white smoke from CDTi, good, bad or just ugly?

[Starman]

Good evening everyone.

I have always thought white smoke from an engine was particually bad but after reading a few posts I'm not so clear!

Today I had to take my mother to hospital and needed to get there quite urgently. I never advocate speeding but on a clear country straight road I put my foot down.

I clocked the speedo just over 90mph and couldn't say what the revs were at as its an auto, with foot fairy planted on the gas pedal but not fully down.

Looked in the rear view to see a few hundred yards or so behind me a James Bondy stile white smoke screen!

Took foot off gas and let speed and revs die away and smoke to stop and kept going...only not as fast. On the way back I took her, ( the car not me mother!!) Up to 80 ish slowly and no smoke!

I have just put Rons box on and set it to low maf hi torque and hi power. Have a new Jetex air filter, have cleaned the EGR and replaced the PCV.. I do still have a howling from somewhere when the revs come up to 2k or so and have new O rings but yet to fit them!!

Is this white smoke something to be concerned about as I see some posts saying it could just be unburnt fuel...

Any advice is gleefully asimillated.... Thanks for reading peeps!!

[James.uk]

Hi Steve. Yep white smoke is normally unburnt fuel, on cold mornings it can sometimes be steam from water in the exhuast, but that soon clears..

Sounds to me like you have not got the Ronbox setup right yet.. try tuner on 3 with your MAF on low. But make sure you have ignition turned right off when changing any settings. :lol:
.

[Devilish]

I bought a PB maf from Ron as well, to eliminate all this maf setting malarkey and smoke buisness, take a look at my 'Synergy 2 time' post. I use what ever setting I like and no smoke at all. I can tell the difference betwen torque and respone at different settings.
I recommend a PB maf.
Have you done the the air intake mod, and the helper spring mod

CDTi 137,000 miles, fully synthetic oil change every 10,000 miles from new. Runs like a dream.

When I do a lot of pulling away from roundabouts on 70MPH roads I set it to 10, on Mway I set it to 10, around town I set it to 10

I may be wrong but I know of no one who has fitted PB maf as well and had smoke issues

[JohnDotCom]

I may be wrong but I know of no one who has fitted PB maf as well and had smoke issues

Generally Smoke (Darker variety) that people have reported is the EGR or more worrying the PCV Filter clogged.

Not seen White smoke on a Diesel of ours to be honest so cannot advise at present.
(other than the normal unburnt fuel etc from any make of car).

[Devilish]

I do still have a howling from somewhere when the revs come up to 2k or so

me too, I found out it was comming from my mouth

[GrahamP]

Normally white smoke is usually associated with too much air or not enough fuel. Certainly on the big Deltics usually 3 or 4 injectors had failed with 36 cylinders the only indication was white smoke from the exhaust. The only other time I've come across it is when a master cylinder seals/diaphragm are leaking brake fluid into the inlet manifold.

[Starman]

Hi guys. Thanks for your replies. Unburnt fuel seems the favorite which is somewhat reassuring.

I didn't clock the revs as was concentrating on the road but they were high. I wondered whether something more sinister was going on because of the high revs!!
Thoughts of about to blow turbo and nasty stuff like that..!!

I have done the mk2 intake mod. I shall have another look for a loose turbo pipe or likes of!

Many thanks for the help again. Best wishes.

[eddybrown]

From Google:

White Smoke

Normally means that the fuel injected into the cylinder is not burning correctly. The smoke will burn your eyes.

Engine/pump timing out
Fuel starvation to the pump causing the pumps timing not to operate correctly
Low engine compression
Water/petrol in the fuel