Smoke and noise

[Jettage1]

Hmmm...  Good point.  I'll have to pay attention to that variable & see if there's any consistency there.  

As I think about it now, I start on diesel (cold) so it's noisy b/c of the temp.  Smokes grey when cold (not at idle) unless I'm very careful with the throttle.  Warmed up & running on veggie, sometimes smokes under load, sometimes not, always light grey.  Can be noisy or not on veggie, especially noticeable is the rhythmic TAP - TAP - TAP, but it doesn't hang around.  Usually by the time I get home and have switched to diesel for the shutdown, the noise is gone.  

But I have wondered if the veggie makes any difference.  Maybe it's causing an injector to misbehave???

The other thing I'm wondering about - since I got a Giles performance pump, should I be expecting more smoke than when running a stock pump?  What do others experience?

[Jettage1]

If a lifter is (going) bad or an injector is sticking, would either one be consistently bad, or can they come and go?  

I hope to pull the v.c. this weekend and check the lifters.  Am also going to check the timing one more time.  

I did test the injectors (cracking the lines) and the only thing I noticed was that the car ran worse with each one cracked.  Also, when it is running noisy, the screwdriver test doesn't seem to indicate an injector.  The noise seems to be mostly under the valve cover.  

If I do replace lifters, should I just do 'em all?  And do I need to worry about how the cam mates with the new lifters?  Maybe use assembly lube or something?

[vanbcguy]

I'm going through the same thing right now, and kind of coming to the same conclusions.  I've had the tapping now through my original injectors, a new set of Prothe injectors, and my original injectors with replacement Bosch nozzles so I'm pretty darn sure it has nothing to do with them!

I haven't really figured out any way to "test" my followers other than swapping in new ones.  On the upside they're reasonably cheap - less than $8 each!  I might just do it for the hell of it...

Anyone know what the proper break in process is for new lifters?  Do you have to do anything special like when you put a new cam in?

[Jettage1]

I believe that testing the lifters (followers) involves having the engine up to operating temp, shutting it down, and removing the cover.  You then push on the lifter with a non-metallic object (i.e. stick) and see how much they deflect.  Going from memory, I think it shouldn't go down more than 1 mm.  Bentley outlines the process...but it's at home so I can't look now.

btw, vanbcguy, does the tapping ever get greater or less for you (when the car's hot), or is it consistent?

[Jettage1]

I have noticed that enough oil blows back from the crankcase return hose into the intake that it slowly runs down the intake tube.  Not enough that it actually drips out somewhere, but still...

Could it be that some of the smoke is resulting from that "recycled" oil being burned?  

The car does have the plastic baffle on top of the cam towers, btw.  There is some smoke/oil mist that blows out if you remove the oil fill cap when it's running...

Probably a long shot.

[Jettage1]

bump...  vanbcguy - did you ever check your lifters?  What did you find?

[vanbcguy]

Hey, sorry, hadn't seen the thread again for a bit...

Mine seems to have gone away.  All I can attribute it to is doing an "Italian Tuneup" or two.  After driving the car hard for a day or two the tapping went away and hasn't come back!

I think the bit of oil in the intake tube is pretty much normal.  My ABA gasser does it too, a lot more so than my diesel.  With the ABA it's not unusual to find oil stains on my air filter.

[Jettage1]

So I pulled the turbo - taking the advice of folks who said that some of my smoke issues might be turbo seals.

Good thing I did - the shop doing the rebuild said that if I'd have run it much longer it would have grenaded.  The shaft looked good, but the housing was galled & had to be bored out & sleeved.  They saw a fair amount of oil on the compressor (intake) side.  Some of that might be blowby - I may look at a catch can too.  

Anyway, can't wait to get it back on the car & see if some of my issues go away.