized I need to first take the tubes back out and clean the tips of them as well as tighten the fuel lines onto the tubes before I tighten the injector down to ensure I tight seal. That being said I do smell fuel when the truck is running and an near positive I am getting air intrusion, I just want to make sure while I have it all apart that I check anything that may need checked. Since the replacement of the head gasket I am getting no fluid mixing, no bubbles in the coolant, and no overheating issues, so I don't think its the head gasket again. I am going to re-torque while I have everything apart just as a precaution just to check, but like I said many of you know much more than I do, so while I'm working I want to make sure I check anything that could be problematic. Thanks in advance for any advice. Jason

I`m still a wannabe diesel gurru, but I know in a gas engine white smoke is an indication of coolant entering the combustion chamber. Hop[efully thats not your case, I will be interested in seeing what you find out.

[98whitelightnin]

Might as well check the valves while you have the cover off.

[BugJEB34]

I`m still a wannabe diesel gurru, but I know in a gas engine white smoke is an indication of coolant entering the combustion chamber. Hop[efully thats not your case, I will be interested in seeing what you find out.

I couldn't agree more, my only thing is it stopping like you flip a switch once you get to operating temps. But for this very reason I have been watching coolant levels very closely as well as oil levels to make sure I'm not getting any mixing. Also going to be checking the valves as long as I'm in there. I'm pretty big on as long as I have it off there is no use not throwing a gauge in there.

[CUMMINSDIESELPWR]

is the smoke bluish, brownish or white? these subtleties will point to the sourcei know you have white smoke on the header but bluish can look white from different anglesto me it could either be valve seals or the turbo leaking oil into the charge airstream

[BugJEB34]

is the smoke bluish, brownish or white? these subtleties will point to the source i know you have white smoke on the header but bluish can look white from different angles to me it could either be valve seals or the turbo leaking oil into the charge airstream

Near certain it's white, and today the coolant bottle is a little lower. Could be because of me opening the radiator cap while it was hot and some overflowed, but I wanted to check for bubbles in the radiator, which I found none. I'm somewhat stumped, as much as I don't want to I want to say HG again, but I'm not pushing out any fluid like it was before and the problem goes away like flipping a switch as soon as you get to operating temp. It's like you hit 190 or start getting close to it and its gone, can't even make it smoke. I think this weekend I'm going to re-torque my head bolts, give everything a once over, and see if I'm going to have to pull the head again or if that possibly fixes it. It's almost like I'm not getting a good seal until it gets warm all of sudden then it seals and the problem is gone.

[ADawg]

If you had coolant going into the cylinder would it smoke all the time? Cause I had an old subaru that I changed the head gasket on multiple times and it ended up being a hair line crack in the cylinder wall. That thing would smoke like crazy!

[BugJEB34]

That is the exact reason I haven't just called it that and started tearing down again. And since I'm not completely sold on it, I'm not tearing it down just for peace of mind, I want to be sure before I do something like that. It's also not my DD so I'm not in a super hurry to have to make a call. I have a company vehicle that I drive 95% of the time, I only drive it when I need to haul something or try to once a weekend just to keep its juices flowing.

[pepsi71ocean]

before you go about getting all worked up first smell your smoke.is it fuel or a sweet smell.if it is a fuel smell then its a timing issue, if it is a sweet smell like engine coolant then you you have a leak.but did you check to see if your VP-44 is working correctly? the upper end is working, valve set?

[Dave3500]

How many miles on your CTD?

--- Update to the previous post...

before you go about getting all worked up first smell your smoke.

is it fuel or a sweet smell.

if it is a fuel smell then its a timing issue, if it is a sweet smell like engine coolant then you you have a leak.

but did you check to see if your VP-44 is working correctly? the upper end is working, valve set?

Good advice pepsi!

Do you do a compression check before you tore it done by chance? It would be nice to have a comparison. If not do that first, you don't want to do that again if you don't have too. I would think if you checked everything as you were working it's not a head gasket issue. Esp if you are not seeing bubbles, no fluid loss etc. My motto, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Dave

[BugJEB34]

before you go about getting all worked up first smell your smoke. is it fuel or a sweet smell. if it is a fuel smell then its a timing issue, if it is a sweet smell like engine coolant then you you have a leak. but did you check to see if your VP-44 is working correctly? the upper end is working, valve set?

Sorry for the delay, my home computer wouldn't load this site only for 2 days, and I have a 3 week old newborn so I didn't have tons of time to check it. Today is the first day back to work in a couple weeks, so this is the first time I've had to just sit down. Haha I will check on the smoke smell, I'm near positive it smells like diesel, which is why I was originally thinking fuel line or injector issue, but hard for me to really smell it as I have to be taking off and have the engine under load to get smoke, doesn't smoke at all just sitting. Don't worry I'm not going to be tearing in just for the sake of doing it, I'm doing my research first and going from there, truck isn't my daily driver, so no biggie. Valves seem to be functioning properly, I can take the cover off put the truck in neutral and they all work properly and all of them are set and have been checked and rechecked. The truck is throwing no codes, but I will check again and if its the VP I'm having no other issues whatsoever, but if there is something else about it I should check I can do that.

