I find a bottle of aftershave in your tank usually helps!

...my old Perkins did.

Did you do the lift pump mod yet?
Very small air bubbles caused by the negative pressure and micro leaks retard the injection timing poor running, and make the exhaust stink more.
Another thing that will cause more odor is contamination from Zinc used on galvanized pipe.
Zinc acts like a catalyst forming more aldehydes which cause increased pungent odors.
Zinc is great as a trace element in food supplements, in fact the only way you can hurt yourself with zinc is to make it into a weapon and use it on your self, but don't contaminate your fuel with it.

I did use galvanized pipe for my fuel tank filler pipes on the old Perkins, guess I should have followed my own advice.

Nearly all vacuum to IP injection systems have small bubbles in the fuel stream but they have no affect at all on performance. This is because as they are compressed to 1600 bars they are instantly squeezed into non existence as they return to saturation. The particular problem with our system is that over time the little bubbles tend to collect at the highest point in the fuel system which is the fuel filter head, where they buildup until a large bubble is sucked into the IP. When this happens there is a sudden and dramatic loss of pressure in the fuel rail down to just a few hundred PSI or less.
The timing is not affected at all because our timing is controlled by the ECU. The process that gives the appearance of retarded timing (lots of stinky white smoke) is the fuel not being atomized because of the low injection pressure thus causing it to exit the engine almost completely unburnt. The same process is happening when you have a plugged fuel filter as well. This is just an FYI regarding common rail systems which manifest problems differently from hydraulic, PD and HEUI fuel injection systems.

I disagree:
2) Since the Common Rail is not a closed loop system, the ECU makes a Educated Guess as to when to fire the injector based upon the map that has been programmed into the memory with some allowance for learning, but has no way to confirm it.

3) Any measurable quantity of air results in loss of fuel volume, an increase in the fuel temperature, and by reducing the quantity, delaying the timing.

5) A lift pump eliminates the air bubble headaches and is the cheapest fix available.
6) Not having a lift pump is a Dumb @$$ Bean Counter stunt Chrysler pulled on us.
7) A very old Engineering principle that states that it is easier to control 1000PSI than to control a Vacuum. Since my lift pump and most others operate at 9 PSI, it is 111 times easier to control any fuel leaks than vacuum leaks in the STUPID STOCK FUEL SYSTEM that sucks fuel out of the tank through the filter and past snap fittings designed to operate under pressure. Hence, VACUUM AIR LEAKS Exclamation

Exactly! The ECU is the one and ONLY thing that controls Injection timing. When I stated earlier that the timing is not affected by large amounts of air I meant that it is not retarded by it. The ECU factors in rail pressure, RPM and accelerator position and opens for a prescribed amount of time at the appropriate degree of advancement. It only has a limited range for variation programed into the fuel mapping. What happens when the rail pressure drops from sucking up a large chug of air is that the timing is advanced to the maximum level. this is the same level where it injects at startup when the rail pressure is low. By low startup pressure we are talking ~4000 psi. When the rail pressure is only in the few hundred pound range the the fuel is squirted out in a stream instead of a spray. This inhibits proper combustion and causes the white smoke.



Absolutely not. If you get a 1mm air bubble into the IP it gets compressed down 1600 times. A human cannot even see a dot 1/1600th of a millimeter across and it in fact does not even exist because it goes instantly into solution at the molecular level. As far as a loss of rail volume it must be remembered that the fuel rail is designed to be elastic like a balloon in order to mitigate the changes in rail pressure and volume each time that an injector opens. The ultimate control of pressure and volume is the cascade valve on the end of the rail. Only a very large bubble can instantly stop the IP from pumping fuel into the rail.



Amen!!! A lift pump is the only way to go to avoid all of the associated problems with fuel in air.

I must have a special edition. Stock fuel system and no problems. If a lift pump fixes something for you it is only covering up a larger problem.

He may bump one of your snap couplings and start an air leak

Perhaps they all have the potential to leak. If your fuel is well aerated while cool, when the fuel heats up from a lot of stop and go in hot weather, it will almost certainly start sucking large air bubbles especially after sitting for a while and letting the heat soak in and you will have a P0093. Another problem which I suspect determines why some owners have the problem and others don't, is the condition of the fuel filter. If it is new and has very little restriction there is less of a vacuum to pull bubbles out of solution.