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White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

General Tech Talk

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White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

hey guys im getting white smoke after getting a wet airfilter from a water crossing. the motor didnt stop it kept running but started to smoke then i pulled the 4wd out. the intake has been disconnected and the motor is running no airfilter for inspection, the motor idles nicely but it smokes when reved. has the motor got a blow head gasket, or does running with out a filter contribute? there does not seem to be any pressure in the coolant system. any tips or ideas what to look at first ? cheers brenton
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Hatsu »

What flavoured water was it and is there any evidence of it washing through your filter and into your intake pipework and manifold?
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

the water was from a fresh water dam. the water looks to have gotten thru the filter , not sure how much got into the motor tho. the smoke has cleared to be just smokey when you rev it and its more of a blue white , then as white as it was to start with. the other thing is it seems to have a fair bit of vapour when the oil cap is removed .
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by KiwiBacon »

Any chance it's hydraulic locked a cylinder and stretched the ring lands?
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

yeah mate anything is possible i guess, im only new to diesels
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by KiwiBacon »

A compression test will tell you if one or more cylinders are down. First get the valve clearances checked, then even one of the cranking current tests will be enough to show what you need to know.
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by mutilated »

its game over sorry.
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

well i took the head off to have a look expecting the worse , but i can seem to see anything that seem bad. i didnt do a compression test which i should have but i dont have a tester for diesels and i got a bit carried away and just took the head off. its a dl42 2.8l out of a rocky , there was no major sign of head gasket failure and the bores arent scratched or marked , a bit of a small lip at the top of the stroke from where the rings end. anything i should have a look for ? could water have pushed back up into the injector when the motor was in the compression stroke?.
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by KiwiBacon »

Brenton wrote:well i took the head off to have a look expecting the worse , but i can seem to see anything that seem bad. i didnt do a compression test which i should have but i dont have a tester for diesels and i got a bit carried away and just took the head off. its a dl42 2.8l out of a rocky , there was no major sign of head gasket failure and the bores arent scratched or marked , a bit of a small lip at the top of the stroke from where the rings end. anything i should have a look for ? could water have pushed back up into the injector when the motor was in the compression stroke?.
At this stage all you can do is pull the pistons and check the clearance between rings and ring-grooves on the pistons. If you hydraulic locked it then one or more cylinders will have stretched the ring lands and will show as a bigger gap.
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

alrite ill try to pull the pistons out 2morro after work and have a look. i know i should have done a compression test , i just got carried away turning spanners and the head was off lol. so if i had what seems to be water in the oil but no oil in the coolant what so ever, how is that possible ? water came in thru the dipstick ? and that is the vapour that was coming out the oil cap , and the smoke could be from the stretched ring lands.?
thanks brenton
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by mavzilla »

wind it over and make sure the pistons are all the same height, (bent rod)
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

ill double check that 2morro , they all seemed to come to the same height . if an injector is wrecked will it be very obvious to a non diesel guy like myself ?
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by KiwiBacon »

Brenton wrote:alrite ill try to pull the pistons out 2morro after work and have a look. i know i should have done a compression test , i just got carried away turning spanners and the head was off lol. so if i had what seems to be water in the oil but no oil in the coolant what so ever, how is that possible ? water came in thru the dipstick ? and that is the vapour that was coming out the oil cap , and the smoke could be from the stretched ring lands.?
thanks brenton
Water in the oil would have got down past the rings if you have no head issues.
When the ring lands stretch the rings can move enough that they start to pump. This lowers your compression (white smoke from unburnt diesel) and shifts oil into the combustion chamber (blue smoke from burnt oil).

If the head was still on and your compression okay then injectors might have been the problem. But late for an easy test on those now. But indirect injection diesels don't have many injector problems.
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by rockcrawler31 »

mutilated wrote:its game over sorry.
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by bazzle »

Vapour from oil cap was the water in oil.

I would of changed all oils and filters and given it a run to clean up 1st before pulling to bits.

BAzzle
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Clanky »

bazzle wrote:Vapour from oil cap was the water in oil.

I would of changed all oils and filters and given it a run to clean up 1st before pulling to bits.

BAzzle

X2.

Might have just had a muffler full of water and needed a run to dry it out ( white smoke - steam?)
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

yeah guys i did run the motor for about an hr all up after i changed the oil and filters , the white smoke lessened but then it was just a blue/white smoke on start up and when you rev it, and it didnt seem like it was clearing up. thats why i went at it , should have compression checked but i didnt , next time i will for sure. i always do for a petrol but i didnt have a diesel compression tester but ill have to get one. cheers brenton
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by love ke70 »

you could probably bought a diesel compression tester for less than a headgasket, (100 on ebay for a good one) and you woulda known more.
but as you said, too late now.
as was said, make sure all pistons are coming up to the same height, and it may only be a small difference to create a drop in compression.

if not as was said, be looking at the rings
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

how much difference are we talking , thousand of inch? what about if the liners arent all in level ? ill have a good look at all the levels before i pull them out. has anybody had any experience with a dl42 diahatsu rocky motor, its a push rod motor not a overhead cam. cheers brenton
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by KiwiBacon »

Brenton wrote:how much difference are we talking , thousand of inch? what about if the liners arent all in level ? ill have a good look at all the levels before i pull them out. has anybody had any experience with a dl42 diahatsu rocky motor, its a push rod motor not a overhead cam. cheers brenton
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

yeah i spun the motor around yesterday and the pistons looked to both come to tdc in their pairs, ill check it out with some measuring equipment 2morro i could post up some photos if you guys are interested
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

hey guys if i can get it to connect up can i use a leakdown tester of a petrol on a diesel ? since it is only checking with the pressure you apply to it ?
cheers brenton
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by KiwiBacon »

Brenton wrote:hey guys if i can get it to connect up can i use a leakdown tester of a petrol on a diesel ? since it is only checking with the pressure you apply to it ?
cheers brenton
Yes, but it might not show up all potential problems. It's worth a try if you can throw the head back on and hook it up easily.
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Re: White smoke after wet airfilter in a diesel

Post by Brenton »

so you reckon slap the head back on with a cheap headgasket and torque it all down then compression and leakdown test it , before i go into the bottom end of the motor that what i was thinking,
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