Fresh Motor Smoking White

rkadcock

rkadcock

New member
Joined
Nov 4, 2009
Messages
130
I finally got my motor back together from the build and now I've run into issue. When I start it, it starts right up; but it starts at about 600 RPMs then idles up to around 1000. After that it has a fairly heavy white/blue smoke from the exhaust that wreaks of oil and can bring tears to your eyes.

I took it for a quick drive down the road, and within half a mile my gauges were jumping around. In gear taking off it sounds like a manuel taking off at to low of an RPM. It never stayed at a constant RPM, the oil pressure gauge on the dash and my autometer one kept failing to 0 psi but would jump back up to around 30 psi at idle in park.

A few other things I noticed when driving it, I can hear the turbo whistle but the boost never got past 5 psi. No black smoke, just white/blue. From 0-30 mph the truck takes off but after that its a complete dog. But after that little test drive it stopped smoking white.

As far as mods go... Its a 97 storm block, balanced, Mahle 286210 pistons, ARP head and main studs, Cummins block stiffener, degreed Hamilton 188/220 cam, 24v tappets, Hamilton HD springs, Hamilton pushrods, P&P head (full on the exhaust side, mild on the intake), 600cc pump, Airdog 150, 64/71/14. Right now I have stock injectors in it until I get my 5x18s back.

So far I've checked timing and its at 22°, did a compression test and all is good, and checked valve lash. Not sure if I need to recheck the cam to make sure its degreed correctly, or if its something else causing this.

http://youtu.be/VvhYik2ln8Q
 
Last edited:
No. the level on the dipstick is the same as when I first filled it. But its only got about 5 miles total on it and about 40 minutes of run time
 
40 minutes of run time? What kind of run time? Hard load? Idle? RPM?
 
Good news is I've read about 3/4 of those threads before and thats pretty much how I broke my engine/cam in.

The first 15-20 minutes of its new life, was without water at 2000 RPMs. It was shut down and about 8 hours later I added coolant/water, did a retorque on the head studs, and started it again for about 5 minutes. Then the last of the run time was on my little 5 mile cruise down the road and some more idle time. And all through that it was smoking white.

The only thing that has changed was when we first started it for the break in my oil pressure was about 60 psi at 2000 RPM and about 35 psi at idle. Now when you start it, its around 25 psi at idle and when I drove it I can't break 40 psi even if I were to hold it in first and take it to 3000 RPM. And now I really don't want to start it just because I don't want to destroy something from lack of oil.
 
might check your oil cooler. there is a bypass in the filter housing, it might be bad. that might be the problem with the oil pressure. are you sure its oil or fuel smell? i had a perkins engine that was putting out smoke like your engine and the timing was actually retarded.
 
LReiff said:
15 minutes @ 2000 rpm without coolant is too long.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. Oil temp would be through the roof at that rpm for that long with no coolant to cool it down. Not a very wise move in my book. It may have scored the cylinder walls from the heat
 
rkadcock said:
.
The first 15-20 minutes of its new life, was without water at 2000 RPMs. It was shut down and about 8 hours later I added coolant/water,
QUOTE]

Ouch....dunno who told you to do that but they were not correct. First thing id do is cut my oil filter apart and look at the shavings....
Click to expand...
 
rkadcock said:
The first 15-20 minutes of its new life, was without water at 2000 RPMs. It was shut down and about 8 hours later I added coolant/water, did a retorque on the head studs, and started it again for about 5 minutes. Then the last of the run time was on my little 5 mile cruise down the road and some more idle time. And all through that it was smoking white.
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly the thread where they talked about break in without water, 5 minutes was the magic number. Does it have a knock or any other strange noise? I think it may have gotten too warm on you...
 
Chevycummins said:
might check your oil cooler. there is a bypass in the filter housing, it might be bad. that might be the problem with the oil pressure. are you sure its oil or fuel smell? i had a perkins engine that was putting out smoke like your engine and the timing was actually retarded.
Click to expand...

I thought it was timing at first especially since that pump had been moved around the garage a few times while it was off, but its still at 22*.

cumminstroked said:
If I remember correctly the thread where they talked about break in without water, 5 minutes was the magic number. Does it have a knock or any other strange noise? I think it may have gotten too warm on you...
Click to expand...

Yay me! Well I know what I'm doing tomorrow... Guess I can only hope for the best when I pull the oil filter, but on the dipstick the oil is still fairly new looking; I'm sure that doesn't mean anything though. But I swear I read someone doing it for 10 or 15 minutes before, but the excitement of getting my truck back after 15 months might have clouded my judgement...

However, it was still smoking white even during the first 5 minutes of the break in... I'm sure running it longer without water escalated the problem though. But besides what I described above and whats in the video, their is really no weird noises (minus it sounding like a manuel trans engine trying to tack off at to low of an RPM) or knocking coming from it.
 
5x16 injectors are going to haze white at idle. The bigger you go the worse its going to get. I think what youi got confused was that 15 to 20 minutes at 2k was with water in it and 5 minutes with no water. If it is hazing really bad then you need todo a compression test to see if you hurt the cylinder
 
Last edited:
DISTURBED said:
5x16 injectors are going to haze white at idle. The bigger you go the worse its going to get. I think what youi got confused was that 15 to 20 minutes at 2k was with water in it and 5 minutes with no water. If it is hazing really bad then you need todo a compression test to see if you hurt the cylinder
Click to expand...

x2...
 
Says that he did do a compression test all was good. How many miles do you have on the new motor now?
 
Its only got 5 miles on it and about 40 minutes total run time. I was going to mess with it tonight but didn't get home until sunset. But I drained the oil tonight to check for shavings and I did find I had fuel in the oil, so theirs the oil pressure issue, or part of it. I'll cut the oil filter open tomorrow and check the pan for shavings as well since I don't plan on staying at work all day like today.
 
And even though it probably doesn't matter, I'll have a new downpipe on Friday so that'll take care of the exhaust leak in the engine bay since that ATS downpipe doesnt match up to the turbo.
 
Compression was highest of 390 psi on #4, 4 other cylinders fell in the 380-390 range, and #2 was 375.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top