White smoke on a diesel engine

What could make a diesel engine produce white smoke? What causes excessive white smoke from a diesel engine? Why does my diesel engine have white smoke? Can bad diesel cause white smoke? White smoke occurs in a diesel engine when the diesel fuel goes through the engine and reaches the exhaust without having been burned.

This typically occurs due to the engine being too cool to burn the fuel, often resulting from low compression in one cylinder, problems with the fuel injection timing or a defective fuel injector. Blowing white smoke is a red flag for your diesel engine , yet we see this happen all the time to our customers. In many cases, white smoke emanating from the tailpipe (often at idle once the engine reached operating temperature) typically means a worn out injector. To be more specific, the white smoke you see is your diesel fuel, unburne or only partially burned. The commonest reasons for this lie in the fuel system.

They range from faulty fuel injectors to retarded fuel injectio n timing, or even low compression. But mostly, it is the incorrect injector timing in the cylinders. White smoke from exhaust diesel and petrol engine may be the signal of different car problems. White smoke in a diesel is caused by one of two things: engine burning coolant, or poor burning of fuel. An engine burning coolant can be easily determined.

First question, do you have to regularly add coolant? A marine diesel that shows a bit of smoke on start-up is probably nothing to worry about, but if it keeps on smoking after a few seconds of run-time, or starts smoking after it warms up, or when you throttle up, that engine is screaming to you to get something fixed. But what’s causing the smoke.

White smoke points to some very specific conditions which can indicate a number of component or system failures. A brand new diesel engine running at full load will experience a little bit of blow-by upon startup. Blow-by is a condition where diesel fuel, air and vapor are pushed past the rings into the crankcase of the engine. It should be taken as an indication that there is a problem existing (or developing), that will potentially shorten the engine life, or result in unnecessary costs. Diesel Smoke tells YOU a Story.

Sometimes diesel engines emit a white smoke while starting. The white smoke is due to unburnt fuel caused by improper heating. It can be especially difficult to start a diesel engine during cold weather.

There’s white smoke and then there’s white smoke. Usually with white smoke you’re either spitting out vaporous un-burned diesel or steam. To tell the difference between the two is fairly easy, if your engine is making white smoke right from start up and the smoke sits on the water without disappearing you’re most likely looking at un. When combustion is incomplete, a diesel mist comes from the exhaust.

It is very common when starting a diesel in very cold weather. Since this is a boat and marine diesel forum, an white smoke seems to come with the territory, I’ll first start by giving you about twenty years of personal experience with white smoke. Project Farm 440views.

Basically, smoke from a diesel engine indicates that something is not right.