White smoke...during warm temps?

MicroBruin · **Posted:** Wed Mar 18, 2015 11:44 pm

Okay...I've had two OEM glow plugs go in the last month. While each one was out, I noticed my wife driving off a few minutes after startup at 60, and even 72 degrees, with white smoke from the tailpipe. It started a little rough, as well. Could it be unburned fuel from startup with a bad glow plug, even at these temps? I also have a 600 CCA battery, which is obviously a little underpowered, that I'm going to replace. Could it be excess fuel, related to the engine cranking over a little more weakly? I do have a slow coolant leak. However, the CRD only has, 66,000 miles. 28,000 of those were put on in the last little over a year. I doubt it has ever been overheated (head gasket)...I think it was babied. However, I'm a little nervous about this white smoke... I don't remember seeing it before. I just put in the #1 glow plug, so I will try to see if it is doing it again tomorrow at 70-something degrees. I'm nervous...

thermorex · **Posted:** Thu Mar 19, 2015 7:23 am

I have not tried to start the Crd in the summer with 4 bad plugs, but I started other engines. Cold start, ambient around 80, it took few good cycles for the engine to start, and this on an engine with good compression. Despite some myths, you do need glow plugs even in the Florida summers on a diesel. On hot starts (engine at operating temps, stopped and restarted within 5-10 minutes) it will start way faster. Otherwise it would crank a lot till it starts. The battery is also very important, especially when you have few bad glow plugs, if it doesn't have the juice to turn the engine fast, it can't make compression. But it should not rattle on 70 degrees imo, once it started, so any white smoke should stop exiting the muffler within few seconds. My advice, get 4 etechnos, swap all your glow plugs, maybe get a weeks kit if you don't have one and a tune and see how it behaves. Since you have at least one glow plug bad, replace all old ones. You'll need to do it anyways at some point so why wouldn't you spare yourself some hassle?

MicroBruin · **Posted:** Sat Mar 21, 2015 12:56 am

Okay...two new glow plugs and a new battery later, the truck is starting quick and strong. So far, it appears the white smoke from the tailpipe upon initial departure/acceleration of the day may also be gone. And, I've probably ruled out any head gasket issues, as I seem to have found my coolant leak today. The underside of the thermostat to radiator hose is leaking a touch where it clamps to the radiator. Hopefully just the hose, and not the plastic collar/tank....crossing my fingers...

thermorex · **Posted:** Mon Mar 23, 2015 9:45 am

MicroBruin wrote:

Okay...two new glow plugs and a new battery later, the truck is starting quick and strong. So far, it appears the white smoke from the tailpipe upon initial departure/acceleration of the day may also be gone. And, I've probably ruled out any head gasket issues, as I seem to have found my coolant leak today. The underside of the thermostat to radiator hose is leaking a touch where it clamps to the radiator. Hopefully just the hose, and not the plastic collar/tank....crossing my fingers...

I'm also in the middle of tracking a minor leak, hopefully it won't turn into a head gasket nightmare later... Glad you sorted it out though!

MicroBruin · **Posted:** Wed Mar 25, 2015 1:34 am

MicroBruin wrote:

Okay...two new glow plugs and a new battery later, the truck is starting quick and strong. So far, it appears the white smoke from the tailpipe upon initial departure/acceleration of the day may also be gone. And, I've probably ruled out any head gasket issues, as I seem to have found my coolant leak today. The underside of the thermostat to radiator hose is leaking a touch where it clamps to the radiator. Hopefully just the hose, and not the plastic collar/tank....crossing my fingers...

Well...obviously, I spoke waaaay too soon. No glow plug codes or CEL since replacement with etecnos, but the truck is starting like crap again. I guess I'm going to try and wait a full 15-20 seconds before cranking, even above 70 degrees, and see if that helps. There is less white smoke, but it's still there a little. The new battery is way stronger than the other, and close to 1000 cranking amps above 32 degrees, so no prob there. I will be having a good shop look for my coolant leak very soon....

MicroBruin · **Posted:** Mon Apr 06, 2015 11:42 am

Funny thing regarding my coolant leak occurred to me. I was adding the fluid very regularly to the reservoir to keep it at the cold fill line, which also happens to be the seam in the tank. I decided to stop playing that game, and let the coolant drop below that line and take a wait and see approach....thinking that the low coolant light would come on. Well, interestingly, my leak has either stopped or slowed down significantly for a bit. While I've noticed two potential small leak spots in my coolant lines, where hoses connect to the radiator, it seems that perhaps the biggest culprit could be the seam in the coolant fill tank. I'm thinking there is a small leak in the tank seam letting out coolant if the reservoir is filled too high.

flash7210 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 06, 2015 1:07 pm

MicroBruin wrote:

I'm thinking there is a small leak in the tank seam letting out coolant if the reservoir is filled too high.

I doubt this.
If it were leaking from a crack or something in the coolant tank, you would notice water dripping out of it.

I noticed a similar thing on mine.
The water level in the coolant tank would slowly drop until the Lo Cool light came on. Then it would seem like I stopped loosing coolant.
The problem was not the coolant tank.

White smoke...during warm temps?

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