I know this issue has been brought up before, I just wanted to reconfirm.

Upon start up, white smoke vs. black smoke, which is bad and why?

Upon hard acceleration, which is bad and why?

if stock you should see 0 or very little smoke, it should be a chore for you to get it to happen. white smoke on start up is normal if its very cold. I ussually just get a puff or a belch for a few seconds, its raw fuel.

Ummmmmm, my truck smokes black like a freight train under hard accleration but its a good thing;)

If you truck is warm it shouldnt smoke at start up

yea it's great how the exhaust was designed. blows back smoke into the lower import your beating and by the end of the race their finger nails and lips are blue :D

yea it's great how the exhaust was designed. blows back smoke into the lower import your beating and by the end of the race their finger nails and lips are blue :DBlack smoke is really good):h. Just got back from towing my fathers boat (9000lbs) to the keys. Some dumbCensored s in a Jetta with her windows down wouldn't merge or didn't yield however you want to put it. Floridah... Slowed down to let her in, she stared at me. Sped up a little she went faster. Finally i just nailed it and thanks to the juice passed her and spewwed black smoke right in her window. It was great.:cool: Felt a little bad but i think she'll think about her driving skills a little further and never put herself in that situation again.

These trucks rock :ro)

to those floridians that know how to drive i apologize to you for the association with this moron.

Chris

my God, only people around here know how bad the drivers are. they stereotype californians for bad driving? yeesh. i can honestly say that every city driver in some small POS is a complete asshole/assholette

norderner ..... I believe black smoke can indicate unburnt fuel and white smoke can indicate water. Unfortunately, I am not knowledgable enough to answer your question in more detail as to when this is good vs bad.

You might want to post details as to exactly what you are experiencing and also provide details on your truck (year, engine, miles). Hopefully one of the techs or knowledgable members will see it and provide a precise response.

Hmm, lemme see ~ white is either steam/condensation or burning motor oil. Black would be in my guessimation overabundance of fuel. Seemingly, from the posts here, many like/favor the blacksmoke on accelleration to antagonize the antagonist ~ so that may be good. I do recall seeing one of our members (actually founder) make a right turn from a stop light emit what seemed to be a lil' puff of black smoke. With the south breeze moving that small puff acrossed 4 lane intersection it seemed to grow like something alive ~ even seeming to intensify if thats possible ~ to stop momentarily and hover around this poor innocent pedestrian waiting for a light change. He was wearing a Dennys Restaurant shirt and obviously headed to work swinging a file folder he was carrying trying to disperse this huge black blob. Here, in CA, a cell call to a DMV sponsored toll free number can result in a letter directing one to an inspection station for emission inspection. W/that said, I'll leave it up to you/others more knowlegeable than I to determine which, under what conditions are good/bad.

My truck just started smoking abit at start-up. :eek: The past few mornings the temps have been in the 20s. My truck is smoking black/blue for at least a minute or more at start up. The rest of the day there is no smoke at all. No mods/ stock. 28,600miles. I do plug it in at night.

I don't know what might be causing this. Any ideas???

P.S. I was using Cetane8+ and Total Power (Kennedy cocktail) until I rearanged the garage two weeks ago and haven't used it since. I don't remember where I put it????:confused: Its in there somewhere among the mountians of Censored

black smoke in full throttle is good.. and in the san gabriel valley,where every other car is a honda,well, too bad for them!!!! my big problem now is that no rice-burner wants to race against the d-max anymore.. i guess the word got out!!!thanks TTS!!!

I just read somewhere that you want to try to rid the truck of black smoke. Banks said that. It was an article about getting the most out of your engine. Black smoke bad, high egt's bad etc...

What about that information -- good - bad?

Black smoke is an excessive QUANTITY of PARTIALLY burned fuel which isn't bad for the engine. Each person has their own views for the environmental impact though. This is the condition that big power adders want. Think of it as a very in-eficient burn. White smoke is RAW, UNBURNED fuel. On a cold start this is OK for a BIT, but not long periods or on a warm start. Either of the latter conditions and you should worry and have it looked into.

