~~2000 7.3 E450 bad cct, heavy white smoke video, new uvch ~~

I have a 2000 Ford E450 7.3 160,000 miles

The Van smokes all of the time worse when cold. The van smokes heavy even after driving 200 miles. The smoke is mainly white and smells toxic and burns your eyes. I have an AE and ran a lot of different tests

Oil level is good and Antifreeze level is good. Neither has diesel fuel in it.

Video of the smoke
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByY...w?usp=drivesdk
This one should work if the other did'nt work for you.......https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByY...ew?usp=sharing


Tests Results before changing anything or replacing any parts

KOER
P0683 Glow Plug Control module to PCM communication circuit

KOER Cylinder Contribution (same results twice)
P0266 Cylinder 2 Circuit contribution/balance fault
P0269 Cylinder 3 Circuit contribution/balance fault

KOER Glow Plug
P0683 Glow Plug Control module to PCM communication circuit


KOER (engine was warm and had been running for a while)
Passed 3 times successfully

Injector Buzz Test
Each injector Buzzed and sounded good
P1219 CID Low
P1274 Cylinder 4 high to low open
P1276 Cylinder 6 high to low open
P1293 Injector High Side Open Bank 1


Tests results after replace passenger UVCH and IDM

The Van still smokes a ton

Injector Buzz Test
successful 3 times

Key On Engine Off
P1139 Water in fuel Twice.

KOER
completed successfully three times

KOER Cylinder Contribution (same results twice)
P0256 Cylinder 2 Circuit contribution/balance fault
P0269 Cylinder 3 Circuit contribution/balance fault
P0278 Cylinder 6 Circuit contribution/balance fault
I removed the electronic connection from Cylinder 3 several times and the engine sound did not change.

I plan to ohm out the harness today but don't think that will make a difference because the injectors all buzzed.

I see oil pumping with the valve cover off. Visibility is limited because it is a van.

I appreciate any help that I can get. I believe that I may have some bad injectors but want to be clear before I go that route. Will a Cheap Advanced Auto parts dorman ($18.00) injector kit repair a faulty injector?

Has anyone used the guys on ebay that offer the injector rebuild service for around $580 for all eight injectors? Are they basically installing an Oring kit and sending it back?

Thanks

posted in the wrong place yesterday

 

Classic, classic, classic UVCH symptoms. Since I typed "classic" three times, you can take that to mean "Man... have we seen that before".

Ignore the #3 cylinder fault, that can happen on a perfectly good truck with a gray or blue CPS. The ones to raise the eyebrow on are the even numbers - those are all on the driver's side. Either the plug to the valve cover has come loose, or the UVCH is failing. OEM is best under normal situations, but I hear good things about the Droman one-piece VC gasket/UVCH.

UVCH link in my signature... you really want to click that. Oh... and the injectors can still buzz with a bad UVCH connection.

 

Thanks for quick reply

I unplugged the electrical connection to injector number three and the engine sound or rpm did not change. I heard the thing about the new style CPS causing the cylinder contribution test to have errors on two of the cylinder (3 and 5 from memory may be wrong) but if I unplugged the injector I should hear that in the engine if everything is good.

I plan on getting into the driver side harness today. My local international dealer has the OEM harnesses for cheaper then dorman so I usually use international parts unless they are closed.

Thanks

 

Seeing what others may think

 

I think that working on that van's engine is one of the worst tortures of the world and Tugly's pretty good at diagnosing.

 

I don't doubt anyone's ability to trouble shoot or fix issues. But if I remove the electrical connection from an injector using a new uvch and the engine speed or sound doesn't change then I have more going on then the uvch harness. I think that we can all agree on that.

I accidentally left this critical piece of information from my first post.

The link to the van running should be accessible to anyone with the link.

Thanks

 

Not to scare you but I had an engine making smoke like that and it turned out to be very low on compression. I had another that a glow plug had broken most of the top deck of the piston off (Autolite junk).

Is it hard to start when it is cold? What I am wondering is if an injector or two is dead, do they all discharge oil the same? I noticed you said they all passed buzz test so plugging and unplugging #3 would mean that the electrical side is good. If an injector nozzle had split from water passing through the fuel then you would more than likely have loud knocking noises, fuel dilution of the oil, and much more white smoke.

