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Truck blowing thick white smoke

3

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
I was on the freeway a couple days ago. I saw a large truck blowing thick white smoke out the stack. Not just a little, but a lot. Was this truck experiencing a run away engine? On the net I saw a sight with diesel engines that were running wide open with the same thick white smoke out the stack, with no way to shut them down. What causes this? Could this happen to tractors? Stan
 
A diesel smoking white is not burning the fuel or burning fuel very inefficiently, just the opposite of a run away where the engine is getting too much fuel. The most common cause of white smoke is lack of air such as dirty air breathers, there can be any number of other mechanical problems that will also cause it and removing the thermostat and letting the engine run too cool can also cause it.
 
A run away diesel is doing so because of a unintended fuel source.
About the only way to shut it down is to cut off the air supply.
I have worked on some Detroit engines that had a air shut off in the blower.
No truck going down the road in traffic is running away.


The most common cause of a big truck blowing thick smoke for a long period is a bad turbo.
Oil leaks past the seals in the turbo directly into the exhaust.
 
Many of the big truck produced since 2007 have a filter on the exhaust to capture the soot particles. About every 1000 miles the truck needs to empty that filter. On the early design it was accomplished by injecting and igniting diesel fuel into the exhaust system to clean the filter. Called Regeneration when the thick smoke is usually present. Maybe this is what you saw.
 
Could be a bad turbo as was said below, or the emission system could have the exhaust filter go into a regen cycle. The system injects extra fuel into the exhaust filter to burn off accumulated deposits resulting in the white smoke. I've been seeing more and more trucks doing this lately,especially as the weather gets colder and the trucks are allowed to idle alot more
 
Probably went in regen. Mine has smoked so bad you could not see the end of the truck(20ft)
 
Had a 4600 Ford do that. Something malfunctioned in the injector pump, ran about 2500 rpm with the fuel shut off out. Tractor ran for a few minutes like that, loading it on a truck since it was still under warranty. Pump was repaired and tractor ran well for years after. As the rpm 's increase, the valves begin to float, limiting the rpm s of the engine before damage is done. Ben
 
Had an injector stick open on my 05 Ford f350 with the 6 litre diesel, man it made white smoke and knocked so bad it was unreal... could just have been a stuck open injector, common rail engines have diesel under injection pressure at the injectors all the time, computer tells the injector when to shoot some into the cylinder
 
A modern diesel with a DPF should not smoke at all. If they do, something is seriously wrong. DPF is meant to collect particulate matter, smoke is particulate matter and will clog the filter in short order.

Diesels white smoke for a few reasons. Either antifreeze from a blown head gasket, cold cylinders on a cold start, or incomplete combustion due to low compression or an injector flooding a cylinder with fuel. Runaways due to lube oil tend to smoke a heavy gray smoke. Black smoke is due to lack of air.
 
I had a Chev. Nova with the 6 cyl engine. Forget year. The head and intake manifold were unicast into one assy. Sounded like a good idea but improper design made it prone for cracking.

I'm driving to work one day in Dallas commute stop and go traffic, center of 3 lanes in my direction and all of a sudden I am totally inundated in white smoke. Totally caught me off guard. Was a harrowing experience I assure you.

In short, the head cracked and smoke was antifreeze and water. How it got inside the car, besides all around it to the point I couldn't see around me beats me.
 
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