Well, black smoke is unburnt fuel and typically can equate to higher EGT's. Unburnt fuel means that you've got fuel that is still undergoing ignition during the exhaust phase of the engine... that means it's going out through the heads, headers, passing all that heat there vs burning it all in the chamber and getting your money's worth out of the engine.

Smoke may be cool, but in all honesty I don't care if I huff and puff like a locomotive or not. I'd rather go fast efficently... down the road, I'll be doing just that >:)

Well, black smoke is unburnt fuel and typically can equate to higher EGT's. Unburnt fuel means that you've got fuel that is still undergoing ignition during the exhaust phase of the engine... that means it's going out through the heads, headers, passing all that heat there vs burning it all in the chamber and getting your money's worth out of the engine.

Smoke may be cool, but in all honesty I don't care if I huff and puff like a locomotive or not. I'd rather go fast efficently... down the road, I'll be doing just that >:)
ok, this is still kind of confusing for me. i think i know what makes smoke, and it makes sense in my head, but i want to throw it out there to be clarified/corrected. i'm either really off-base here, or pretty close to knowing what's going on. i think i may be simplifying it too much, or missing some really important factors. please chime in and listen to my little drawn-on explaination of why diesels smoke......

a diesel takes in the same amount of air on each intake stroke. what determines rpm is the amount of fuel injected; a small amount of fuel injected each time=idle, and the rpms climb as more and more fuel is being injected. more fuel=more bang. now, the turbo is dependant on engine rpm, so it doesnt really start huffin' till the rpms are just right (forget about the vgt or vvt or whatever in our dmaxs). so, a good recipe for black smoke would be to drop a couple gears (gotta be a stick obviously) so the engine rpms are reallllllly low, then hammer it. the low rpm of the engine (meaning less air because the turbo is dependant on engine rpm and isnt blowin' much now) combined with the foot to the floor (means the same amount of fuel is being injected now as it would be if the rpm was high) would equal a whole lot of fuel with not a lot of air. meaning it would be rich as hell and not all of it would be burned by the time the exhaust stroke starts. that equals big billowing black smoke out your exhaust.


^^^^ am i even close to being right? :help:

haha RyanU do you want to comment on black smoke and how its good or bad??? :lol:

haha RyanU do you want to comment on black smoke and how its good or bad??? :lol:

well it got me a reckless driving ticket this tuesday, and for those of you wondering i did nothin more than blow some smoke. it wasnt even a big cloud like i usually do just a decent puff. dont guess the cop liked diesels much-:t

ok, this is still kind of confusing for me. i think i know what makes smoke, and it makes sense in my head, but i want to throw it out there to be clarified/corrected. i'm either really off-base here, or pretty close to knowing what's going on. i think i may be simplifying it too much, or missing some really important factors. please chime in and listen to my little drawn-on explaination of why diesels smoke......

a diesel takes in the same amount of air on each intake stroke. what determines rpm is the amount of fuel injected; a small amount of fuel injected each time=idle, and the rpms climb as more and more fuel is being injected. more fuel=more bang. now, the turbo is dependant on engine rpm, so it doesnt really start huffin' till the rpms are just right (forget about the vgt or vvt or whatever in our dmaxs). so, a good recipe for black smoke would be to drop a couple gears (gotta be a stick obviously) so the engine rpms are reallllllly low, then hammer it. the low rpm of the engine (meaning less air because the turbo is dependant on engine rpm and isnt blowin' much now) combined with the foot to the floor (means the same amount of fuel is being injected now as it would be if the rpm was high) would equal a whole lot of fuel with not a lot of air. meaning it would be rich as hell and not all of it would be burned by the time the exhaust stroke starts. that equals big billowing black smoke out your exhaust.


^^^^ am i even close to being right? :help:
Fairly close, only one problem.... Even if you get a stick shift, (like me) we're still drive by wire, which means the computer decides how much fuel to put in. Even with your foot on the floor, it will only put in what it can burn efficiently. Now, there's one exception to this, and that's to put a different program like the Edge and crank up the low boost fueling.

Good luck

I reread the article, and the point was that constant black smoke will kill the engine sooner. Someone above said it causes higher EGT's so that must be why.

