travisamorgan

I just did some work on my truck changing injectors and checking valves. I checked valves and all in spec but had to fix a stripped camshft bearing bolt with a helicoil. I found it checking the torque on them. I put that back together then installed the orange injectors from flamethrower. I put everything back together and started the truck and it smoked white maybe blue smoke really bad. Its running extremely rich. I used a quarter tank 9f gas just idling the truck.

I found a few vaccum lines wrong and a few plugs were fouled out from gas. Its running so rich it wont warm up to get out of closed loop. I need help.

Any ideas? How could I get less fuel? Already messed with the vafm moved it both ways and even 15 teeth lean with no improvement.

Pretty sure there are no air leaks.

Any help???

Travis

Gamefreakgc

First off you want to make sure you've got those vacuum lines correct. That is key. Use the FSM as a reference if you need to:

http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-buchanan/93fsm/

White smoke is not from fuel. White means you're either burning oil, or burning coolant. Black smoke is too much fuel. The fact that it's bluish-white confirms that. Does it smell slightly sweet or just foul? Sweet indicates coolant.

Sounds like you've got something bigger going on than just injectors. Return you VAFM to stock position, there's no need to change it. The ECU can adjust for any change in fuel trim itself after 4 or so runs.

Fuel would also not keep the truck from warming up, but coolant flowing into your combustion chamber would. Are you completely sure you've got those hoses hooked up right?

travisamorgan

I the smoke has a fuel smell to it and when I stuck my hand back by the exhaust my hand got wet with fuel it smelled like gas. Didnt smell sweet or taste sweet like coolant.

I havent noticed any oil consumption and didnt tear anything down past the valve covers. I put new valve cover gaskets on too. I did notice the metal shielding inside the valve cover was broke exactly where you put oil in (a metal piece come out when I pulled the cover off).

Only time I messed with anything near the coolant was the 2 lines on the throttle body to keep the throttle body from freezing. I didnt get near head gaskets. Didnt disconnect any other coolant hoses. So how could coolant get into cylinder enough that it hasnt burnt iy out like if a few drops got in.

I did let it idle for 10 minutes once and the gauge never moved off the bottom of the gauge. I drove it and the second the clutch was let out it almost stalled (before I didnt even have to touch gas to go in reverse). Going down the road it smoked constantly. Onlu drove it maybe half mile and not heated up and gave up.

I did pull the oil dipstick out and saw bubbles on the stick like the oil is aerated. Truck didnt have any problems before I tore it down and now it all of a sudden got a possible uead gasket problem? I doubt it but could be possible thi it only sat overnight.

Any way I could find out if its coolant or oil or excess fuel without just relying on fluid level going down?

I did notice a few cylinders that when you pulled the plig wire off tje engine almost stalled and a few others that the engine changed slightly or not at all. Some plugs were wet with gas or coolant or oil.

Any tests to run? Getting spark and air but seems like too much fuel?



Thats the farthest I got down....

Gamefreakgc

If you've really got that much fuel, your CEL would be on flashing a code 26.

You can jump VF1 and E1 on the diagnostic port with a voltmeter to get long-term fuel trims. Turn on the engine and you should get a solid voltage. 2.5V means no change (air/fuel ratio is perfect), 0V means overly rich and 5V means overly lean. Anything in between 0V and 5V means there's no issues and the ECU is compensating.

Taking off the plenum meant you disconnected more coolant lines than you realized. I'd still take the time to double-check them all, they are really confusing.

Lastly, this might seem silly... but you sure it's not water vapor coming out? It'll still smell like fuel/exhaust when it's cold, but if you put in in a clear glass/container you'd be able to tell what it really is.

travisamorgan

what other coolant lines did I disconnect? only coolant lines are to the throttle body. no lines go into the plenum itself and I didn't see any other lines at all

I didn't take the top radiater hose off at all and none of the coolant lines would lead to the cylinder head and end up in the cylinder unless something is taken apart by the cylinder such as the head gasket or somehow the intake got coolant in so much it continuously keeps coming in.

I did have the intake off 10 times at least checking connections for injectors and making sure its not leaking anywhere.

travisamorgan

I started the truck and took off the radiator cap and sure enough.... bubbles like crazy. Head gaskets....... I tore the engine down that far and got my heads unbolts just having trouble getting the drivers exhaust manifold unbolted from the rest of the exhaust system a bolt tightened up really tight right at the end of the bolt/stud. I am doing head gaskets and anyone know what is the spec for warpage? so I can check it?

I really don't have the money to get the heads resurfaced unless they really really need it. im saving up now for a 3.4 swap especially since my head gaskets were just done on the truck in about April. only put maybe 15000 miles on it since then.

I go to automotive diesel school and a teacher said that maybe the intake gasket leaked coolant into my cylinders and not actually the head but im gonna do the head gaskets anyway to be sure since im down this far.

i don't really understand and prolly never will understand why the head gaskets possibly decided to blow immediately on the first startup after the flamethrower injector install. doesn't make any sense at all....