[pepsi71ocean]

Sorry for the delay, my home computer wouldn't load this site only for 2 days, and I have a 3 week old newborn so I didn't have tons of time to check it. Today is the first day back to work in a couple weeks, so this is the first time I've had to just sit down. Haha I will check on the smoke smell, I'm near positive it smells like diesel, which is why I was originally thinking fuel line or injector issue, but hard for me to really smell it as I have to be taking off and have the engine under load to get smoke, doesn't smoke at all just sitting. Don't worry I'm not going to be tearing in just for the sake of doing it, I'm doing my research first and going from there, truck isn't my daily driver, so no biggie. Valves seem to be functioning properly, I can take the cover off put the truck in neutral and they all work properly and all of them are set and have been checked and rechecked. The truck is throwing no codes, but I will check again and if its the VP I'm having no other issues whatsoever, but if there is something else about it I should check I can do that.

simple, put it in reverse and get on it, lol:lmao:

[BugJEB34]

How many miles on your CTD?

--- Update to the previous post...

Good advice pepsi!

Do you do a compression check before you tore it done by chance? It would be nice to have a comparison. If not do that first, you don't want to do that again if you don't have too. I would think if you checked everything as you were working it's not a head gasket issue. Esp if you are not seeing bubbles, no fluid loss etc. My motto, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Dave

The truck has 216,XXX on it, I've had it for 2.5 years now and it had 189,000 on it when I bought it. I had the compression checked before I bought the truck and also had them make sure I didn't have a major loss when I had the leak, but I didn't find out exactly what the compression was. I can take it to them and have it checked and get back to you on that. I'm big on not fixing non broken things myself, but this white smoke is annoying and means something isn't right, so I've got to get it taken care of. Thanks for the reply and I will report back once I get the compression checked.

[pepsi71ocean]

The truck has 216,XXX on it, I've had it for 2.5 years now and it had 189,000 on it when I bought it. I had the compression checked before I bought the truck and also had them make sure I didn't have a major loss when I had the leak, but I didn't find out exactly what the compression was. I can take it to them and have it checked and get back to you on that. I'm big on not fixing non broken things myself, but this white smoke is annoying and means something isn't right, so I've got to get it taken care of. Thanks for the reply and I will report back once I get the compression checked.

what is your fuel pressure, what was your fuel pressure when you got it, was it a stock LP when you bought the truck? Replace LP? (i see you don't have one listed in sign)

[BugJEB34]

simple, put it in reverse and get on it, lol:lmao:

Haha, actually kind of what I was thinking. Either that or take off, slam ob brakes and jump out and do a chinese fire drill getting back to the smoke to smell it. I just have to find a place to do it so my neighbors don't see me pull my truck out of the shop, take off up the street, jump out and smell the smoke, then back it back into the shop. They'd all be over asking my wife if I had went nuts.

--- Update to the previous post...

what is your fuel pressure, what was your fuel pressure when you got it, was it a stock LP when you bought the truck?

Replace LP? (i see you don't have one listed in sign)

I knew this one was going to come up and I'm an idiot, lift pump is a stock one, I replaced it right when I bought the truck because I knew they crapped out often, so the pump is 2.5 years old and I will check the pressure. At that time I didn't realize I needed to get a nicer one nor did I know of the nicer ones. I have a gauge sitting in the shop to go in, but they have been sitting there for a while now, so I need to get them put on. I will plug into the test port and see what I'm getting.

[Mopar1973Man]

Now that Pepsi got you going down this road how about check for error codes... I wonder if the famous P0216 code is there... Being the white smoke and P0216 usually go hand in hand...

[BugJEB34]

Now that Pepsi got you going down this road how about check for error codes... I wonder if the famous P0216 code is there... Being the white smoke and P0216 usually go hand in hand...

As of last time I drove the truck which I think was Sunday, I still had no codes with the key trick.

[Mopar1973Man]

As of last time I drove the truck which I think was Sunday, I still had no codes with the key trick.

Go get a code reader... 2001 are known not to show all codes because of a software issue... 1998.5 and 1999 don't work at all... 2000 some report both error codes and some only report PCM. 2001 are known to only report PCM only. 2002 will report both PCM and ECM using the key trick.

[pepsi71ocean]

Now that Pepsi got you going down this road how about check for error codes... I wonder if the famous P0216 code is there... Being the white smoke and P0216 usually go hand in hand...

it seems all to similar, low lift pump pressure burns the timing piston up, fails to advance timing = unburnt fuel. or weak timing cam causes the vp to loose timing under load. i figured it was a fuel pump issue when i looked and didn't see anywhere a sign of aftermarket LP. TO the OP, understand that these VP-44's will have error codes but will not show a check engine light.

[greed]

My 2002 would run rough and blow white smoke on a cold morning, less than 40 degrees. After it warmed up the smoke would quit and it would run fine. It threw a code for Cam Position Sensor. Later on it threw P016. Dealer replaced VP44. Still threw code on cold mornings. I replaced sensor. No more problems. Check for codes. In the shop manual there are specs for the sensors. Yours may have both a Cam Position Sensor and a Crankshaft Position Sensor. You may have to check them both, if you have both.