Black smoke is an excessive QUANTITY of PARTIALLY burned fuel which isn't bad for the engine. Each person has their own views for the environmental impact though. This is the condition that big power adders want. Think of it as a very in-eficient burn. White smoke is RAW, UNBURNED fuel. On a cold start this is OK for a BIT, but not long periods or on a warm start. Either of the latter conditions and you should worry and have it looked into.
Exactly. Couldn't have said it better myself.

And, blue smoke is excessive burned oil.

Getting rid of the black smoke at ever higher fueling levels is the holy grail for diesels. Banks saying that he wants to get rid of black smoke is like saying you're for world peace.

Oh -- I didn't realize -- about the black smoke and world peace thing...

Nice example though :)

Black smoke isnt an overfueling problem its and under air problem. Dont take away the fuel just keep adding air. N2O plus Xtreme=smoke going bye bye

Although I would walk outside to see what color the sky was if banks told me it was blue. Sometimes they are so FOS its comical.

Fairly close, only one problem.... Even if you get a stick shift, (like me) we're still drive by wire, which means the computer decides how much fuel to put in. Even with your foot on the floor, it will only put in what it can burn efficiently. Now, there's one exception to this, and that's to put a different program like the Edge and crank up the low boost fueling.

Good luck

hmmm.... but this does apply to those old mechanical fuel-injected cummins right? i dont think there is a damn thing on some of those that is electric (besides glowers)

thanks for the reply

DING DING DING!!! We have a winner!! :exactly:

There are actually two negative side effects that come with black smoke. One has already been discussed and that is high exhaust gas temperatures. High temperatures will inevitably cause eventual engine damage. But black smoke has another problem. Modern engine oils contain zinc dithiophosphate which serves as an anti-wear agent. When a large amount of soot is present, invariably some of it will get past the rings and into the oil. The soot acts as an abrasive, counteracting the zinc dithiophosphate. When the oil loses its anti-wear capabilities, internal engine parts wear faster.

The best way to make plenty of power without excessive black smoke is to combine added air with the fuel being delivered. Free-flowing exhaust, low-restriction intakes, higher levels of boost (within reason) and better charge-air coolers all serve to increase the air density, or oxygen content, in the engine cylinders such that fuel can be added and a proper air-fuel ratio can be maintained.

I might as well get on my own little soapbox here. I am a proponent of diesel power. I firmly believe that diesel is a better solution to energy problems than hydrogen or gasoline-electric hybrids. We already have an infrastructure in this country to support the use of diesel at all automotive levels. Hydrogen power would require the development of a substantial infrastructure and current gasoline-hybrid technology will not support heavy-duty applications. When you add the possibility of bio-diesel into the mix, diesel becomes a far more potentially beneficial choice.

In Europe, automotive populations are at least 50% diesel. Why do we not see that same level of interest here? The biggest reason is emissions. Diesel has a very negative perception in many quarters, and the strict standards (stricter than Europe in some cases) that the governing bodies have for diesels in light-duty applications is a reflection of that. Every time that one of us puffs huge clouds of black smoke into the atmosphere, we reinforce that negative perception, whether it is justified or not. My message is this; black smoke does not help the cause of diesel power on a grand scale. The more we can make power without black smoke, the better for all of us.

OK, I’m climbing down off my soapbox now.

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too much money to be made of gas -- gov. will never change. I am not a dem., but it's true. Too much stuff going on up there to change.

I have noticed under hard accelleration (passing) that I get what appears to be gray smoke, It does not do this all the time, and many times I see no smoke at all. Temps. have been moderate (I am use to some in cold temps.) I also have an original Edge set on 2. Does this sound bad?
03 Sierra, ECDA4X4

sounds normal

Remember..if you increase airflow with intake, exhaust, boost, cooling, or whatever, and get rid of the smoke....there will again be more power available by again increasing fueling to the point of again making smoke.

It never ends... at least until the Ally limps.

As far as public perception goes...the only perception I worry about is whether the tailgating hybrid econobox perceives he'll get cancer from the smoke if he doesn't back off.

i have excessive white smoke at idle how do i get rid of it?

When your truck is cold at first start up with cold outside temps? Or anytime? If its more than when you first start it up when the motor is cold and its cold out you have a problem that needs a tech to look at.