The Official 1HD-T/FT Fuel Pump Mod Tuning Thread (59 Viewers)

[mudgudgeon]

Agree with above.

White smoke and black smoke are the result of very different conditions.

White smoke is unburnt, raw fuel. Could be a timing issue.
In extreme cold, could just be a delay in ignition from lack of heat in the engine, and cold, waxy fuel. Assuming in Colorado you're using a winter blend of diesel? If it's really cold, even a winterized fuel blend can get thick and waxy.

White smoke is also often the result of air in the fuel system. (Causes timing issues)
Often shows up as an issue on start up if fuel is draining back to the tank due to an air leak in the fuel system.

Generally if I ride it hard it blows a lot of black smoke until around 2000 rpm when it starts to blow cleaner

Auto or manual trans?
Down shift! If you're burying your slipper in the floor and is struggling to get above 2000rpm, you need to down shift. Get the revs up

The car is very sluggish in 1st gear when starting uphill as well. Tons of black smoke unless I ride the clutch really hard when starting from a stop on a hill.

Sounds like maybe a timing issue, maybe.
But again, a short puff of smoke for a few seconds as you come off idle, and build some boost is normal. By puff of smoke, i mean just barely visible in your mirrors in daylight, will be visible at night with a car behind your.
A smoke screen is not normal.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Black smoke is excess fuel, or incomplete combustion of fuel ( not the same as unburnt/raw fuel).

Can be caused by insufficient boost.
Or too much fuel when the engine is labouring at lower RPM and struggling to gain RPM in toon high ba gear.
This is when you'll see EGTs spike high.

 

[wrxFTWdey]

Does it splutter and stumble when you're seeing white smoke?

When you say it smells of fuel, does it smell off raw diesel? Or just rich diesel fumes?

They shouldn't look like it's rolling coal, but a bit of dark smoke is normal if you're accelerating hard.

When you see high EGTs, what sort of RPM are you seeing?
Pushing them hard when they are dropping RPM will push EGTs up. Better to be in a lower gear and let it rev more

So it definitely rolls coal lol like a teenager driving 2nd gen Cummins. The exhaust has a very potent fuel smell at all elevations and all temperatures. I think you guys are on the right track implying that the timing is off. I think the timing is retarded so a lot of unburnt fuel is exiting the exhaust, and the PO turned up the main fuel screw to compensate for the lack of low end power caused by the timing being off.

 

[wrxFTWdey]

The old white smoke on start up issue, very commen. I couldn't see where you said which engine you had? Also do you still have the ACSD? 99% of the time on a healthy engine this issue is timing related.

I have a 1hdt and I do have the ACSD still installed. I know it has potential for being a cause of catastrophic damage if it fails, it’s just on a long list of things to get to!

 

[wrxFTWdey]

Agree with above.

White smoke and black smoke are the result of very different conditions.

White smoke is unburnt, raw fuel. Could be a timing issue.
In extreme cold, could just be a delay in ignition from lack of heat in the engine, and cold, waxy fuel. Assuming in Colorado you're using a winter blend of diesel? If it's really cold, even a winterized fuel blend can get thick and waxy.

White smoke is also often the result of air in the fuel system. (Causes timing issues)
Often shows up as an issue on start up if fuel is draining back to the tank due to an air leak in the fuel system.


Auto or manual trans?
Down shift! If you're burying your slipper in the floor and is struggling to get above 2000rpm, you need to down shift. Get the revs up


Sounds like maybe a timing issue, maybe.
But again, a short puff of smoke for a few seconds as you come off idle, and build some boost is normal. By puff of smoke, i mean just barely visible in your mirrors in daylight, will be visible at night with a car behind your.
A smoke screen is not normal.

I have constant white puffs of smoke at idle, being much worse when it’s cold, but it’s there regardless of temperature with a potent fuel smell. And then black smoke under load until about 2000 rpm then it clears up significantly.

I know my fuel system is solid because my car sat for over 7 months while I was overseas and other than a battery being dead it started right up and didn’t need any pumps on the fuel primer (if that’s what it’s called.)

