NEW injector nozzles, 3 miles WHITE SMOKE!!!

[01 D_Max]

Yeah, cyl 4 is definately drivers side 2nd from the front. If your on the passenger side and have an issue its 1-3-5-7 front to back.

Couple things to check...

1. Any coolant loss? If so you may have popped a cup that you didnt expect. This will cause the cylinder pressure to drop in that cylinder. It will also cause blown head gasket symptoms. Coolant loss, and pressure in coolant system.

2. oil loss? If youve really blown a piston or rings it would cause excessive PSI in the crankcase. You would generally lose oil from the PCV tube. It would be blowing it out, and thats the easiest escape.

3. Fuel in oil? If you didnt connect a return line washer correctly, possibly allowing the bottom to slip to the side and not seal, your fuel will overfill the crankcase. It will also start to blow out the PCV tube when there is about 7-8 gallons in the motor... It will smoke white because the fuel is on the sides of the cylinder and burning around the ring.
Your oil pressure will drop because of thinning oil as well.

4. Doubled up a copper washer, and the injector didnt seat properly? This will also drop cylinder pressure... But Im not sure it would smoke so much.


But as already mentioned it is best to pull the head, and see if youve got a melted piston or ring, from a stuck injector. It's very possible because of the fuel mods you did. And youdidnt mention adjusting any tuning for these mods??? So that would also effect the fueling in the cylinder. Maybe enough to burn a hole in it...

[pjmayher]

I was under assumption that it was 1-3-5-7 on the drivers side. I will look at the drivers side on Monday. I might of been thinking of the 1993 GMC TopKick I was working on last week with the 366ci gas motor.

In what I thought was cylinder 4 I just took it back out and was trying to make sure the cooper ring seated. When I took it out it looked fine but the ring wasn't crushed at all.

The cooper washers that we got in the kit from the dealership didn't go on as snug as the ones that we took off. We used silicone to make them stay on. Could that be the problem? I ordered a whole new injector install kit from a company that I trust and hope that it could be something as simple as that.

After talking with the owner who did the compression test, he informed me that he lost the needle to his gauge going from cylinder 5 to cylinder 7 which will mess with the tester. So I don't think I can trust those numbers until he gets a new tester.

I took the Cheapassdieselchips.com chip off of the truck as I was happy with it when it was a bone stock truck (added 1.8 mpg, hand calculated), but with it being a more modified truck I thought that a proper tuner would be a whole lot better. And with working at a diesel shop I can get things at cost instead of a big mark up. I'm hoping to save some money by Feb to get that done.

Wife's prego and my daughter is due Feb 16th, first kid, first grandkid on both sides. So the window of opportunity for my truck is quickly going away.

The shop sees almost nothing but Fords. And that is a big problem that I am running into here in DFW. Almost all the shops are nothing but Ford. I found a couple that do Cummins, but no one who specializes in Chevy. I have even called some of the trade schools in the area and they only teach Powerstrock/International. But on a good note the owner isn't wanting a Duramax to kick his butt. So he will not stop until we have this thing figured out. It's a learning experience for all of us at the shop. Kind of fun, except it's my truck.

I need new fuel lines from the primer pump to the CP3. I am wanting to get the PPE pump outlet to match my CP3 inlet. And open that baby up some more. But before I spend any money on more mods I need to know for sure what is wrong with my truck.

As far as oil loss there has been a little that is coming out of the tailpipe, but nothing major, maybe 10-15 drops. My oil pressure was at 70 when the truck was just warming up, and 40 when it was at operating temperature, and would go up the more I got into the gas when I knew that I had bad injectors. It was at 20 or so after the injector install which I was assuming was right now that the injectors were new. I may have those numbers off because I am in a hotel in Houston and can't really recall what it said for sure.

[01 D_Max]

Congrats on the soon to be new addition to the family.

the new copper rings are a tad lose. They were probably fine.

Running that extra fuel with stock tuning is not good! Even a tuner like PPE wont make it right. You need to get some EFI Live tuning from a reliable tuner to make that safe.

If your looking for power from adding fuel, your always going to have issues. You should always start with AIR or tuning first. Your stock fuel system could support 500+hp easily. With a lift pump you could support 600hp, everything else stock (fuel).

And 20psi is too low. I also dont think id be ok with any drips of oil from the tailpipe... this is a visible sign of a problem.

[MTL_Dmax]

Originally Posted by pjmayher

I was under assumption that it was 1-3-5-7 on the drivers side. I will look at the drivers side on Monday. I might of been thinking of the 1993 GMC TopKick I was working on last week with the 366ci gas motor.

