Heavy White Smoke during regen
 

I know there have been many threads concerning heavy white smoke from 6.4s. I am getting ready to bring mine in to the dealer and wanted to get as much recent information as I could. First of all I have a 2008 Job 1 F350 with 45,000 miles on it. The last re-flash I had was April 2010 at 34,500 miles. The CAC was changed out in October 2010 (40,000 miles) because of a white smoke problem at the time. Since then ( up until the past 4 Exhaust Cleaning Cycles) all has been fine.
During the past 4 Exhaust Cleaning Cycles after about 1-2 miles into the cycle the truck billows heavy white smoke for about 4-5 miles then all is OK. The duration of the Exhaust Cleaning Cycles is about the same as before this issue (about 12-15 miles). The distance between cycles has reduced from 300-350 miles to 250-300 miles. The type of driving has not changed (No towing, mix of highway and city). The truck seems to run fine during and after the Exhaust Cleaning Cycles and the fuel economy is about the same (15.5 Avg MPG calculated). Other than the few miles that the truck blows smoke, it runs fine. And when I say "blows smoke" I mean it. People behind me cannot get out from behind me any faster than they do. It is embarassing.
Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Jim

Any loss of Coolant?

What about fuel? Buying it at the same place as always? Last fuel filter change? Late time you drained the fuel/water separator?

What has been the temps outside during these cleanings?

I have not noticed any coolant loss. I have not changed where I buy fuel (I buy from 2-3 different stations). The fuel filters were changed at 40,000 by the dealer. I have them changed every 10,000 miles and do oil changes every 3000. The temps during the smoke during regens have varied between 40-60 F. I am in NH. Again, this only happens during Regen and then only for a few miles.

Well, based upon what you are saying I see nothing wrong. They will probably point to the TSB that indicates during colder temps that there maybe some smoke till the exhaust gets up to temps.

white smoke on regen
 

My truck is a 2010 6.4 and it is doing the exact same thing. I am about to go the DPF delete / tuner route. The smoke is major and embarrassing..... My 2008 did not do this....

My truck is a 2010 6.4 and it is doing the exact same thing. I am about to go the DPF delete / tuner route. The smoke is major and embarrassing..... My 2008 did not do this....


I have been contemplating the DPF Delete/tuner route as well. The only thing stopping me is the warranty. I have a 100,000 mile 7 year extended warranty.
Have you brought yours to the dealer for the smoking? If so, what did he say. I will probably be bringing mine in within 2 weeks.

Ford should get right on something like this. Every person that sees the amount of smoke pouring from the tail pipes of these trucks will probably never buy one.

Jim

I have the same issue. I do my share of 'crop dusting' with white smoke during regen when the conditions are right. It usually happens about 1minute after regen starts and I come to a stop long enough to let things cool down a bit. The moment I hit the gas, I'll belch white smoke for the next couple minutes. I think the ECM assumes the exhaust is hot enough to burn off all the extra fuel, but doesn't.

My dealer says this is perfectly normal. A friend of mine videoed his '10 belching smoke and crop dusting everyone behind him on the freeway and showed it to his dealer. They said it's normal also.

Just as several people here have said, they have the same problem and I'm about to say the same thing, but I have 2008 F-350 Job 1 with 60k miles and mine just left the dealer for excessive white smoke. What the problem was the fuel/water seperator was clogged and needed a cleaning. Ever since that was unclogged and that was done by me and not the dealer I have not had the problem with the smoke like before. I only got the message to drain the water seperator on one time and quickly it went away and never come back on. I'm not sure why it didn't stay on if it was clogged. However, I opened to lever to drain the water and nothing come out due to it being clogged and I got the air line and shot a burst of air in the drain hole and man it exploded sand and water went everywhere. It drains like a champ and now I do it once a month no matter what. Just give it a try no matter if the drain water seperator is on or not.

Thanks Buck...I will check the fuel/water separator tonight.

I just want to update everyone on the White Smoke issue with my truck. As I mentioned in the first post, the truck only smokes during regen and only for a few miles at the start of the cycle.
I am very fortunate to have a great dealership and service advisor. I brought the truck in on Monday to get an oil change, the 11B23 re-flash and have them look at the white smoke during re-gen issue. They couldn't find any codes and would not give up on the white smoke issue. They had replaced the CAC back in October for the same white smoke issue. They checked it again and found quite a bit of water in it. They checked with Ford and it seems that the original CAC part number (suffix A) was replaced with Suffix B (Which the put on in October). That was replaced with CAC P/N with a suffix C. They replaced the "B" with the "C". Hopefully this will take care of the problem.
This dealership in Londonderry, NH has been great. They, unlike many other dealership service departments, are very proactive about their service. They are thorough in their review of issues and have even found issues (covered by warranty) that I was unaware of (oil leak).
I hope this information comes in handy for anyone else with the "white smoke" issue.

Jim

So yet another updated CAC is out there?

Is there an updated TSB reference that says anything about the CAC?

Will the updates ever end???

Jim

What it says to me is Engineering didn't properly root cause it and comes up with incremental trial-and-error fixes. I've seen this 'practice' in other industries as well. They should be slapped.

But to give them the benefit of the doubt, they might have fixed some of a number of conditions that cause the problem and only now see the other ones surface

Well, I suppose I spoke too soon...
I picked my truck up on Thursday after work. They had replaced the CAC for the second time, this time with the third generation version, and re-flashed to the latest Ford recall (11B23). All was OK until the truck went into re-gen on Saturday. The truck was warmed up, it was 49 degrees and overcast and I was not on the highway. (30-40 MPH w/ some stop and go). About 1.5 miles into the re-gen the smoke came again and just as bad as before. It lasted for about 4 miles and then all was fine. The truck runs good in and out of re-gen. It is just the smoke that is the issue. I am going to hold off fot 1 or 2 more re-gen cycles before I contact the dealer. I also want to see how many miles between re-gens.
I wonder if Ford really knows what causes this. From what I can tell, I am not alone. I am quite sure, that if a police officer was behind me, he would pull me over with the amount of smoke that pours out of the exhaust.
Any information from others with this problem would be appreciated.

Jim