3116 WHITE SMOKE ON ACCELERATION

[oldwhiteman]

Hi, we have a recently purchased 1991 kodiak bucket truck with a 3116 and it recently it started blowing white on acceleration. Truck starts right up, sounds good, but on acceleration (turning the pto on) the white smoke billows. Has a burnt oil smell to it. Guy we got it from said it had recently been serviced but when we changed the Fuel filters they was in pretty bad shape. I was leaning toward maybe the turbo leaking internally, but wanted to get an expert opinion. thanks

 

[Delmer]

It's easy enough to take the hose and exhaust off the turbo and see if there's oil leaking there.

I bought a 3116 that had been mostly sitting and it smoked up a snow storm when you revved it till it was warmed up. It cleared up after driving it a few weeks and never came back. Injector or timing related is all I can figure.

Has this been sitting? and is it still on the same tank of fuel? If so, I'd drain that fuel and use it for less critical purposes. Then run it like a rental.

 

[oldwhiteman]

I dont know how easy that exhaust is going to be to take off but the intercooler will come right off because i had to replace that lower rubber connection to the turbo. But your right, only way to tell i guess. Ours smoke on acceleration cold or hot. Not sure about it setting. We bought it from a guy, who bought it from an older gentlemen who had it at his house, so who knows how true that is. not on same tank of fuel.

 

[oldwhiteman]

Ok, I fired it up before I started taking the turbo off today and when I first started it up it wasn't smoking, but after running it about 5 min is when it started, only smoke when you rev it. Took a couple of hours but finally got her off. Definately alot of oil in the exhaust. Turbo wheel felt like it had quite a bit of play maybe a 1/16" not enough to hit the housing but definitely feel it. I never messed with a turbo before, are they fairly easy to rebuild, best place to get a kit from?

 

[92U 3406]

Something isn't really adding up for me here. Usually white smoke indicates burning coolant or raw fuel. Oil is generally blue smoke. Looking at those pictures it almost looks like fuel mixed with soot in the exhaust, not oil. Maybe from excessive idling or a leaky injector?

 

[thepumpguysc]

Good god.. that thing looks like an old Detroit that took a dump..

 

[thepumpguysc]

Turbos are easy to rebuild IF you can get them apart.. AND.. find a kit..
gotta have a "blue wrench", a BFH[brass] , a sand blaster & a pair of very small snap-ring pliers.
a box of rubber gloves, Lots of soap & a scrub brush for afterwards.
Just google> turbo exchange & be done w/ it..

 

[Delmer]

Put a piece of rubber from a thick inner tube over the oil port and put the oil line back on, stuff a rag in the oil return and start it up. If it blows smoke without the turbo, you have problems besides the turbo.

 

[RZucker]

Something isn't really adding up for me here. Usually white smoke indicates burning coolant or raw fuel. Oil is generally blue smoke. Looking at those pictures it almost looks like fuel mixed with soot in the exhaust, not oil. Maybe from excessive idling or a leaky injector?

I'm with you on this. Looks like too much idle time. Now the entire exaust system id full of this grunge and it's gonna blow white smoke 'til it's worked hard to burn the stuff out.
I had an RO crane on a truck with an 8.2 Detroit and after a few hours of crane time it would blow a huge cloud of white smoke for the first mile or 2 when you got back on the road. It is quite possible my turbo was dribbling a bit of oil when it idled too. But once it cleared out there was no more smoke.

 

[92U 3406]

I'm with you on this. Looks like too much idle time. Now the entire exaust system id full of this grunge and it's gonna blow white smoke 'til it's worked hard to burn the stuff out.
I had an RO crane on a truck with an 8.2 Detroit and after a few hours of crane time it would blow a huge cloud of white smoke for the first mile or 2 when you got back on the road. It is quite possible my turbo was dribbling a bit of oil when it idled too. But once it cleared out there was no more smoke.

