Patriot2500

Did a search and nothing came up for head gasket I noticed today as I was accelerating onto a highway that the smoke my truck normally blows was gray, not thick black. Went down a little ways on got on the throttle and I noticed white coming from the exhaust. Popped the hood and didn't notice anything leaking and the coolant level seems fine. This happened once before when I had the Quad Race on my truck. It would blow gray smoke only when I was on the highway. Someone suggested the lift pump was going out, but I took the Quad off the truck and everything was fine. What do you guys think it could be? What do you suggest I do?

Robert P

well did you get a wiff of the smoke? if so did it have a sweet smell or did it smell like diesel fuel that was half burnt? it is either coolant or an injector failure. fuel that is unburnt will cause alot of white smoke. and the fact that you said that it stoped when you took the box off leads me to believe that you may have an injector about to fail.

OT-OF-Here

It is usually an injector/s!! If you let the truck sit and start up and it's got considerably more white smoke then I'd bet on the injector/s. It's a common problem. I ended up having 7 injectors replaced in the 1st 5k miles.

Patriot2500

MikMaze said the same thing about the injectors. Ever since the Quad box was removed, it hasn't done this until now. Truck does not smoke on start-up, only under acceleration getting onto a highway. Oh well, if it does it again tomorrow than I will call the dealer and bring it in.

Patriot2500

Just a thought, but if an injector went bad, does that mean that others will also because there will be an injector with 0 miles and others with 53,000? Sorry if thats a stupid question, but I just want to make sure.

Luken

Both times I've lost a headgasket it blows white smokes out of the stacks. You will know it if you blow a headgasket. I thought it was major damage this time. I would say it's an injector problem.

morkable

If I was to replace an injector I would replace them all, and put in some better aftermarket ones, The extra cost would be minimized. I believe that you can get good aftermarket 50's or 80's for about the same price as stock ones, and the labor isnt going to be much more for all or just 1. Just my thought


Kevin

Dodgezilla

The weather is getting cooler and with that mine always starts to smoke a little bit. I noticed mine doing it the other day.

PourinDiesel

I think Dodgezilla nailed it.

Patriot2500

Pourin and 'Zilla, I think you guys maybe right. I checked the fluid levels this morning before starting the truck (temp outside about 47-50 degrees) and everything was normal. No oil anywhere in the engine compartment and no odd smells coming from the motor or exhaust. Drove it to work this morning and no loss of power feeling. Checked the engine compartment again when I got to work and nothing out of ordinary. Thank you to all who posted up with their opinions. I would love to throw some aftermarket injectors in the truck but don't have the $$ for it.

OT-OF-Here

Without a sweet smell and NO overheating then you must have a bad injector/s. I had a mess over two months and had to go to the Area Serv Mgr of DC to get them to replace the injectors. DC's STAR grp has to authorize the injectors and that is a battle in itself. They have a test procedure and that would take a day or so on each injector and they originally replaced 3 and it was ok for a week or two and then the others started the same thing (white smoke) and then they replaced them and then one of them went bad so I had 7 replaced in total. What they replace them with is REBUILT and not new injectors. I really never noticed any problem with them but when I had tips installed then they found a couple of them were not properly holding pressure. So by that time I had had it with injectors and the DC replacements and I bought brand new Bosch injectors (stockers) from II. I have since had Extrude Hone tips put on these and NO problem.

My kid had an New F550 and he had bad injectors and just kept driving it like that and it lunched his entire engine. FOMOCO ended up replacing the whole thing, fyi.

I think it is important to know that all my original problems happened in the first 5k miles. That was with the stock filtering system. I have since run both 2 and 3 micron (absolute) filters and also religiously used fuel system additives. Clearly the stock (I believe) 10 micron filtering system isn't enough for the junk fuel we have to deal with. Hope this helps.

PourinDiesel

Start-up white smoke is a common issue in colder months with a diesel. The engine it self gets cold soaked and the proper environment for a combustion event is not there until the block, pistons, head, coolant etc. are brought up to a reasonable temperature.

In fact if you read back a couple years on these website there are alot of stock trucks that had the white smoke at start and that was cured with a re-flash.
Basically the engine is getting too much fuel or enough fuel for an "ideal" combustion environment. The problem is that the engine is cold and much of the fuel is not burned properly.

Yes, an overfueling injector can cause white smoke since an overfueling injector is basically simulating this same condition even when there is sufficient temperature for an ideal combustion event.

Blah..blah blah...

Hey what do I know anyways?

Pooter

Not sure about a 24 valve, but when I popped the head gasket on my 12 valve I didnt know it till I saw the oil dripping. Went back and traced the trail back, and it was about 2-3 miles from home when it went. Backed down the driveway, got out to open the gate, backed in, then saw the exxon valdez on the driveway It was leaking out of a small radiator leak I had in between the cores. Truck still had strong oil pressure, temp was normal, egts normal, NO other sign than the oil slick on the driveway. Had stacks on the truck too, and belched black smoke like theres no tomorrow, and didnt have any white smoke when the head gasket went to the ghost.

Now I have had white smoke on a HARD start up when it was pretty cold out and forgot to plug the truck in overnight. Flat out would not stay running, youd get a sputter or too, and a few puffs of white smoke, but no start in the cool weather till I plugged it in and let it sit for about 30minutes...






Im leaning more towards an injector in this case, since im assuming the truck is up to temp when you are seeing the white smoke on the highway?
What version is the quad box? Ive heard of the early boxes contributing to injector issues....

Patriot2500

Not sure about the version of my Quad box as I sold it already.

Yes, the truck is at operating temp when I see the smoke. I have to call the dealer and make an appointment to bring it in and have it looked at. I have no leaks under the truck at all. If an injector is bad, wouldn't I see oil leaking under the truck?

Pooter

Not necessarily, ive always heard it typically leaks fuel into the crankcase basically, you can check the oil for diesel.

Is the truck still operating normally? Driving fine? No power loss?
And it still starts up fine right?