Hello, I'm tired of throwing parts at this thing so I'm turning to you guys for help. My truck is a 94 F250 psd that has had a smokey start issue for the past few winters. It always starts and idles smoothly, but puts out a lot of white smoke that is clearly unburned diesel fuel when cold. 1 minute of driving and the smoke is gone and it does not smoke at all and runs great with no power issues. In the last year, it has received new motorcraft uvch's and vcg's, new motorcraft glowplugs and GPR, and yes, the glow plug system has been tested and is working, there is not a glowplug issue and I ignore the WTS light when starting. Last winter I switched to Rotella 5w-40 synthetic but it did not help. Power Service in fuel with every fill up. Recently, the compression was tested and 5 cylinders were at 400 psi and 3 were at 380 psi, not terrible for 180,000 miles. Last week I bit the bullet and installed reman'd stock swamp's injectors, and after a few hundred miles of breaking them in I still have smokey starts when cold, same as before. The old original injectors had no obvious issues other than age. All were still fully seated and all the copper washers came out with old injectors. Truck starts and runs great with new injectors, zero smoke when at operating temp but smokey at start up. Also, no programmer or chip installed.

Any ideas on what to look for next? Idm? IPR? Thanks!

 

Meaning you try to start immediately like a gas vehicle, or you wait longer than the light is on?

Was the GPR Motorcraft as well?

Has the truck ever started cold without lots of white smoke?

How old is your batteries?

Kevin

 

Two new interstate batteries in April. GPR is motorcraft, once again the entire GP system is good. I run GP’s based on volt meter gauge in cab, when voltage goes back up I know cycle is complete. And yes, the power is going through the relay to the glowplugs. It used to cold start with less smoke a few years ago, it has recently gotten progressively worse.

I’m looking for more towards injection timing issues/troubleshooting

 

The only times I get lots of white smoke is when I jump in and try to start within 5 seconds. That also leads to a longer crank time. I usually wait about 10- 15 seconds from the time I first turn the key on till I crank the engine.

Other times for lots of white smoke was when my Napa GPR was about 6 months old and not working right, or when my batteries were weak and not cranking the engine fast enough to get a good start.

I have 319,500 miles on my 1995 and I doubt that my compression numbers are as good as yours.

Hopefully some of the more experienced guys will drop in and offer some advice .

Kevin

 

Mine has done that since day i bought it, stock 90cc injectors, on new 160cc, and on new 238s. New IPR, different IDM, New ICP, and a t500 hpop it does not matter. new glow plugs, stancor relay, and UVCH&VCG... still never changed. It has always been that way, my 96 has compression number that are comparable to the auto 96 work truck, the auto smokes just for about 5 seconds, my manual will smoke till you go through the gars once, it always had. I gave up years ago and thousands later. On a positive note it will start in -40 or worse, just sounds horrible and absolutely billows smoke.

 

Good to know its not just me! Im hearing similar things from local shops that are familiar with these things. Seems like the manuals generally smoke more than auto's, and the early psd's smoke more too. I agree with the cold starts, no issues there.

 

Don't start based on the dash voltmeter. Wait for the WTS light to go out then maybe another 5 seconds or so, if you wish, then start. You need the glow plugs activated on cold starts to help in reducing smoke. That said in the mid twenty's and teens it's going to smoke a bit anyway.