disassembled the intake today and ruled out the turbo as the source of the smoke.. maybe it's unspent fuel? sigh. I guess it's going back to the rebuild shop.
Builds 1990 LJ78 in Montana
- Thread starter AirheadNut
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Thread starter
- #122
What is the PCV system like currently? If it's restrictive it could be causing white smoke; I've had that happen a couple of times when my breather hose froze up in the winter. I cut the plugged hose off and the smoke stopped almost immediately.
I still have the PCV catch-can you installed in there, with a pickle-jar beneath it. I've been considering getting rid of it, but I've been waiting for the dust to settle on this rebuild before I start moving things around too much. Dropped off the truck yesterday. They (the rebuild shop) had the same thought; that the crankcase wasn't ventilating properly.
- Thread starter
- #124
Hopefully it is just a crankcase ventilation issue, that should be a relatively simple fix. The ProVent 200 catch can was originally designed for much larger engines, so it shouldn't be providing any restriction at all. Does the 13B-T have a little filter screen under the valve cover like the 2L-TE? If so I wonder if that could be clogged. Have you tried popping the oil cap off when running to see if the smoking stops when crankcase pressure is released?
Bummer that it is still giving you trouble, but I think it is quite rare for an engine swap/rebuild project to work flawlessly right off the bat. I spent all last summer going through loose ends trying to get mine roadworthy!
Bummer that it is still giving you trouble, but I think it is quite rare for an engine swap/rebuild project to work flawlessly right off the bat. I spent all last summer going through loose ends trying to get mine roadworthy!
You know.. I did open the oil cap, but just to check for smoke/blowby coming out of the crankcase.. I don't think I revved it or checked for smoke from the tailpipe while I had it off. Fingers crossed that's what it is. Wife and I were talking today how easy it is to forget, given how much trouble this truck has given us, the 4 runner and taco in the driveway, both of which have probably cost us all of $2000 together since we bought them both used 20 years ago heh.
Welp. Finally heard back from the rebuild shop on the smoke. They're stumped. They're thinking either the fuel pump is over-fueling it or something is wrong with one of the injectors. Iirc there's an adjustment screw on the pump right?
- Thread starter
- #128
Do you have a video of the smoke? How much is it making? I think if the pump was over fueling it would most likely make black smoke, though it may be more blue/gray at idle. An out of spec injector could also cause odd smoking issues, and if bad enough can cause rough running and engine damage after a while. Do you have a pyrometer on the engine? Overfueling, whether from the pump or a bad injector or two, will show up as higher EGT's than normal. Have you had a chance to check on oil consumption yet?
I do have some bad cell-phone video from when we dropped it off (I don't have the truck back yet, we'll pick it up Monday). I would definitely call it 'blue/grey' both at idle and on the highway. I do have a pyrometer, but I'm not sure we have a good sense of "normal" since it's been back from the rebuild shop. Also the various oil leaks that have been springing up around the filter housing etc.. have prevented me from getting a good read on whether it's burning oil or not. The smoke does have a burnt smell to it, but I'm not sure it's a burnt oil smell or not..
just realized that link is wrong sorry..
Definitely something to do with fuel delivery.
#1 - Start with the basics... verify fuel injection timing - no cost to this if the injection time is too retarded, it will cause the smoke above at lower engine speeds
#2 - Fuel Filter - what is the history? Maybe try a new OEM
#3 - Injectors - test, replace as necessary
#4 - Have the shop verify fuel pump in operating within specs (pressures are in spec)
My recommendation is to have the shop do the work, you already paid for the work, they should back it up and make it right. Especially considering you have other vehicles that you can drive in the meantime.
#1 - Start with the basics... verify fuel injection timing - no cost to this if the injection time is too retarded, it will cause the smoke above at lower engine speeds
#2 - Fuel Filter - what is the history? Maybe try a new OEM
#3 - Injectors - test, replace as necessary
#4 - Have the shop verify fuel pump in operating within specs (pressures are in spec)
My recommendation is to have the shop do the work, you already paid for the work, they should back it up and make it right. Especially considering you have other vehicles that you can drive in the meantime.