I’m going to try to mess with the timing today. I have access to an auto hobby shop and hopefully they have the tools to get the timing in spec. With the excessive white smoke at idle and the extremely potent smell, I’m hoping the timing being adjusted can solve this issue.

I appreciate all of the advice!

 

[KiwiDingo]

I’m going to try to mess with the timing today. I have access to an auto hobby shop and hopefully they have the tools to get the timing in spec. With the excessive white smoke at idle and the extremely potent smell, I’m hoping the timing being adjusted can solve this issue.

Don't waste your time with the timing tool, there's no need to know the actual measurement. Just advance it slightly and see if it improves. Remember to scribe a mark for the current position so you can go back to it if need be.

 

[wrxFTWdey]

Don't waste your time with the timing tool, there's no need to know the actual measurement. Just advance it slightly and see if it improves. Remember to scribe a mark for the current position so you can go back to it if need be.

Any tips for accessing the inner 12mm bolt on the pump to make adjustments? I know some people say remove the oil filter but I don’t have any more oil at the moment so that would be a small inconvenience

 

[KiwiDingo]

Any tips for accessing the inner 12mm bolt on the pump to make adjustments? I know some people say remove the oil filter but I don’t have any more oil at the moment so that would be a small inconvenience

I've never had to remove the oil filter. I've never really had much issues with those. I just use a couple different brand spanners that have different head angles. Also find flex head socket spanner can work too. Or even 1/4" drive extension with socket from behind the back of pump. You don't need to loosen it all the way, just enough to allow the pump to be rotated slightly.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I have constant white puffs of smoke at idle, being much worse when it’s cold, but it’s there regardless of temperature with a potent fuel smell. And then black smoke under load until about 2000 rpm then it clears up significantly.

I know my fuel system is solid because my car sat for over 7 months while I was overseas and other than a battery being dead it started right up and didn’t need any pumps on the fuel primer (if that’s what it’s called.)

I’m going to try to mess with the timing today. I have access to an auto hobby shop and hopefully they have the tools to get the timing in spec. With the excessive white smoke at idle and the extremely potent smell, I’m hoping the timing being adjusted can solve this issue.

I appreciate all of the advice!

Unlikely an auto hobby shop will have what you need to measure timing, but maybe.

Agree with @KiwiDingo carefully mark s line across the pump/timing cover so you can reset timing back to where it is now if needed.

Small adjustments can make a big change.

I think I'd put a piece of clear hose from fuel filter to fuel pump to check if you have air getting in the system.
Super easy to do, and only a few minutes and a few $ but immediately let's you eliminate that as a possible problem. It's a common problem too pin 20+ year old rigs with old fuel hoses

 

[miatafreak]

I'm having a similar problem with white smoke at idle. 1994 1HD-T, 211k kms, stock other than ~16 psi max dialed into the boost controller and an unknown modified aneroid pin. The white smoke is a reasonable amount when cold and thins out a little bit but never seems to go away.

I had the injectors rebuilt last year and Torfab tuned the fuel pump shortly after. I didn't have an EGT probe or AFR gauge at the time so I'm not sure how in depth they could get but I have them now. They mentioned that they had to turn the fuel screw in quite a bit and that the pump generally seemed "weak". At the time my transmission kickdown cable was way out of whack so the whole truck felt sluggish so I'm not sure if that was impacting their tuning. In mountain passes I can hit up to ~1350 F EGT at 16 psi with AFR around 23. I pretty much only see black smoke at high altitudes with high loads, daily AFR never dips below ~21.

I have no issues with drivability or startup so I just want to do some tweaks to see how I can minimize the smoke. My plan is to check compression, check timing, and then try dialing out the fuel screw and trying to make up for it with moving the aneroid pin around a bit. Is that a good path? At what point should I be considering rebuilding my fuel pump?

Once I get to the tuning stage I have a lot of EGT and AFR data I can gather but I haven't found many resources regarding using it to tune. I've read through most of this thread a few times and almost everything is qualitative with some references to peak EGTs but not a lot regarding tuning in the lower load ranges. If anybody has good resources for a more data driven tuning approach it would be much appreciated!

 

[mudgudgeon]

If anybody has good resources for a more data driven tuning approach it would be much appreciated!

I don't think you'll find a whole lot of data.

