Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

My van has smoked profusely since long before I owned her. Last week I had the block heater and oil pa heater plugged in, started her up and barely a puff. I was assuming the smoke was from dirty injectors but would this indicate a different reason?

Its really easy to just take the injectors out and get them checked to eliminate that thought.

white, blue or black smoke?

Grey / black smoke!? I might get the injectors cleaned if I have enough saved before my trip.

Smoke just at start up ya?
If the smoking disappeared when you
had it plugged in I would be thinking
your glow plug revamp still needs
Some tweaking.
Anyone?

Right On!

Just at startup, it doesn't matter if it's warm or cold though nor does it matter what I do with my manual glow plug switch.

Just at first start up of the day, hot or cold - I would be thinking mildly leaky valve stems.
Little bit of oil getting into combustion chamber as it sits for a few hours like overnight.

Not necessarily the first start of the day but if it's been sitting for a few hours. I know the valve cover gasket is leaking but haven't checked the stems.

if preheating the engine made the smoke go away, then its probably just blowby or leaky stem seals making it smoke when the engine is cold, seals and rings contract when cold and you get some oil bypassing into the cylinder. blackish smoke.

if you had leaky injectors then the coolant block heater would not have much effect as the injectors would still dribble a bit into the cylinder and you would get unburnt fuel smoke when you start it. greyish smoke.

now you could always have both issues, but you said you barely had a puff with it being plugged in.

nxski wrote:Just at startup, it doesn't matter if it's warm or cold though nor does it matter what I do with my manual glow plug switch.

My truck did this, I had one injector that butch said was beyond cleaning, replaced all four and no more smoke hot or cold!!

FalcoColumbarius wrote:Smoke is always the sign of a cold fire, eh?

Nope...

A little bit of smoke would be normal but there is a massive about coming out. She smokes for about 30-60 seconds and higher revs help to reduce the smoke. After that time I look in the sky and see a huge grey could hanging over my house and the 3 neighbour's houses and somehow the inside of the house reeks no matter how tightly shut the windows are.

my truck does something along the same lines, smoke like a beast (greyish) only on start up but for about 5 minutes if its cold enough then low on power, high on fuel consumption when warm. If I plug it in, there could be almost no smoke.

take note, I do have blow-by, I got the valve stem seals fixed, but didn't check the valve stems themselves.
My thought is my compression rings are on the way out/ its cold in thunder bay and shrinks the metal until it warm enough....
maybe you're engine is similar...

I would be sure that your injectors are spraying correctly also. Have you done a compression test?