Dodge Turbo Diesel Billowing Smoke While Towing

[gathermewool]

I was on my way back from New Paltz, NY this past weekend when I hit some moderate traffic. Through the ebb and flow of left lane and right lane traffic I noticed a bright and shiny, freshly waxed Dodge 2500 TD billowing out enormous clouds of black smoke every time he accelerated or drove uphill underload. I'm not talking about what you see out of most rigs, where they'll go rich for a bit to get some up-hill pulling power, but one giant, noxious cloud every time this guy hit the accelerator. He was loaded up with one of those fairly large attached campers. When I say fairly large, I mean it seemed much bigger than the [censored] truck.




My question: [censored] is his problem? Did he remove cats, retune, what? The only tuning I have experience with is turbo subies, where you'll see some noxious fumes emitted from guys running catless downpipes, but never anything like this. This was just absolutely terrible. I'm hoping you guys can help me either validate the middle-finger flash when I finally passed him or school me up if it was simply a failure he couldn't do anything about

 

[Steve S]

Black smoke is high feul. Probably hotrodded.

 

[robshelton]

I'd bet he has changed the "Tune" on his ECM for towing/performance. I've seen some trucks like the one you mention and that seems to be what is happening.

 

[sdan27]

Probably has big injectors, a high horsepower chip and who knows what else. Running all that extra fuel will probably make the engine go to pieces sooner rather than later if thats any consolation.

 

[eljefino]

Throw a gallon of dyed home heating oil in his tank. Then call the tax man.

Jerks like that make it harder for the public to swallow legally tuned diesel vehicles.

 

[J. A. Rizzo]

Another vote for a tuned ECM to deliver higher power. More power requires higher fuel delivery rate, which equals more sooty smoke.

 

[scurvy]

Lots of truck doodz (and morons in the TDI community) are of the opinion that WOOOOO DANG YEAH SMOAK IS BESTEST!!!1111ELEVEN with no regard to how ridiculous it makes them look, the havoc it causes with the air or even what a disservice they're doing to the diesel community.

Anybody running a max fuel tune on their truck deserves to get the middle finger from everybody, including the local LEOs, the EPA and the truck manufacturer. A puff once in a while when you get on it is one thing but the ridiculous plumes I see some folks put out is downright idiotic and shameful.

Originally Posted By: J. A. Rizzo
Another vote for a tuned ECM to deliver higher power. More power requires higher fuel delivery rate, which equals more sooty smoke.


My Golf has a tuned ECU which makes more power, and I smoke LESS than it was stock. Responsible tuners always have a no-smoking policy.

 

[rslifkin]

It's simply a bad tune. He's dumping too much fuel for the available air, or is dumping fuel too quickly before he builds boost. It drives the EGTs through the roof, and dumps a ton of black smoke.

A perfectly tuned diesel pushed right to its power limits may blow a light puff if you mash the pedal from a stop, and should either have no smoke after that, or a very light puff on the shifts (if manual tranny). In some cases, depending on the engine and level of emissions controls, a barely perceptible light haze is OK when foot to the floor and loaded heavily.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Throw a gallon of dyed home heating oil in his tank. Then call the tax man.

Jerks like that make it harder for the public to swallow legally tuned diesel vehicles.


LOL +1000

 

[Chris142]

Tuner or a bad turbo or leaking CAC.

 

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Throw a gallon of dyed home heating oil in his tank. Then call the tax man.

Jerks like that make it harder for the public to swallow legally tuned diesel vehicles.


Haha! Unfortunately, New Paltz is a few hours from home and I don't think he had CT plates, so I probably won't be seeing him again.

Thanks for the fast replies, guys. I've read on a few forums about people "chipping" there TD trucks, but really don't know much about truck tuning, let alone diesels. I'm usually not aggressive, so I'm glad you guys could make me feel better about flipping the bird. I've felt a little guilty ever since passing him, thinking to myself, "what kind of jerk am I if he's got something legitimately wrong, and here I am, the 100th person to either flip him the bird or show some other sign of disapproval."