I'd give the exhaust a few good smacks down the length of it with a rubber mallet to bust loose the big chunks of garbage and make that engine work hard for an hour or 2 first and see if it clears it up first.



I don't know the turbo specs off hand but I would go through the Cat dealer for parts vs aftermarket supplier.

 

[RZucker]

I'd give the exhaust a few good smacks down the length of it with a rubber mallet to bust loose the big chunks of garbage and make that engine work hard for an hour or 2 first and see if it clears it up first.



I don't know the turbo specs off hand but I would go through the Cat dealer for parts vs aftermarket supplier.

I'm not too sure if I would knock the chunks loose without removing the muffler. Most medium duty trucks use an oval muffler with offset perforated pipes for inlet and outlet. They seem to plug rather easily. Otherwise, yes I would run the thing as hard as I could for a couple hours too. Then see if there actually is a problem. Being a bucket truck without much history, I'm leaning toward too much bucket time in the backyard.

 

[oldwhiteman]

Thanks guys for the responses, I agree probably a lot of idle time. And Delmar your idea would definitely narrow it down. As good as it starts up (immediately on turning the key) cant be too much wrong with it. 50# oil psi on idle. I will get back on tomm and report back. Thanks again.

 

[Mobiltech]

With the 3116 being a mechanical controlled fuel system it's important to have a good topend set done . When these used to come into cat when they were new we would do a good timing set and synchronize the injectors and you would see a big improvement in fuel consumption and a lot less smoke when cold. Do not let anyone who doesn't know what they're doing touch it because they can really mess it up.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I saw a 3116 last year but before that I don't remember when the last one I saw was and I remember years ago hearing that almost nobody has the special tooling any more let alone knows how to use it so beware....

 

[oldwhiteman]

Thanks guys for all the help and advice. It is much appreciated. I beat on the exahust pipe a bit but from what I could tell it looked clean except right at the tip where the turbo hooks on. It only has about 6' of exhaust pipe before the muffler but I couldn't see through the bend of course. I decided to go ahead and rebuild the turbo while I had it off. I finally was able to get it apart. Got a rebuild kit coming for it. It was a job getting it apart to say the least. It involved the blue wrench, and still broke 2 bolts thats gonna have to be drilled out. Birken right now it runs great, but i am the owner of it now for better or worse so if it gets too bad I will just replace it. these engines are fairly prolific around my parts and fairly cheap.

 

[Mobiltech]

It will still run good with the timing late but it will smoke a bit when it starts until it gets some heat in the cylinders to complete the fuel burn. We call the it slobbering and it really gums up the exhaust.
I've worked on a lot of these since they came out and timing them always makes a huge difference, Cat actually revised the timing specs to more advance than the original spec.

 

[oldwhiteman]

thx mobiltech, you could be on to something. It dont smoke on start up at all though. You just have to barley bump the key and it starts right up everytime. It has to run for about 5 min, and then you have to rev it to get it to smoke.

 

[Tenwheeler]

The black stuff in the ports from the exhaust manifold is oil. The turbo compressor wheel, intake side, should not be black either. That is most surely oil leaking past the shaft into the engine intake. Oil ran through the engine inlet can cause white-grayish smoke. Check your air filter also.

 

[oldwhiteman]

The black stuff in the ports from the exhaust manifold is oil. The turbo compressor wheel, intake side, should not be black either. That is most surely oil leaking past the shaft into the engine intake. Oil ran through the engine inlet can cause white-grayish smoke. Check your air filter also.

Thanks Tenwheeler. Music to my ears. I got my turbo rebuild kit today. I had to jump through hoops to find one. Cat doesnt want any one having info on their products. Wished i had a diagram for it but looks like that is wishful thinking.

 

[Tenwheeler]

Plug the turbo oil supply line and run it while your turbo is off. If a cylinder is pumping oil it will show. If the charge air cooler has a lot of oil in it the engine can possily run away on it. Just unhook it so you know oil is not coming from it for the test.