Thank you. I know the 13bt uses geared timing. could the injection timing have changed since the rebuild? Or would it have been off the whole time, but just now showing symptoms?
- Thread starter
- #133
The timing is generally set by having the gears meshed correctly, but it can be fine tuned by loosening a couple of bolts and rotating the pump relative to the gear train. I don’t know exactly how it’s measured on the 13B-T, but the 1HZ/1HD-T use a special tool that holds a dial indicator to measure the amount the pump moves.
I would seriously doubt that the timing would change, unless the pump mounts were not torqued correctly and it has moved. This is one of my favorite things about the B series engines - the geared timing setup. Set it and forget it. No timing belts or idlers to change out every 100,000kms.
I may have missed how long you have been driving this since the rebuild, I thought you either did not notice it right away, or you did and have been troubleshooting it all this time because the shop is 5-6hrs drive away.
ah, great to know.. you don't happen to have a link to a thread about that do ya?
Ok. Yeah very long story short, I got a rebuild very recently and the truck came back fine, but then started smoking shortly after the 500 mile mark. So probably safe to assume they timed it correctly when they reassembled.
- Thread starter
- #137
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any information about how to adjust the timing. There is a 3B/13B-T manual in the Resources tab, it has timing specifications but doesn't seem to tell how to adjust it. Perhaps one of the B-series gurus will chime in here.
Edit: found timing procedure documented by @FJBen: Builds - 1988 BJ74 “Number 1” - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/1988-bj74-number-1.1087702/post-12289016
Last edited:
It is a little fuzzy in the thread about which way to move the pump. It states move the pump towards pump to advance. Ben might have meant, turn the pump towards the engine to advance, and away to retard. That is how it works on the 1HZ. Keep in mind, Ben was timing this after a rebuild, out of the vehicle. Your vehicle is running, so I would just loosen the 3 pump bolts, then turn the pump towards the engine an 1/8 of an inch, tighten and try it out. Trial and error, set it up to your liking.
Or, get the shop that swapped the engine to fix it all up under warranty.
Or, get the shop that swapped the engine to fix it all up under warranty.
FJBen
SILVER Star
That is the mostly correct way to time it on my link. In my video I made an error and the timing line is actually TDC. You want it at the mark to the right of it for factory timing which is 11 degrees BTDC.
Correct, rotate the pump TOWARDS the engine to advance it. AWAY from the engine to retard it. Just loosen those bolts and move slightly. You may have to loosen injector lines as it gets hard to rotate. There should be marks from the factory on the pump and timing case to see.
here's an excerpt from my thread about timing while in the engine. I also found removing the fuel filter helped as well. I changed it anyways.
Involved removing a battery or 2 for you 24v guys, removing passenger side (RHD) wheel
Loosening all lines on injection pump
Loosening nuts on VSV.
Removing oil line on block to IP.
Made a mark and rotated it up about 1/8 or so from where I had advanced it the night before.
Wasn’t really cold to check for white smoke, but engine was more “clacky”. I took it for a test drive and definitely could tell it had a bit more power.
My 0-60 time
with bad shifting improved 8 seconds and it pulled harder in 3rd and 4th. I’ll put a video up when I can get to better internet.
FJBen
SILVER Star
What are the temperatures outside in that video?
Could be a few things going on. Are you losing any oil?
Overfuelling
Injectors dirty - this can be fairly cheap to have them rebuilt/cleaned. Easy to pull.
Cold cylinder temps (timing) in relation to the weather in winter
Rings - did you break this in good? could be not seated yet
check breather hose from valve cover to intake. Lots of oil in there?
Turbo - did it get rebuilt? Possibly oil leaking there
Does this clear up at all on normal acceleration?
