When I first start the truck after it has sat all night long I get a little cloud of black smoke that puff's out the tail pipe. Then I let it idle for 30 sec's with no smoke but as soon as I turn on the high idle switch I can see blue smoke coming out. It lasts for a few minutes while it warms up then goes away. When I am on the freeway I floor it and don't see any smoke at all. When I'm stopped at stop lights then go on green there is no smoke. After it has sat for a while,1 -2 hours, and I start it up and drive I will get bluish/whitish smoke for a few minutes then it goes away. Also I have been smelling coolant once in a while when the engine is cold but that has been going on for a while (no puking but a little loss of coolant level). My coolant temp and oil temp (I have aftermarket gauges) are showing normal temps. I think there is possibly a coolant leak from a hose that I will look more closely for when we get home. I took out the egr valve, turned on the truck and noticed a small amount of runny oil in the hole. Luckily there wasn't any coolant in the hole. I have thought maybe the heads are lifting again but I don't see any rise in coolant temps like before plus there is no coolant puking out of the degauss bottle. Maybe I have an injector(s) that is going south (it slightly hesitated yesterday when I put my foot on the pedal... but only once). Or maybe the turbo seals are going bad. Also when I pulled the egr valve the bottom rubber washer was corroded on one side but I don't have any way of getting a new one until Tuesday when we get back home. When I start the truck when its cold there is no hesitation what so ever and it runs like there is nothing wrong... just smoke until it warms up a bit then the smoke is gone. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to get all the facts. Any ideas?? Thank you!

 

Last night after dinner we left the restaurant and we smoked the heck out of the people behind us. It appeared blue/white in color but then all of a sudden after about 3 minutes it stopped. Well this morning I started up the truck and no black smoke. Turned on the high idle switch and no blue/white smoke. When we started down the road there was no smoke. Anyone else experienced this? Coolant level is down a little more. If I was burning coolant would the water temp go up while driving for a few hours?

 

I don't believe so.

The leaking EGR valve could be a key part of the problem (the damaged o-ring). Did it run rough when it smoked? I would expect injector problems to include rough running. The slow loss of coolant could be a number of things - degass bottle cap, EGR cooler, one of the hoses (as you mentioned), head gaskets, and also (IIRC) injector cup and glow plug cup.

Temperature going up could be related to the water pump performance.

 

Thanks for the reply Mark! It did not run rough at all, thats what was strange. It performed normal with smoke for a few minutes. The coolant temp was running normal no issues there. I have an extra set of o-rings that I will put on the egr valve tomorrow and see what happens.

 

It smoked again this morning for a few minutes and went away. While driving to work on the freeway doing 60mph it started to miss and spit puffs of light gray smoke out the tail pipe. It did this for a couple of minutes then stopped and went back to normal? The water temp didn't go up. Is this still the egr valve as the culprit?

 

It sure could be - have you pulled it and changed the o-ring yet?

 

Not yet, we got home late last night. I will change it today after work.

 

My truck was doing the same thing. A trip to the dealer reveal that I had 2 injectors going south in the contribution test. I was loosing coolant on the degas bottle. I put about a gallon of water on 500 or 1000 miles driving the truck. The bottle cap was the culprit on that one. I don't know why, but they also change the turbo. I think one of the seals was also going south or they just were being nice with me. The work was on warranty. Thanks God!!!

It could be a couple of different things all together bugging your truck. My truck was running nice and strong also during those days. So far the truck has been excelent after the visit to the dealer.

Good Luck and please update the info on your side of the story. Its always good to know.

 

Thanks for the post and I will follow up on the outcome. Did you notice coolant spots on the degauss bottle itself?

 

On my way home from work It would blow black smoke... not a lot but enough that I could see it whenever I would accelerate. I pulled the egr valve, cleaned it and the hole and put another set of o-rings on it. I will have to wait until morning to see if it made a difference. I started it up again without the valve in place and rev'd it a couple of times to blow the crud out and I noticed thick gooey wet oil puddles in the hole that weren't there when I first pulled the valve. Also I added just under 1/2 a gallon of coolant to the degauss bottle. I started the truck without the cap on (degauss bottle) and smelled inside and I could not for the life of me smell diesel exhaust. I stuck me nose by the tail pipe and smelled the exhaust and didn't smell a sweet smell of coolant. I even smelled inside the egr valve hole with the engine running and didn't smell coolant. I checked the hoses and couldn't see any leaking. Stumped for now.

 

If by coolant spots you mean the white trace coming out from the cap, then yes. I clean the area around the cap a couple times and confirm that the coolant was getting out from the bottle.

That's when I get a little fear and decide to get the truck to the dealer since is still under the 5 year 100K warranty left on the engine. In fear of headgaskets or something. It turns out the cap was the problem. I think I read somewhere that there is an updated cap now. Do a search on that.

 

Bismic was telling me there is an updated cap but I am getting no coolant coming out of the cap at all... went through that 1 1/2 years ago w/ headgaskets. When I open the cap after driving it there is pressure escaping but not a whole lot. I still have warranty up to 4/29 but I wanted to wait until next month to take it in for a couple of minor oil leaks. Oh well, looks like its going in earlier; if they don't get the problem right off the bat at least I will have more time before the warranty is up for them to figure it out. I have a feeling the egr valve is broken.

 

i have an 05 6.0 that runs fine for about 2 hrs on the highway and then starts smoking white pretty good.pull over and shut her down for 10 minutes and start her back up and the smoke is gone for 2 more hours. any help guy's

 

Update: I replaced the o-rings on the egr valve and cleaned it really good yesterday and this morning.... no smoke. I noticed the egr valve was sloppy before I took it out but with the other set of o-rings it was snug. I'll keep this thread updated just incase it was a fluke but so far looks good. When I get home I will take a picture of the worn o-ring and post it. Now I have to figure were the coolant is going.... I smelled it again this morning after a hard acceleration but again, no puking at all.

 

Is it steam or smoke? Does it smell like coolant... could be your egr cooler.