Im sorry to gamefreakgc that i got mouthy or i guess typey with him haha but i was frustrated and don't wanna sound like im an ignorant college automotive diesel student who thinks they know everything when im not.

The middle 2 plugs were both white and not covered in any coolant but the other 4 cylinders were wet and i couldn't really tell if any of them was wetter than the others.

i really hope its head gasket now since im tore in this far haha but we will see. hopefully the head doesn't need resurfaced?

Any spec for head warpage??

Thanks Travis

Gamefreakgc

Haha, it's ok, sometimes working on these trucks gets frustrating. I didn't want to assume, but everything you said pointed to coolant in the combustion chamber. The intake gasket doesn't contact coolant on our trucks.

If you don't surface the heads, the gaskets will fail again. How long, not sure. Might be long enough for you to save up, but if you do it right then maybe you could even sell the motor for a little bit more. You're saving up for 3.4L swap, how close are you?

travisamorgan

Its there a flatness spec for the heads?

Truck was never overheated with these gaskets either so unless it was already warped????

Most cars have them and if its within spec iys not really necessary to have it milled. I didnt resurface the heads on my 07 impreza which also have head gasket problems and its still good. It made it on a 1500 mile trip to maine over the summer too.

I dont have much saved up but I do come into money in 3 weeks but I would have to find a full engine and wiring harness and computer and new clutch and flywheel (that I just installed new on this truck). If I did get a 3.4 id want to go ahead and get it rebuilt and machined to unsure itd last a while. Ive debated buying a remaned one but I dont know if remaned is the way I way go since a lot of places just clean and paint the block and call it good. Even the money I come into prolly isnt enough.

I just need the engine to last maybe another year. I graduate school in may and if I grt a good job I plan on building this truck a lot. Only real issue ive had is wore out clutch and a wearing out motor. It has about 125psi compression in all cylinders and a leakdown of about 15% in cylinder one and 5% in the rest. The engine is going and I know it.

oldblue

wow. i was gonna say check your coolant temp sensor since the guage is staying at zero, wrestling the intake off could have broke it, cracked it, bumped it. but looks like you way past that now. have the heads professionaly checked. unless you have a machinist straight edge, you're gonna get a false reading. any machine shop should check this for free to see if they need resurfacing. might as well have them do a valve job and adjustment while they have it. when its all back together, you still may want to take a look at that sensor.......

oldblue

oh, and run from the auto industry like its the plauge. you'll quickly lose your love for working on cars, especially your own. i've been doing it a little over 10 years, and most days i want to take a big ass hammer and smash every car in the shop. the pay is good though, haha

travisamorgan

I finally got the heads off with the exhaust manifold and crossover pipe and also a good 3 foot piece of my exhaust going back under the driver seat. I didny want to risk breaking or stripping bolts that are not in a easily accessed place.

The gaskets looked really good and no scratches or anything in the heads or block. Number 5 cylinder definately had coolant in it but the rest didn't but I think it may have drained out past the rings.

There was some brown sludge on the passenher side head where the coolant passage goes through. Maybe coolant and oil that got mixed and sludged or something like that.




As you can see its on the gasket. I think its where it was leaking.

And I know ill hate working on cars but I like puzzles and feel good when my repair works. Plus I wouldnt be spending money I dont really have but id be making money.

Definately saving up for 3.4 swap now.

travisamorgan

ok after driving 6 hours home in my girlfriends car I remembered something.

the day before the head gaskets blew I drove to the junkyard in fort wayne Indiana and its a 1.5 hour drive round trip. no problems on the way there but on the way back I noticed the rpm was jumping around every now and then. I was doing 70 so it should be about 3000 rpm and the gauge would jump from 3000 to 2500 up to 3500 and then steady out in a real fast sweep. the truck never sounded like it revd up but the music was on and the truck didn't jump around like I would have thought it would have being a manual and clutch was not pressed so it should have jerked a lil but it didn't. the truck vibrates from bad bent rims so I may not have felt it either.

I was thinking that maybe the engine was hot and any coolant getting in (if any at this time) was vaporizing except maybe when the rpms were funking a little bit too much coolant was getting in and causing the engine to miss and kinda stall out and then catch itself and keep going?

once I got home I shut the truck off and didn't try to start it until the next morning.

it may not have anything to do with it but the heads were nly warped .002 and a valve didn't hold great vacuum so that cylinder would be low on compression but nothing else was found wrong with the heads.

who knows? haha

anyway do I use the washers with the new head bolts from engbldr? he said I did need too but I read on here to not use them?

travisamorgan

I got the heads back together and started the truck and it ran with a miss from a loose spark plug wire. The passenger side camshaft seal on the gear side was leaky really bad and so I took it back apart and used rtv to try to seal it since it was a new correctly installed seal. I went to put back on the timing belt and noticed it was hard to get on so possibly shrunk in the cold and then I broke the tensioner puller bracket.



I think it was already cracked since it was rubbing the fan attachment thing. It was probably bent too. But either way it was broke. Just adds to my problems and problems.

Anuone know a cheap reliable place to get a new one?? The bearing is fine too.

How much possibly from dealer?