smoking at idle

[Dumpduece]

my deuce seems to smoke alot when first started and when just idling. i have the same issue with a tractor, but wondering if this is a normal thing with a deuce? mine is a '67 kaiser with an '88 white multi fuel motor. idling it never gets above 120 degrees.

 

[wsucougarx]

First off, what color is the smoke? Assuming the smoke is white, does the smoke dissipate once in open air or does it linger around. What does the smoke smell like? Does it smell like diesel or can you pickup a hint of antifreeze?
White color- Possible coolant involvement or could be uncombusted diesel droplets.
Blue color- burning your crankcase oil
Black color- unburned diesel

 

[M543A2]

Our M543A2, our M51A2 dump, and deuce smoke slight blue/black color at idle. They smell like an old coal burner steam train. We know all is good on them, so it appears to be normal. The advice about checking the color of the smoke is good. If you are using antifreeze, you should see radiator level going down also.
Regards Marti

 

[M543A2]

I can also comment that many diesels will not warm up well, or can actually cool down at idle. This is because of the design of a diesel engine. For example, a gasoline engine is speed controlled by the carb throttle butterfly regulating the air flow and hence fuel flow to the air stream from very little of both at idle to maximum of both at wide open throttle. A diesel engine controls speed only by the amount of fuel injected into the cylinders. Air flow to a diesel is always unlimited; there is no control butterfly to limit air flow at idle. Therefore, the full flow of air to the diesel engine tends to cool the cylinders at idle. There is not enough combustion heat in the cylinders at the low fuel injection rate at idle to keep the engine at top operating temp, especially in winter.
Regards Marti

 

[FMJ]

my deuce seems to smoke alot when first started and when just idling. i have the same issue with a tractor, but wondering if this is a normal thing with a deuce? mine is a '67 kaiser with an '88 white multi fuel motor. idling it never gets above 120 degrees.

Have you run it out on the road, gotten it up to proper operating temp? 180 deg or so?, if you have a truck that has been idled around, and not run up to op temp for a few miles it WILL smoke at idle.

 

[Dumpduece]

smokes at idle

this truck has only been driven 65 miles since 1999. i have not been on the road with it since i bought it last month. i have been installing a dump kit on it, and am waiting on a tag. i put a bag in front of the radiator and got the temp to 160 degrees, but no more. the whitish blue smoke seemed to disipate. i have the exhaust ruuning back now with the original stack in place for asthetics. oil and antifreeze levels remain stable. i will road test soon and keep all in formed. thanks for your time in this matter.

 

[rlwm211]

I was advised by our trusted JATONKA to not idle the Multifuel, but pull the throttle so it is at about 1000 rpm.


As JT put it: "These Multi's just slobber all over at idle".


My truck runs great, and the stack cleans up at speed, and uses no fluids so I expect it is a combusion chamber temperature issue that simply is an idiosyncracy of the engine.


One other thought is to check the air filter. I looked at mine and it looked great. I took it out and used a low pressure air hose, and holy cow did the crud fly out. I am planning on giving it a bath as per the TM this weekend.

Hope things work out for you.

 

[Keith_J]

Unlike a modern common rail diesel, distributor pump injected diesels have low injection pressure at idle. This makes injection weak, the flame is just on the surface of the diesel and quite smokey.

There could be a problem with weak injectors, the needle which keeps the injector closed until pressure builds will lift too soon with weak springs, this also screws up timing, making for early injection as timing is based solely on RPM (centrifugal advance). Since the needle lifts every firing, the needle springs will get weak with use.

And finally, the injector orifices can wear. This makes for poor spray quality.

 

[Coal Cracker]

I was advised by our trusted JATONKA to not idle the Multifuel, but pull the throttle so it is at about 1000 rpm.


As JT put it: "These Multi's just slobber all over at idle".


My truck runs great, and the stack cleans up at speed, and uses no fluids so I expect it is a combusion chamber temperature issue that simply is an idiosyncracy of the engine.


One other thought is to check the air filter. I looked at mine and it looked great. I took it out and used a low pressure air hose, and holy cow did the crud fly out. I am planning on giving it a bath as per the TM this weekend.

Hope things work out for you.

Jatonka is right, I allways kringe when I hear someone say they idled their diesel for some time to "warm it up". Thats BAAAAD real BAAAD!

As with all of my diesels, I start, wait for oil pressure, then wait a tad more for the turbo cavities to fill up, pull the throttle to 1,000 to get some heat in the cyl's, then pull out and take it easy till the proper operating temp comes up, then I feed the fuel.

 

[cranetruck]

You may want to install a radiator cover to help warm the engine or better yet, a radiator shutter. These engines will also cool off dramatically when driving on long downhills, I have seen as much as a 40°F reduction, so shutters would be very nice....personally I have a semi-permanent cover for my radiator, since I run the engine for long periods of time with a low load operating the crane.
If you run it hard and at proper op temp now and then you wont have problems with slobber.

 

[coolnick73]

Maybe I am just a moron but...

Could you define "slobber"?

 

[cranetruck]

Go to the old site and search for "slobber" in the PS magazine section. Here is one hit.