No. Mine went immediately to heavy smoke. I mean, heavy enough thst people I met on the road were pulling over.

 

Mine smokes intermittentwhen it smokes its white then goes to blueish as it fades away.This all takes less than five minutes,oil level good no loss of antifreeze.Any thoughts on an egr going south any help sure would help.

 

Are you sure it is not doing what I call a "Short Regen" It is common for it to smoke a little when it does because of the excess fuel.

 

actually Iam not sure what a short re gen is.theirs no read out on info centerTheirs no real loss in power,can you tell me the difference between a short re gen an a drive to clean exhaust filter?First time diesel owner so any input would be most helpful.

 

no my problems started all at once. when it did it did not stop. we stopped the truck immediately. oh and it was not a little smoke it A LOT! It was the turbo. replaced by the dealer and it cost me $374.00. Yes they told me that the CAT. and DPF have oil inside and need to be replaced. I'm thinking of a DPF delete but I don't know what to get. I want something that is inexpensive and not destructive to my truck. I'm not looking for a race truck just one that works.

 

If you keep them on a mild tune none of the tuners will hurt your truck unless you drive it foolishly. Thats the good news, the bad news is that none of them will be cheap. The EPA actions against H&S and Edge made them all go up sky high. You can check around at the speed shops or on ebay but I'm thinking a good tuner will run around 1500 buckeroos plus a couple hundred for the pipe. If you want to check the various Craigs lists around the country you may find one on there cheaper. Good luck and be careful to insure that any tuner you buy is DPF delete capable, lots are not. Most popular on this web site are H&S or spartan. You can also find some used on the forums at either one of those.

 

What I call a Short Regen, iswhatit does peiodically, it just pops up in the instrument cluster for a second and says cleaning exhaust filter. I have noticed just a burp barely noticble when it does it. If you are jamming with the radio, yu prolly ould not even otice the burp.

 

So it will flash on ifo center even though its a short short process.I love this truck but some repairs have scared me.Had turbo up pipes replaced(3) cab removal for that then ball joints ball joints.Now with the smoke (which is new,I thought money pit.I am doing what u do an fix and hope.Thanks for all the help.

 

OK guys, you could both profit from some study time on this forum. There is no such thing as a short regen. There is regen, and there is aborted regen. The aborted can be caused by a number of things I won't list here but read read read. Provided you have the latest flash in the truck ECU the only notice you get on a regen starting is a very brief (couple seconds maybe) notice in the message center. That's it. Now you can get a "drive to clean message", if you do, do it. Sometimes when mine got the drive to clean the "cleaning exhaust filter" message would stay on. I never did figure out if that was a problem with my truck or part of the programming.

So, if you miss the message be alert for the other signs that a regen has begun. A slight loss of power, if you're cruising on the highway watch the MPG in the message center, when it starts going backward for no apparant reason and you get a slightly different sound from the engine. Finally, a puff of smoke. These are all signs and there are more, read read read.

Now, when you suspect the truck is in regen you can verify it on the message center. Push the center button and then the top one, (reset). you will get a series of checks on the doors brakes and whatever, the last one will say "CLEANING EHAUST FILTER". If it doesn't say that you're not cleaning.

Once cleaning begins you are best off to let it complete. To know when it's done keep cycling back through the message center until the cleaning message is gone. An aborted cleaning occurs for a number of reasons, read read read. The obvious is if you get somewhere and stop and shut the truck down,. If you put the truck in park, if the MPH gets below (I think its 45 MPH) read read read. Bear with me I'm doing this from memory. If you are in city driving it is possible to have a lot of aborted regen attempts. If that happens the truck will send you a "DRIVE TO CLEAN EXHAUST" message. When you get that one you need to find some open road.

These are very complex trucks and you must do things you haven't done with other trucks, even other diesela. maintaining them is an absolute must. Always on the severe duty schedule. Use a fuel additive, I like diesel Kleen, others like other stuff, read read read. There is one other thing to know, these trucks can be scary expensive to have repaired, I'm talking you can drop 5 thou in a heartbeat, so drive it right (as much open road and heavy towing as possible, it loves to work and as little stop and go as possible, it hates city driving) and maintain it to the Nth degree, and read read read.

All the stuff you need to know is on this forum, you just need to look it up and follow some of the threads to their coinclusion. And finally, should you find youreself POed over the truck and the technology aim your anger in the proper direction. These truck improvements are brought to us by the EPA and the US congress. Don't blame only Ford, GM and Dodge are having the same problems complying with the same laws and regulations. Good luck and I hope this is helpful.

 

Rtrapp,
I suspect that you are seeing the smoke at the start of the regen process, and Ford will say that this is normal, though not all 6.4s will smoke at the start of regen. The smoking has a lot to do with the conditions present when regen begins. For example if you are driving around town, stopping and starting or driving at common city speeds and the regen starts you are likely to get a bit of smoke because the EGTs are low - this is not always a guarantee however. In the ideal case you're out on the highway at speed or even better pulling at highway speed and the cycle starts, low likelihood of smoke. When you get to know your truck a little better you'll notice when it it starts regen by the sound and feel (unless you always have the radio blasting). Regen start is coupled with many of the systems working in sync with each other, like the EGR closing, the VVT reducing boost etc - also the reason for the approximate 50 hp (rated) power loss during regen.
If you think you are in regen, use the info system to get to the "press reset for system check" menu screen hold the button and the truck will cycle thru several checks, at the end of the checks if you're in regen, it will say "CLEANING EXHAUST FILTER" this message will only display momentarily then go off.

Will address your "DRIVE TO CLEAN..." question in another post.

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain the process,must be a regen issue as I have driven truck several days with no smoking issues at all.I got this truck to pull 35' 5th wheel camper,pulls like nobodys business.430 gears quad cab duelly,it just goes.Love my truck thanks for your help I get it.

 

Sounds just like mine. Enjoy, may see you in an RV park somewhere.

 

rtrapp58, Mine started all at once, no warning yours sounds like the regen mode.

 

Well got mine back from Ford and was told that the oil sent down the exhaust ruined the DPF and the cat and that I need a new one of each. will the regen not clean out the DPF. I live in the country there are no emissions test here so no worried about the cat. any thoughts on driving it to clean the DPF?

 

If any of you are interested in seeing how regen works, here's a temperature profile of DPF pressure, EGR11,12,and 13 of a full regen cycle and one that I had to shut down prematurely that I captured on my truck with my AutoEnginuity scanner. Note the relationship of each one with respect to the others as things heat up, as it cooks, and as it cools down after regen stops. Note DPF pressure is pegged during heatup due to fuel being burned and therefore creating more backpressure

Stopping the regen while it's heating up results in wasted fuel trying to heat it up before it did any good, so it's best to let it run as long as realistically feasible. Even after shutting it down (neutral or park), it'll continue to burn a bit on its own for a bit, so I'll idle a minute or two to feed it air as long as the outlet temperature doesn't drop or continues to increase

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ictureid=98080
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/p...ctureid=111534

I will belch smoke during the heatup phase pretty predictably on 'cool' days. It'll belch as soon as I hit the gas after idling at a stoplight; sometimes it'll smoke while it starts while I'm on the freeway and already heated up

I have some other pics in my gallery with some other graphs that I used to show the dealer my smoke issues, but they all said it's normal :-(

BTW, documents talk about passive regens... I'm not sure there are any of any significance, even as I'm going up the I-5 GrapeVine with the DPF cooking at 600F. If anything, I get a regen as soon as I crest the hill. I have yet to see anything burning hot enough on its own to notice any difference in DPF outlet temperature relative to inlet temperature