heavy smoking cummins

OK gents, i keept he point from fred, with the keel cooling, we can't warm the engine without sufficient load, for bilgeboy suggestion, we are in hot water, phuket thailand, 27/28 deg !
when we run without load, is not smoking but not warming..,
regarding the comment from longliner, as all smoke stop as soon the engine is hot, i don't see injector or intake manifold.. thanks a lot gentlemen for your input ! i will check closely the temp evolution next time i'm on board
i will advise my friend to start and go..slowly !
cheers to all
bertho

 

once the engine heats up the metal expands and seals the leak,

 

longliner,
what you suggest as further investigation if something can be wrong with injector or intake manifold ?

 

if you are getting white smoke in a diesle engine ,,,,,,,,,you are sucking air from somewhere.,, those are common culprits.,,,,,,let us know ,good luck,longliner

 

I run a pair of 1750hp MTUs that will produce enough white smoke that people have called the fire department if I don't preheat the coolant to 35 degrees C. When preheated though, the exhaust is normal. They suck air through their filters only!

 

hi! yotphix ! welcome to the ''white smoker club'' too !
we don't have preheater for the coolant.. just imagine! we need to keep fire department on board!!
cheers

 

Glad someone finds the block heater helpful!

It should help even if your ambient temps are warm, because the normal operating engine temps for diesels are in the 175-180 deg F range. Relative to the water temps, this is still quite high.

I recently went to take a look at a mercedes diesel to use as a daily driver. I could see air bubbles entering the fuel line through a bad repair. The engine was blowing heavy blue smoke. I didn't get the car because I was concerned that this was oil burning, but reading about air entering the fuel, I found out this can cause blue smoke. Not sure why.

In general, smoking problems in diesels follow these rules (you may find exceptions)

Black - excess fuel relative to available air causes partially combusted diesel (bad injectors, overloaded engine, lack of air flow (clogged filter, restricted exhaust))
Blue - engine oil (bad rings, leaking turbo seals into intake side)
White - water or uncombusted (is that a word?) diesel. Water can come from leaking head gasket / cracked head, uncombusted diesel from atomized diesel that is not reaching ignition temps from bad rings/valves (lack of compression) or overly cooled engine.

It still sounds like you have an overly cooled engine. The idea is to start and go...FAST. That will bring your engine temps up faster.

Its a great topic, enjoying the thread.

Mike

 

White Smoke Means Excess of Oxygen

Hello;

When ever there is an excess of Oxygen in the working substance {fuel + air mixture} the engine may give a white smoke. That is a general rule.

In Marine Propulsion; we should be cautious about power absorbers also. i.e Propellers. What does your friend say about turbo Charger Temp? Is it under heated? That means, the Thrusters are absorbing much lesser Power than that delivered by the Tail Shaft. It may be because of lesser diametre or Pitch ofthe Thruster.

I shall comment further after knowing about TurboCharger Temperature.

Yours Truly
Design Dept (Tebma Shipyard)

 

I've got to disagree with the statement above. Why do you think that?

Diesels love as much oxygen as they can get, no such thing as too much.

I admit... I'm not a diesel mechanic, just own a pair, like working on them and thinking about them. I'm glad we have a forum to hash out some of the finer details of diesels engines.

That statement may be true of gasoline engines, where air/fuel ratios are tightly controlled. I don't know.

Mike

 

I agree with you bilgeboy we spend all this money on turbos to be told we can get too much oxygen!!. Too much oxygen in relation to what?

A very experienced diesel mechanic told me once that a waste gate is useless and he disconnects them. Ok for un manned engines such as generators but when your driving a deisel with your foot or hand on the gas then you are in charge.

 

I am a diesel mechanic. White smoke is either a cold engine or coolant (water) in the combustion chambers, if the smoke goes away then it is just a cold engine, try the block heaters for warming the coolant to see if it helps and get under way as soon as you can with a light load to get the engine fully warmed.
In a diesel engine there is no such trhing as too much oxygen due to the design of the engine and the process in which it burns fuel. There is no fuel/air mixture to control, the engine packs as much air into the cylinder as it can then compresses it and just before TDC it begins to inject fuel. Having to much air does nothing whereas having to much fuel will create black smoke.
Stick with the heaters and getting the engine warmed up sooner, from what you say it doesn't sound like there is any problem other than a cold engine.

 

Guys, Thank to all for your inputs..
will change our ''start-up'' procedure! we will keep it hot !
cheers

 

ducknuts, what makes it white then --black is soot--- blue is oil-- so why is it white --its not steam is it?.

 

The white smoke from a diesel engine is steam from condensation on a cold start or water in the cylinders.

 

But ducknuts he is talking white smoke for miles under load. You think there will be condensation in the cylinders after that time? Wheres the water come from he says hes not leaking any and its a closed system with a keel cooler?