 

[OVERKILL]

Bad tune.

I've got two friends with "tuned" trucks.

#1. is a 2005 Super Duty with the 6.0L. Owner is an anal freak about maintenance and research. This truck makes 450HP/800lb-ft, makes NO SMOKE and gets WORKED hard; plenty of towing, hauling....etc.

#2. is an older Dodge with what I would call a "ghetto" tune. Blows black smoke like a tire fire. Rarely sees any actual "work".

Guess which truck is faster? Guess which truck pulls harder? Guess which truck weighs 2,000lbs more?

If you guessed #1 for all three, you'd be correct

 

[97f150]

Yep flipping the bird in disapproval when you are sticking your nose in others business is the responsible thing to do.

I grew out of that in high school.

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: 97f150
Yep flipping the bird in disapproval when you are sticking your nose in others business is the responsible thing to do.

How is it sticking your nose in others business when the truck is sticking its smoky, billowing, noxious business in your nose?

'Max fuel' tunes are simply another compensation by insecure truck owners who want to show off what a big badarse they are to the world - like truck nuts that you can see from a kilometer away, a tire fire on wheels. Not to mention it's harmful & illegal in most states and helps further tarnish diesel's reputation in this country.

Europe & Asia get nearly every flavor of vehicle available with a diesel engine and we get almost none. The proliferation of 'regular' vehicles powered by diesel could do a great deal to help ease our addiction to foreign oil, yet most consumers here wouldn't bother to think of owning a 'slow, smoky, noisy' diesel based on the kind of expulsive shows jerks with smoke tunes love to put on.

When I bought my Golf, I really didn't care what brand of car it was - all I wanted was a compact 4-door hatchback with a diesel engine and a manual transmission. VW was the only show in town for that, and still is. I really wanted a Ford Focus with the TDCi engine but of course those aren't available here. You know Chrysler built Grand Caravan CRDs here, in Missouri, but every single one goes for export? Who wouldn't love a stick shift minivan that got 30 mpg? CARB's silly NOx emissions regulations are one big stumbling block for manufacturers to bring more diesels to our shores but they always cite 'lack of consumer demand' as to why they won't even try to bring out more diesel models.

 

[rslifkin]

Good point Chris. Any boost leak or turbo problem that reduced airflow into the engine would cause smoke under load, as there would no longer be enough air to burn all the injected fuel.

 

[Thermo1223]

You did the right thing, I ABSOLUTELY hated that mantra at some TDI events.

I thought it was cool at first, then realized it was just stupid and proved nothing.

 

[antonmnster]

I would have flipped him the bird, no questions asked.

I have no patience for antisocial hicks who get their jollies by aggravating other peoples' asthma.

 

[joel95ex]

a bad tune and high egt's will eventually destroy the turbo. There is a shop up here where the guy is known to tune for tons of power. i see trucks flying outa there with no more smoke than a stock truck.

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: joel95ex
a bad tune and high egt's will eventually destroy the turbo. There is a shop up here where the guy is known to tune for tons of power. i see trucks flying outa there with no more smoke than a stock truck.

Unfortunately big smoke usually means incomplete combustion which can lead to lower EGT.

More power comes from complete combustion which makes less smoke.

 

[rslifkin]

In the case of a diesel, cramming too much fuel in, resulting in incomplete combustion, can raise EGTs. Being that diesels aren't throttled, and a given rpm and boost level equates to a constant amount of airflow, trying to burn more fuel produces more heat, even if not all of the fuel burns fully.

That's why taking a smoky diesel with EGT problems and adding more boost will drop the EGTs, even if the fueling remains constant. It pushes more air through. It'll also clean up the smoke by allowing the extra fuel to burn, as there's now enough oxygen. Add more fuel again, and the EGTs will go up.