In what I thought was cylinder 4 I just took it back out and was trying to make sure the cooper ring seated. When I took it out it looked fine but the ring wasn't crushed at all.

The cooper washers that we got in the kit from the dealership didn't go on as snug as the ones that we took off. We used silicone to make them stay on. Could that be the problem? I ordered a whole new injector install kit from a company that I trust and hope that it could be something as simple as that.

After talking with the owner who did the compression test, he informed me that he lost the needle to his gauge going from cylinder 5 to cylinder 7 which will mess with the tester. So I don't think I can trust those numbers until he gets a new tester.

I took the Cheapassdieselchips.com chip off of the truck as I was happy with it when it was a bone stock truck (added 1.8 mpg, hand calculated), but with it being a more modified truck I thought that a proper tuner would be a whole lot better. And with working at a diesel shop I can get things at cost instead of a big mark up. I'm hoping to save some money by Feb to get that done.

Wife's prego and my daughter is due Feb 16th, first kid, first grandkid on both sides. So the window of opportunity for my truck is quickly going away.

The shop sees almost nothing but Fords. And that is a big problem that I am running into here in DFW. Almost all the shops are nothing but Ford. I found a couple that do Cummins, but no one who specializes in Chevy. I have even called some of the trade schools in the area and they only teach Powerstrock/International. But on a good note the owner isn't wanting a Duramax to kick his butt. So he will not stop until we have this thing figured out. It's a learning experience for all of us at the shop. Kind of fun, except it's my truck.

I need new fuel lines from the primer pump to the CP3. I am wanting to get the PPE pump outlet to match my CP3 inlet. And open that baby up some more. But before I spend any money on more mods I need to know for sure what is wrong with my truck.

As far as oil loss there has been a little that is coming out of the tailpipe, but nothing major, maybe 10-15 drops. My oil pressure was at 70 when the truck was just warming up, and 40 when it was at operating temperature, and would go up the more I got into the gas when I knew that I had bad injectors. It was at 20 or so after the injector install which I was assuming was right now that the injectors were new. I may have those numbers off because I am in a hotel in Houston and can't really recall what it said for sure.

1) The cylinder numbering is opposite of your typical chevy gas motors.
On a Duramax 2,4,6,8 is on drivers side and 1,3,5,7 is on passenger side.

2) The owner of that shop should have a borescope in his toolbox so pull injector #4 and use a borescope to look down into the cylinder for piston damage (most kits will also have a 45 degree mirror attachement which can help you seen the valves as well but with the blowby I would suspect pistons first). Use a new copper washer when installing the injector again if all looks good and torque to spec.

3) Do yourself a favor and get EFI even if you need to borrow money because with the larger nozzles you a playing with fire and you may cost yourself alot more in the long run.

[pjmayher]

Good to know. I will be looking at my options when I get home.

[Thebiggids]

Your injectors wernt bad when you pulled them and put new nozzles on were they?

And IMHO just swapping nozzles and not having the whole bodie and new nozzle flow tested/calibrated at idle, part throttle, and full throttle is a no no

[pjmayher]

I am looking for a shop that does EFI now in the DFW area. I am hoping that it will get rid of some of my problems. And I will be taking the valve covers off again and checking the drivers side of the injectors.

My injectors were showing that the body wasn't the issue, just the nozzles were out.

[Hondarider552]

How were you shown that the nozzles were "out"????

Spec for the injector hold downs is 38ft lbs, where did you get 22? I assume you replaced the injector cup O-rings? Yes?


Also, you perform a compression test while the truck is off, with all the glow plugs pulled out, engine warm. I see that one cylinder read 600psi..... thats way wrong.

[pjmayher]

Originally Posted by Hondarider552

How were you shown that the nozzles were "out"????

Spec for the injector hold downs is 38ft lbs, where did you get 22? I assume you replaced the injector cup O-rings? Yes?


Also, you perform a compression test while the truck is off, with all the glow plugs pulled out, engine warm. I see that one cylinder read 600psi..... thats way wrong.

The truck was taken to the local dealership and they said the injectors were fine, but that the smoke out of the tail pipe after warming up was caused because of injector nozzles.

22ft lbs was in a manual that the owner had printed out. And we only replaced the injector cup o-rings on the one that came out.

And to be honest I'm not sure how a compression test is done, but I do know that anything over 450 is not a good sign.

[Thebiggids]

Originally Posted by pjmayher

The truck was taken to the local dealership and they said the injectors were fine, but that the smoke out of the tail pipe after warming up was caused because of injector nozzles.

Should of done the whole injectors...