Tuning potential of these pumps is actually fairly limited, and being mechanical, is kind of clunky.
You have maybe four adjustments to cover the entire operating range from idle, to full power, mid range response, and everything in between.

Finding a balance between performance, fuel economy ( lol), throttle response, visible smoke, butt dyno, peak EGTs, boost, and AFRs is the aim.

There's no readily available way for the average guy to collect data beyond taking it to a shop with a dyno, and tuning with it on the dyno.

tuning is tweak, test, repeat. trial and error

 

[diby 2000]

Once I get to the tuning stage I have a lot of EGT and AFR data I can gather but I haven't found many resources regarding using it to tune. I've read through most of this thread a few times and almost everything is qualitative with some references to peak EGTs but not a lot regarding tuning in the lower load ranges. If anybody has good resources for a more data driven tuning approach it would be much appreciated!

As Mudgudgeon states, there is limited tunability on these machines. Because of that, we can genereally only tune for the worst case scenerio. This is usually full load. This is why you only see refences to this situation. Anything less than ALL of the fuel at any point is only going to be safer.

I'm only a backyard mechanic, but I'm wondering if your white smoke could also be engine oil in the combustion. I would be ensuring your valve/rocker clearences are correct abd that the valve stem seals look ok eliminate this as a possibiilty.

 

[miatafreak]

As Mudgudgeon states, there is limited tunability on these machines. Because of that, we can genereally only tune for the worst case scenerio. This is usually full load. This is why you only see refences to this situation. Anything less than ALL of the fuel at any point is only going to be safer.

I'm only a backyard mechanic, but I'm wondering if your white smoke could also be engine oil in the combustion. I would be ensuring your valve/rocker clearences are correct abd that the valve stem seals look ok eliminate this as a possibiilty.

I adjusted the valves last spring so that should be solid, no clue about stem seal wear. I was seeing a nonzero amount of blowby but since putting in a catch can that's helped out and the can hasn't been filling up at an alarming rate.

 

[wrxFTWdey]

I'm having a similar problem with white smoke at idle. 1994 1HD-T, 211k kms, stock other than ~16 psi max dialed into the boost controller and an unknown modified aneroid pin. The white smoke is a reasonable amount when cold and thins out a little bit but never seems to go away.

I had the injectors rebuilt last year and Torfab tuned the fuel pump shortly after. I didn't have an EGT probe or AFR gauge at the time so I'm not sure how in depth they could get but I have them now. They mentioned that they had to turn the fuel screw in quite a bit and that the pump generally seemed "weak". At the time my transmission kickdown cable was way out of whack so the whole truck felt sluggish so I'm not sure if that was impacting their tuning. In mountain passes I can hit up to ~1350 F EGT at 16 psi with AFR around 23. I pretty much only see black smoke at high altitudes with high loads, daily AFR never dips below ~21.

I have no issues with drivability or startup so I just want to do some tweaks to see how I can minimize the smoke. My plan is to check compression, check timing, and then try dialing out the fuel screw and trying to make up for it with moving the aneroid pin around a bit. Is that a good path? At what point should I be considering rebuilding my fuel pump?

Once I get to the tuning stage I have a lot of EGT and AFR data I can gather but I haven't found many resources regarding using it to tune. I've read through most of this thread a few times and almost everything is qualitative with some references to peak EGTs but not a lot regarding tuning in the lower load ranges. If anybody has good resources for a more data driven tuning approach it would be much appreciated!

I’m still having white smoke issues and pretty intense fuel smell in the exhaust even after slightly advancing my timing a little more. I didn’t get a proper reading on the timing but did it by “ear” and it was getting very very clunky (dieselly) sounding when advanced too much so I had to back off from the initial adjustment. I’m not sure where to start and if I want to do new injectors or rebuild the pump because it might not fix my issue. I work around a lot of large diesels without any emissions systems and my hdj80 takes the cake for smokiest and smelliest by a long shot. I’m thinking I might have a leaky injector causing unburnt fuel to escape or maybe a valve out of adjustment? Idk been living with it for 3 years and the smell still bothers me especially slow wheeling on the trail. On the interstate it’s great, don’t smell a thing and plenty of power even in the big mountain passes.