 

Since the exhaust smelled like fuel and burned the eyes we can rule out the turbo leaking oil into the exhaust side. Do you have any fluid dripping out of the exhaust?

 

I really appreciate all of the responses.

The truck isn't hard to start. I haven't had to plug it in or use starting aids and I have allowed it to sit for over a month. Prior to my purchase, it was fleet maintained.

The Passenger UVCH had been replaced with an international part recently. The international parts counter said that the part number of the uvch is a replacement part number and would have been a different number from the factory. I still replaced the UVCH anyway on the passenger side. I believe that the driver side has already been done also, but I am working to remove that valve cover.

I can see that the #7 injector has been replaced and has a B code. I will get a good light and check the rest on the passenger side.

The oil is flowing the same from each injector....again my view is limited with it being a van but everything looks the same. No smoke is seen from the top of the motor with the engine running and the passenger side valve cover off.

No fluid coming from the exhaust.
Oil level is good with no diesel fuel in it.
Antifreeze level is good with no diesel in it.

The exhaust smells like it could kill you and the smoke does not go away.

The turbo shaft doesn't have any excessive play and isn't oily.

I am not sure if a bad glow plug could cause constant smoke as it will smoke constantly even over a 200-mile trip. Again this is fleet maintained and they usually use good parts.

Thanks

 

Bad glow plug would smoke when first started but definitely not after a few minutes of running.

Do you have a way of doing a compression test? If so i would start there, if not, take the starter trigger wire off on the passenger side near the AC box (has a press release bullet style connector) and place that line on the battery positive to crank the engine and listen to the tone, if you hear an uneven tone and a "higher pitch" at any point in the crank cycle then you likely have a dead/dying hole. After that I would go in with a boroscope and look for piston damage.

 

I have a basic automotive compression tester. I doubt that it would be large enough for a diesel.

I don't see a retired short school bus having bad compression with only 160,000 miles. I have had over 20 of these over time. The fleet is well maintained.

Help me understand the thought path that leads to bad compression. These vans are so frustrating to work on that I would prefer to pay for an injector to get rebuilt and try that before going through the process of removing 8 injectors just to find out that the compression is good. If the compression is bad I am not going to fix it.

I also don't see two cylinders losing compression this earlier on a van that has never towed anything and only moved little kids around.

Are you thinking that the injector is sending unburned fuel into the weak cylinder causing smoke?

What is the suggestion if the compression is good? I guess it would be rebuilding the injectors. I do have one new injector as a spare. Please let me know the next step either way. Please don't think I am being rude but these are vans require a lot of patience; this is even smaller in a short bus because lines for the rear heater and coolers run to the back of the bus.

Thanks




If the injectors don't fix it I will move them to my 1996 E350 RV conversion.

 

Unplug the MAT sensor located in middle of spider. See if then, the smoke clears

http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/99-...at-sensor.html

 

Thought process is that you unplug #3 and the engine tone doesn't change. Yes that is known to come up on cylinder contribution with the grey/blue CPS but the sound would change under normal circumstances.

You also said that #3 is buzzing good, and we know high pressure oil is good since the truck is running.

So all of those things plus the smoke which smells like fuel, I'm thinking the injector is doing its job and there isn't enough compression to ignite the fuel.

If the compression checks good then it's possible, although unlikely that you have a high pressure oil leak getting by the sealing ring on #3 injector but that wouldn't really explain the exhaust smoke and that would also cause a hard start when hot.

 

1) If you think a cyll is not firing then or not burning all the fuel then won't there be fuel in the oil? An oil analysis should find this right?


2) What about putting an IR gun on the manifold to look for a colder temp on the suspect cyll - can you get to it and the others to try to shoot it?

3) If low compression then would the smoke be due to an incomplete burn? If that's the case then wouldn't turning off that injector stop the smoke?

#3 and #1 are at odds - #3 will add fuel to the oil too - so get an oil sample first if you're going to try both.

 

Incorrect ICP will make a lot of smoke - not enough atomization or too much fuel. What happens if you unplug the ICP sensor?




Air in fuel can cause issues as well.


The open injector codes have to be addressed - those are all on the driver side. Have you cleared all your codes and started fresh?

Your videos don't work on my computer, so I can't hear or see the problem for myself.