New turbo and blue smoke on start up got way worse. Ideas? (1 Viewer)

[digitalbuck]

A friend's college aged kid with a lot of miata wrenching experience needed work during summer break so I had him put a new ct20 turbo on my LJ78 with 2lte. Ever since the turbo swap I get a good 30 seconds of blue smoke on cold startup. Not on warm startup.

A couple of other odd symptoms, even though I have a manual turbo controller and the ecu bleed valve mod I can't get more than 10 pounds of boost. And I found an open vacuum hose that tees off from the vacuum operated 4wd switches on the firewall.

I've come a long way with the help of a couple of you guys, boosted fuel, installed water to air intercooler, transmission cooler, open 2.5" exhaust, Evans coolant, and other things and the truck is running great. I hate all the smoke on startup and so does anyone nearby!

 

[JimmyPrado]

My new turbo cleaned mine up as the seals in the old were letting oil through. Yours is obviously coming from elsewhere. Have you read the sticky thread in the diesel section on smoking motors. If not start there. Very informative It has helped me. I'm sure others will jump in as well. Good luck!

 

[JimmyPrado]

Here's the shortcut




SMOKE COLOUR

Basically there are 3 types of smoke emitted from a diesel engine: black, blue and white.

Black smoke:

Black smoke is the most common emitted from diesel engines and indicates incomplete combustion of the fuel. Black smoke causes can vary widely and include ..
· Incorrect fuel injection timing
· Dirty or worn fuel injectors
· Over fuelling
· Faulty turbocharger, or turbo lag
· Faulty or dirty exhaust gas recycling (EGR) system
· Incorrect valve clearance
· Incorrect fuel to air ratio
· Dirty or restricted air cleaner systems
· Over loading the engine
· Poor fuel quality
· Cool operating temperatures
· High altitude operation
· Excessive carbon build-up in combustion and exhaust spaces

Black smoke can occur across the entire operating range, but is usually worst under full power, or during the lag before the turbocharger boosts air supply to match the fuel usage such as in the early stages of acceleration and during gear changes. Moderate turbo lag smoke is acceptable; otherwise black smoke should be hardly visible in a correctly running engine.

Blue smoke:

Blue smoke is caused by engine lubricating oil burning. The oil can enter the combustion chamber from several sources including:

· Worn valve guides, or seals
· Cylinder &/or piston ring wear
· Cylinder glaze
· Piston ring sticking
· Incorrect grade of oil .. too thin and getting past rings, or valves guides
· Fuel dilution of the oil, making it too thin.

Blue smoke is often evident at cold start, which can reflect reduced oil control due to carbon fouling deposits around the piston rings and/or cylinder glaze. Blue smoke should not be evident at any stage.
An engine may burn oil without the evidence of blue smoke, because good compression burns oil quite cleanly, however, it is not acceptable for any new engine, or engine in good internal condition to burn large amounts of lubricating oil.

White smoke:

White smoke is caused by raw, un-burnt fuel passing into the exhaust stream. Common causes include:
· Incorrect fuel injection timing
· Defective fuel injectors
· Low cylinder compression

Low cylinder compression may be caused by leaking valves, sticking piston rings, ring wear, cylinder wear, or cylinder glaze. When white smoke occurs at cold start and then disappears as the engine warms up, the most common causes are fouling deposits around piston rings and/or cylinder glazing.
Continuous evidence of white smoke indicates a mechanical defect, or incorrect fuel timing.

 

[Jim from Idaho]

You might try giving the ECU a reset. Disconnect the battery, get the + and - leads to touch together for 20 minutes or so. The reset will force the fuel pump to recalibrate to the new turbo. If it doesn't help, it's a fix that doesn't hurt either.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

One thing you're supposed to do when installing a new turbo, is crank the engine with the injection pump (spill control valve) unplugged for a good 30 sec or more. What this does is raises oil pressure without the engine running. The oil pressure feeds the turbo journal. Primes it basically. If you don't do this, and the turbo starts spinning dry on a direct start-up, it can damage the journal. Now I don't know if it would damage the oil seals or not... Anyhow, did you prime it or no?

Sounds to me like there is something wrong with the turbo though. I'd remove the crossover pipe and inspect for oil. Remove dump pipe and inspect for oil? If it's bad, return it to the seller and get a new one.

 

[digitalbuck]

No oil in the crossover pipe ( which is now a water to air intercooler). There was a lot of oil coming through there, which prompted the new turbo. The new turbo was primed manually with oil and the proper startup procedure was followed.

I'm curious about that ecu reset and also about possible air leak in the fuel line when the truck sits a few hours. I get that smoke on startup and then after that it must runs fantastic with no smoke except a nice black puff on a standing start before the turbo spools up.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

You could ask the guy that did the work what all he removed? If he touched the glow system or fuel system your problem could be there for sure.

 

[digitalbuck]

Any ideas on that sucking vacuum line that tees off from the line that runs to the 4wd switches on the firewall?

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

That is the vacuum source for the transfer case shifting and emissions system. Vacuum pump is on front of alternator. If you still have the throttle plates and the vsv there has no vacuum source it will starve the motor of air and cause the smoke.

 

[digitalbuck]

That is the vacuum source for the transfer case shifting and emissions system. Vacuum pump is on front of alternator. If you still have the throttle plates and the vsv there has no vacuum source it will starve the motor of air and cause the smoke.

That open tube does have suction. I plugged it and a fairly loud squealing noise started coming from the front of the engine. I took the plug off and the noise stopped. The throttle plates % butterflies have been removed.

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

That open tube does have suction. I plugged it and a fairly loud squealing noise started coming from the front of the engine. I took the plug off and the noise stopped. The throttle plates % butterflies have been removed.

Don't cap it off. You still need it connected to your transfer case solenoids otherwise your 4wd won't work. Must have been the vacuum pump squealing? Weird.

 

[digitalbuck]

Thanks for the insight. With that I was a me to find where it came loose, from a line that goes back to the rear dif. It must run the rear locker. All reconnected.