I'm guessing I need injectors?

[JeffsJeep04]

My truck likes to smoke white. If it's really cold (hovering around zero), it will smoke the whole half hour drive to work whenever on the throttle. If it's up above 15 or so, once the temperature gauge starts to move, it's pretty much done. I'm loosing coolant, but it's all going on the ground I'm pretty sure. It doesn't smell sweet, and it goes away once the truck starts to warm up, so poor spray pattern, right?

The truck is getting good milage (19-20 highway) and has good power. Always starts right up, even down to -10 without being plugged in (woops...). When it's not up to temperature, I can definitely smell the diesel fuel, once it's warm it's not so much, but then again, I'm usually going down the highway then and not doing any start/stop.

 

[mfgguru]

If you have that much white smoke, and it is diesel, you need to get that checked sooner, rather than later. If you have an injector PEEING instead of spraying, you can melt a piston in a hurry. The reason being that you don't have proper atomization and all the heat of cumbustion can be concetrated in one spot on the piston and voila, presto melto. I would be suspicious of you coolant loss. How many miles on your truck? Injectors are cheap and relatively easy DIY. I did mine at 150k. That is the mileage they are rated for, after that, you can start losing efficiency.

 

[gmctd]

Emissions: white 'smoke' vapors, nite haze, black smoke

White vapors, usually referred to as 'white smoke' by the uninformed, are completely normal in cool\cold weather when starting an infernal-combustion engine, be it gasoline-fueled or Diesel-fueled:

a - when a running engine is turned off, as the engine\exhaust system cools, raw atmosphere with included water vapor (humidity) is drawn into the intake, also the exhaust system - start the engine from cold-start, and the hot exhaust evaporates the moisture in the exhaust system, giving white water-vapors - gasoline engines, with hotter exhaust gas temperatures at idle, create denser vapors over a shorter period of time - Diesel engines, with lower btu output at idle, take longer to heat up the exhaust system so the vapor is lighter - yer 6.5 don't warm up very quickly, even in warm weather, particularly when unloaded, not working

b - infernal combustion engines require increased advance and fuel rates at cold start -
- the automatic choke on carburetors is proof enuff of that, and EFI systems have their own methods, with the Idle Air Control and Computer Controlled Spark referenced to the Engine Coolant Temperature and Intake Air Temperature sensors and the heated 02 sensor - gasoline is highly volatile, burns rapidly, and is easily ignited by the ignition spark, so combustion temperatures are easily managed - result: minimal un-ignited fuel vapors out the exhaust
- Diesels have their own systems, with increased injection advance and injected fuelrate referenced to ECT and IAT, with glowplug system response referenced to those same sensors for increased glow duration - Diesel fuel is ignited by high compressed-air temperatures in the cylinder, so when the intake air and engine coolant and sump oil and cylinders and heads and injectors and injection pumps and lift pumps and fuel lines and fuel in the tank are all cold, cylinder temps can easily drop below threshold of combustion - result: unignited fuel passed into the exhaust system and out the tailpipe = raw white fuel vapors, mixed with the normal water vapors in the exhaust system - glow plugs and heated fuel serve to alleviate this problem, as does the engine coolant heater in the cylinder block - other Diesel systems use an intake air heater along with fuel heating and the coolant heater

Black smoke, or unburned raw fuel where the fuel was at or above combustion temperature and the flame went out, is caused by two conditions:
a - too much fuel, either from excess injection from faulty sensor feedback ,or reduction of air\fuel mixture, as from dirty air filter, low\no Boost from ruptured intake ducting or loss of wastegate control, burns until oxygen volume in the cylinder is depleted, flame goes out, remaining unburned fuel component is carbonized - result: black smoke out the exhaust - EFI and EFI\mechanical (6.5L) systems manage this better than the mechanical systems, so the initial symptom from restricted air intake will be more haze, easily recognizeable at nite in the headlites behind the rich emitter, and\or, particularly from loss of Boost, black smoke out the exhaust
b - water in the fuel\contaminated fuel quenches the flame B4 the fuel charge is depleted, or cannot sustain combustion - flame goes out, heated unburned fuel component is carbonized - result: black smoke out the exhaust - EFI systems do not manage this condition any better than mechanical systems, as watery fuel is not conducive to efficiently converting fuel to btu's

White vapors are water or\and unignited fuel, usually increasing in cooler weather, but also from failing or defective glow plugs

Black smoke is unburned fuel, usually any season

 

[JeffsJeep04]

Truck has ~183k on it, and I'm not sure if/when the injectors were replaced. If it was peeing, wouldn't it smoke all the time, not just in super cold temps? I went on a run today, and after about a half hour of driving, it went away almost completely...which is more then the gassers driving around town could say. It was dang cold this morning.

I'll check the top hose for hardness after work today when I start it up, any other checks I should do? I know I get a puddle of coolant on the ground about 4" around every time I park it...never gets any bigger then that, and the coolant level drops accordingly. Never any oil in the coolant or any coolant in the oil.

 

[JeffsJeep04]

Upper hose has no pressure on startup, so that rules out cracked heads and block, right?

 

[JMJNet]

For the coolant, check the easy places first like the coolant crossover. There is a quick disconnect there and if there is some sort of powder that means there is a leak. Then there is some hoses downstream to that with connector that may leak also.

 

[chrisk1500]

Upper hose has no pressure on startup, so that rules out cracked heads and block, right?

Not so....