Alright Veeky Forums, ready for this?
What potential engine problems could I be dealing with? A few years ago my brother took my dad's 1984 truck through a river, it apparently died, he got pulled out and started it again
So now it actually still runs, but it chugs white smoke out like no tomorrow.
I can't tell you about lack of power because I haven't really ran it in a while.
If I get this fixed its mine to take /out/, what potential problems could it be suffering?
white smoke = water in cylinders.
check the oil cap for white mayo-like residue. if this is present, there's water in the oil.
if there's no mayo, check all the intake pipework for water. if there's no water just try idling it for ages to see if it improves.
if the smoke doesn't clear, it's your head gasket.
if you've had it parked since it got flooded, you can bet on the cylinders being rusted to shit. check if the engine turns before trying to fire it up as the pistons may have seized. even so, you'll probs have to skim the head and all of the cylinders, buy new pistons, rebuild the bottom end with new bearings etc
They've run it to move it around probably four different occasions, so the engine runs
I'll check oil in ten minutes
Oh I forgot to mention, it's the diesel engine if that makes any difference
Pretty dark, but doesn't look milky to me,, looks quite consistent
(1/2)
does the smoke smell like diesel? does the engine have a turbocharger?
(2/2)
Christ, that's sludgy. You might need a rebuild, OP.
Apparently it does smell like diesel, and yeah it's got a turbo
Honestly I was surprised when I saw that too haha. The parents seem to think it's water in the fuel
ok based on your pics and this, then you probs need a new turbo. worn bearings will allow oil to seep into the intake and burn in the engine, making the smoke smell of diesel. check to see if there's any play in the turbo shaft and if there is, junk it in favour of a new one.
>water in the fuel
draining the fuel system should have been the first thing they did, surprised it's not been done.
Do both of these things before anything else
actually you'd be better off unbolting the turbo and running your finger around the inside of both the cold-air side and hot-exhaust side housing. if there's some oil in both and play in the shaft, your turbo is dead.
if your turbo is fine, you could have shot piston rings. increased gas blowby raises crankcase pressures, forcing oil through the breather system, through your PCV valve and into the intake, where it is burned by the engine.
Alright, so drain the fuel and if the problem consists, then it's oil making the smoke.
Could the water in the fuel (if it exists) cause the injectors to fail?
Also I've just been told, they took it to a shop not long after it happened to try a compression test, and I guess the shop said they couldn't test it without new injectors (after charging $300)
>if the problem consists, then it's oil making the smoke
burning oil gives you blue smoke that smells of diesel. white smoke is water in the engine. it sounds like you have both problems desu, so if you drain the fuel system you'll probably still have a problem to sort.
>Could the water in the fuel (if it exists) cause the injectors to fail?
honestly not sure. do a leak-back test to see if the injectors are in decent condition.
>I guess the shop said they couldn't test it without new injectors
sounds like bs, but perhaps your brother cracked an injector when he flooded the engine. if it has new injectors then i wouldn't bother testing them.
to drain the tank, siphon off as much diesel as possible with a hand pump, then idle until it dies
It's got the same old injectors, and how would water work its way into the fuel anyhow?
Recently rookie at this stuff, how does one do a leak-back test?
Breaking news, apparently my dad thinks the turbo doesn't work anyhow, and that he thinks he recalls the berrings being out and it not spinning. That said. This turbo is aftermarket. Wouldn't it run without the turbo?
Well, we don't have the old parts to entirely remove the turbo, but would a bad turbo result in the smile at least, not even worried about it running poorly
damn thats shitty. yeah it would run but badly, especially above 1.5k revs.
google it, you simply connect tubing to the leak-off nipples on the injectors and run the engine for 30 seconds, collecting the diesel that leaks back into bottles. if a bottle fills up really quickly, that injector is dead. water can get into the fuel system if your brother drove deeper than the fuel filler cap
Found this gunk on the radiator cap, any relation?
i doubt it since your oil looked normal and not like some emulsion.
if its a brown sludge, it's probably some nasty radiator hole-clogger. flush the coolant system and replace your radiator. no matter how broke you are, you shouldn't resort to this bullshit because it'll cost you triple in the long run
I'm lame and forgot picture,
Shouldn't the fuel filter stop water from the tank, if there was any?
Also, if the injectors were new, what all could be done from then on? I don't think I'm experienced enough for a rebuild, and I imagine that's too expensive for a rig this old
Yup looks like sealant to me. Don't worry about it but replace radiator and flush coolant system when you can. It's not related to your smoke issues though.
Sometimes not, water can get into the fuel tank depending on the size of the head of water above it.
Just focus on draining the fuel tank. Do an oil change too since that shit is fucking nasty. It is possible that through some unfortunate twist of fate that water got into the oil and is being burned by leaking back into the intake.
Firstly, drain the fuel. it will be sour anyway. take this one step at a time, it's not like its your DD
Well here is a thing, the truck has a fuel/water seperater, looks a lot like a filter but you can see into it. Wouldn't that tell me if the engine was getting water mixed in? In draining it now and I'll run it to fill it, even if there was water hiding in the bottom of the tank, if I don't see it there, it's not feeding yet. Right? I'm running out of time for today unfortunately
if thats the case then yeah, it's unlikely there's water in the tank. however it's one of the cheapest checks you can do at this stage and doesn't really require any tools to do. if the problem persists, then you've at least eliminated the fuel system as the source of the problems.
if your turbo is completely seized then it will be obstructing air flow into the engine, causing poor combustion, which could cause lots of white/pale blue smoke. take off the piping to the turbo inlet to check if the turbo spins. if it does, it's not that. also check that the air filter isn't clogged up at that will also restrict air flow.
you should also get the engine up to operating temperature and see if the smoke clears. if it does then it's probably soot in the engine which you can remove with fuel additives. if not, and you've done all the other checks (including draining the tank and adding new diesel) then you could have a cracked head gasket, or even a cracked block.
Alright, so I did that with the fuel, ran it out of fuel, and got it flowing again ( saw no water )
It doesn't run rough anymore, but it still smokes. Tomorrow I'm gonna take a look at the turbo shaft and run it a while. Will make a thread if it doesn't work, otherwise I might as well not waste board space
Thanks for all of the help anona! We'll see how she does tomorrow. Ant last advice to check before making a new thread would be appreciated, but thanks for everything this far
nice well at least that sour diesel is gone.
nope, just check inlet and turbo. remember to check the turbo shaft to see if it spins, as well as if you can move it (when engine is off obviously) with your finger. also check that the turbine housing contains no oil. the only other thing to check would be the air filter.
once all that is ticked off you can start playing with the engine, but might as well do the free/cheap stuff first.
Alrighty so is it normal if the turbine spins by hand? Also, if it has oil in it, what does that mean? My plans got cancelled so I'm here for two hours, but the truck is all put away for the day so I'm collecting ideas
yeah turbine should rotate freely. oil in it means either the turbo is gone or there is oil coming from the crankcase breather because of broken piston rings.
if you have time, check the exhaust side of the turbo. if there's oil here, the turbo is definitely knackered.
check the shaft to see if there's any play, that's the main thing.
Back from class, so if there's oil or play, is fucked
How hard is fixing the seals if there's oil on the output of the turbo?
by seals i meant piston rings.
that would consist of entirely removing the pistons wouldn't it?