Smoke in Diesel Engines and Causes

Diesel Smoke tells YOU a Story
Basically, smoke from a diesel engine indicates that something is not right. It should be taken as
an indication that there is a problem existing (or developing), that will potentially shorten the
engine life, or result in unnecessary costs. It should be regarded as an opportunity to take
measures that will save you money in both the long term and also the short term. At the least,
that smoke may be due to a simple problem, that is causing poor combustion efficiency, and
costing you in excessive fuel bills (eg carboned up engine from excessive idling, stop start
operation or short run times). At the other end of the scale, it may be your last chance to act,
before a catastrophic engine failure occurs (eg piston seizure, valve or turbocharger failure).
A diesel engine in good condition should produce no visible smoke from the exhaust, under most
operating conditions. A short puff of smoke when an engine is accelerated under load may be
acceptable, due to the lag before the turbocharger speed and air flow is able to match the volume
of diesel injected into the cylinders. That would only apply to older technology diesel engines,
but with modern type diesels, no smoke at all should be evident.
There are three basic types of smoke, as identifiable by their colour.
Black smoke is the most common smoke emitted from diesel engines. It indicates poor
and incomplete combustion of the diesel fuel. There are many causes, including
 Incorrect timing
 Dirty or worn injectors
 Injectors sticking open too long (Common Rail Diesel type)
 Over-fuelling
 Faulty turbocharger (ie not enough air to match the fuel)
 Incorrect valve clearance
 Incorrect air/fuel ratio
 Low cylinder compression (eg sticking piston rings or worn components)
 Dirty air cleaner
 Restricted induction system (eg system too small or kinked inlet piping)
 Carboned up intake manifolds (esp Common Rail Diesels)
 Other engine tune factors
 Poor quality fuel
 Excessive carbon build up in combustion and exhaust spaces
 Cool operating temperatures
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Obviously, worn or damaged components must be replaced, and the earlier you identify
and fix the problem, the less damage will be done. Keep on top of engine tune issues,
including valve adjustments, and regular servicing of air, fuel and oil filters. Do not buy
fuel from suspect outlets. Dirty components, such as injectors can be easily restored to full
cleanliness by using an effective and reliable fuel system cleaner. If you choose from our
range of products, Cleanpower is what you need.
Common rail diesels are the new hi-tech breed of diesel to meet ever increasing emission
standards. Operating pressures and temperatures are several times higher than older
technology, and tolerances are much finer, making them more susceptible to fuel and
deposit issues. Injectors and pumps are naturally more expensive, but problems can, and
do, melt pistons and destroy engines. CRD Fuel Enhancer is fast becoming the standard for
correcting and prevention in Australia.
Cleaning of internals of engines has usually only been possible at overhaul, however, Cost
Effective Maintenance provide two products to enable vehicle and equipment owners to
quickly, safely and cheaply restore full cleanliness to combustion and exhaust spaces (FTC
Decarbonizer) as well as piston rings, oil pumps, oil galleries, oil coolers, piston skirts, valve
gear, etc (Flushing Oil Concentrate).
Black smoke is high in carbon or soot, which is an undesirable product of diesel

combustion. Now, the combustion of diesel is a complicated process of breaking down the
various hydrocarbon fuel molecules into progressively smaller and smaller molecules, by
burning in the presence of oxygen. The main and ideal end products of combustion are
CO2 and H2O (carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas and water). It is believed that the last
step in the process is carbon monoxide (the poisonous gas) to carbon dioxide. This is also
the slowest step by far, and when combustion conditions deteriorate some upstream bottle
necking occurs in the chain of combustion reactions. This results (according to some
authorities) in polymerization of smaller partly burnt molecules into much larger ones,
which become visible as soot, or black smoke.
Blue smoke is an indication of oil being burnt. The oil can enter the combustion chamber
for several reasons.
 Worn valve guides or seals

 Wear in power assemblies (ie cylinders, piston rings, ring grooves)
 Cylinder glaze
 Piston ring sticking
 Incorrect grade of oil (eg oil too thin, and migrating past the rings)
 Fuel dilution in the oil (oil thinned out with diesel)
At cold start, blue smoke is often evident, and can reflect reduced oil control, due to fouling
deposits around piston rings or cylinder glaze (which is actually carbon deposited in the
machined cylinder crosshatching. These tiny grooves actually hold a film of oil, which in
turn completes the seal between the combustion chamber and the oil wetted crankcase).
Blue smoke should not be evident at any time, but it is worth noting, that engines with good
sound compression can actually burn quite a lot of oil without evidence of blue smoke.
Good compression allows oil to burn cleanly, as part of the fuel. It is not good though!
Once again, restore physical cleanliness to all components. Replace worn parts where
necessary. In some situations, where the engines are pretty worn, but you just need to keep
them in service, cleaning with the previously mentioned products, followed by effective
additional anti-wear protection, will reduce internal stresses on all those tired components,
providing extended service life. Our AW10 Antiwear achieves this for many of our
customers.
White smoke occurs when raw diesel comes through the exhaust completely intact and
unburned. Some causes of this include
 Faulty or damaged injectors

 Incorrect injection timing (could be a worn timing gear or damaged
crankshaft keyway).
 Low cylinder compression (eg caused by leaking or broken valves,
piston ring sticking, cylinder and/or ring wear, or cylinder glaze)
When white smoke occurs at cold start, and then disappears as the engine warms up, the
most common causes are fouling deposits around piston rings and/or cylinder glazing. Use
of our Flushing Oil Concentrate and FTC Decarbonizer address these respective problems.
Water entering combustion spaces will also create white smoke. Faulty head gaskets and
cracked cylinder heads or blocks are a common cause of water entry, and are often to
blame. Unfortunately, expensive mechanical repair is the only proper solution here.

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Diesel Smoke tells YOU a Story

There are three basic types of smoke, as identifiable by their colour.

Black smoke is high in carbon or soot, which is an undesirable product of diesel

 Worn valve guides or seals

 Faulty or damaged injectors

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