Recently had set of 160cc Stage II single shot injectors from Full Force installed, with a GT38R, and Single Shot tunes from Gearhead Automotive. The truck runs great, and it couldn't be happier with the power.

My only concern is the amount of smoke at idle, which seems a bit excessive and smells different than normal diesel exhaust. Is this normal for these injectors, or should I be concerned?

Hopefully this is normal, but I thought oil might be getting into the fuel somewhere. The smoke at start up and warm idle, was present before the injector swap, and I thought the new injectors (o-rings) would address that issue.

Any thoughts? thanks...

 

My stage 1 ss (i believe 160 cc).whold smoke for about 30 seconds on cold start ups, warm there was no smoke...I believe your tunes need tweeked.
Have you talked to anyone at Gearhead?? I am now using stage 2 ss 225cc
and they smoke at idle and its in the tunes..(soon to be fixed)

 

I see a light haze of smoke after cold start up and EGTs are below 300 degrees. Once warmed and cylinder temps come up, there is no smoke at idle.

 

thanks for the response...

I haven't talked directly with anyone at gearhead, but have been working through Brandon Miller at Twisted Innovations. Long story, but the first tunes were from another vendor and didn't have great driveability or idle quality, so he got a credit back from that vendor and we sent the chip to Gearhead.

Tunes from both vendors have had smoke at idle when warm, and lower than stock idle RPM (approx 600 RPM). The Gearhead tunes seem to start a lot better.

Maybe I should talk with the tuner, sounds like they might be calling for too much fuel at idle?

 

Something else I forgot to mention, is it possible that ICP sensor or IPR could be effecting the idle quality and smoke? At 175k miles, both are probably needing replaced.

Also, I have a whauup, whauup, whauup miss at start sometimes. Was always present at cold start with stock injectors, and still there with the new injectors. The first tunes i tried would require a bump of the throttle to elimnate the miss... with the new tunes from Gearhead, the miss only lasts for a couple revolutions before clearing up on its own.

stock injectors smoked at cold start and cleaned up at warm idle, had miss at cold start that required bumping the throttle to eliminate.

new injectors smoke both at cold start and warm idle, with new tuning the miss clears up on its own after a couple revolutions of the engine.

 

I had that whaup whaup on start ... I was told it has to do with hpop and I tryed another oil Amsoil and that issue at start up never came up again plus mileage intervals between oil changes is insane ... Just saying

 

Have you checked all the glow plugs? Were they tested or changed when you changed the injectors?

 

All of the glow plugs were replaced when the injectors were changed.

Strangely the miss is actually more prevelant with a warm start... forgot to mention that.

 

Well that changes my thought cold start is the only time when Ive seen the issue I was referring to .

 

yeah... its very strange.

The only thing I can think of, is maybe the IPR and ICP are not functioning properly.

could a cracked injector cup cause this the miss? Brandon did mention that one of the factory injectors was discolored, but he thought the cups looked good.

 

The romps is what you guys are describing as to the funny idle. I had that problem too with my 97, but it would clear up as soon as I put it in neutral. (auto tranny) Never made sense to me. Now it doesn't do it at all, and I have no idea why. I too run amsoil. The IPR can affect idle, that's for sure. Don't know about the ICP.

Smoke at idle, seems to me something is wrong somewhere. Smoke when cold is understandable and expected. But when warm, something is causing it. Need to identify the smoke. Oil should be easy to identify, as well as antifreeze simply by smell.

 

I'm confident there isn't any coolant in the exhaust, but not sure about oil. The haze is slightly blue, and stinks big time... but not like a normal oil burning smell, it actually stings the eyes a little bit.

Brandon is going to run some diagnostics tomorrow, and hopefully we get this thing figured out soon.

I do plan on trying some sythetic oil, to see if that addresses the miss at startup.

Thanks again for all the feedback... you guys have a lot of experience and knowledge for sure.

 

Have you done a quick check for blowby? Flip the oil fill cap over and see if it will sit there?

 

Boy do I feel dumb...

Narrowed the smoke issue down to one of the positions on the TS chip. For some reason the "tow/economy" tune idles smokes heavily at idle when warm. All other positions are clean at idle. Also noticed the tow/economy tune sounds very different from the other positions at idle (actually idles a lot quieter).

Anyways, sorry for the wild goose chase. Going to work with gearhead to get the tow tune fixed.