i think i have an injector going out because i am noticing white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. it dosent burn any oil so i have been told it is an injector. are there any other tell-tail signs i should look for?

 

White smoke just after start is more likely to be caused by a bad glow plug. YOu can check them in a few minutes with a $3 multimeter, they should read about 2-4 ohms.
If the white smoke is still there once the truck warms up, it could be a leaking injector. You can disconnect each one, but it is easier to start by disconnecting each bank at a time. Unless you have an older one where you can disconnect 2 at a time, this is even easier.

 

it is a 2001.
where do i disconnect them and what will i be looking for then?
it smokes when it is warm.

 

Hello, it is a set of 9 cables that are arange in a line, they go into a plug in the valve cover gasket, you can just pull them out when the engine is running if you are careful. The injectors on that side will stop working, so if oil is going from the high pressure oil section of the sleeve to the diesel section, it will stop smoking after a few seconds because the injector will not inject the oil into the cylinder. Just as a warning, the engine will run really rough, don't be afraid, it is running on just 4 cylinders, so it will be very unbalanced. This will tell you if it is an injector, and in which side it is. If you notice something there, you could start by taking the valve cover off and checking the injectors one by one, since they only will be 4, it should not be that hard. If the smoke continues, you could have a crack in the head that is allowing diesel into the combustion chamber, very unlikely, or a broke o-ring in the injectors that is doing the same thing. IF the smoke was blue, we could try other things. but this is the extent of my knowledge, if this doesn't work, let's hope some of the more knowledgable people step in. I just learned all this after my engine bascially committed suicide in March, I am still rebuilding it...

 

i put the Edge Evolution programmer back to stock and the smokw has stopped for now (weird). if i were to pull a valve cover can i keep the engine running or will there be oil eveyware? thanks.

 

you can run the engine for a little while without the valve cover, it will splash some oil, but not much. You only need to pull out the valve cover to check the injectors individually. I would try with different settings of the evolution and see what happens.

 

when you say check the injectors, what am i looking for? do i just unplug them one at a time and see what happens, or am i looking for something in particular?
thanks.

 

Each injector is running on oil, so if its firing it will be discharging oil on each fire. Make sure all the injectors are spitting oil, it'll tell you if their all firing.