1HD-FT loss of power and white smoke

[FrigginFGO]

Good morning gents,

I imported my 1997 1HD-FT with (189,000 kilometers/117,000 miles) about a month ago. It's been great until today. Driving it on the highway I had a sudden loss of power and white smoke appearing from the tailpipe. There was no check engine, or any warning light that came on at all. I was about 3 miles from my parents house so I was able to limp it over there. The engine sounds rough and there is a lot more chatter. There is definitely a rough idle. The oil level was good and coolant was good. The temperature gauge was still normal at the time of power loss and oil pressure gauge was normal. Could this be an injector issue?

 

[TheBussman]

could be, but make sure your injection pump is not sucking in air first.

 

[Squash]

Your fuel system in under vacuum!
Unless a line is totally pooched you will not see fuel leaking. Air is sucked into the system.
For s***s and giggles I used a new 8' length of hose with a section of clear hose into a clean can of fuel, and primed. No bubbles in the clear line is your clue.
Consider all rubber lines and connections suspect. If you're messed with the primer again, suspect.

 

[FrigginFGO]

Your fuel system in under vacuum!
Unless a line is totally pooched you will not see fuel leaking. Air is sucked into the system.
For s***s and giggles I used a new 8' length of hose with a section of clear hose into a clean can of fuel, and primed. No bubbles in the clear line is your clue.
Consider all rubber lines and connections suspect. If you're messed with the primer again, suspect.

Thank you, I'll check my fuel system!

 

[chapel gate]

my first guess would be fuel restriction/air being drawn in. check the filter in the tank, fuel filter and hand primer.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Agreed. You're describing typical symptoms of air being sucked into the fuel system.

Did you change the fuel filter recently? It may not be screwed on tight enough, or have a badly fitted o-ring.
If you changed a filter filter and used the hand pump to prime, the primer pump diaphragm may have decided to quit.

This comes up regularly, a search will give you heaps to look at

 

[Squash]

If you have the luxury of peace and quiet, you can hear a vaccum leak while priming. Prime ,stop, listen.
If you run your fingers around, you should hear a change in pitch if you touch the leak.

 

[FrigginFGO]

I thought I would give an update to what happened. My HDJ81 suffered a severe catastrophic engine failure when my timing belt decided to jump 3 teeth.

I thought my newly imported HDJ81 was a goner, but the guys at CruiserMatt's in Winter Park, Florida did an amazing job reviving it. Those guys are super knowledgeable. It runs like it's brand new.

 

[Eurasiaoverland]

Ouch, glad it could be saved. Why did the timing belt jump? Hopefully the root cause of the issue was fixed.

 

[FrigginFGO]

Ouch, glad it could be saved. Why did the timing belt jump? Hopefully the root cause of the issue was fixed.

When they pulled the timing cover, they found the timing cover gasket in a bunch of pieces. What they thought was a chunk of the timing cover gasket got pinched between the belt and caused it to skip timing.

 

[Squash]

Holy hanna, that was a lucky break.