3406b smoke and a minor clatter

Thanks, wore out.

If I crack the line to that injector and take it out on the road to check it, and it's a few miles before I can pull over and tighten the line, how much of a fuel leak mess might I expect to deal with?

 

10-4

I need to look for a shorter stretch of road!

 

Uh oh. I didn't think of a loose valve seat.

I hope it ain't that!

 

Thanks, wore out. I've had this Freightliner for 13 years. It has smoked at idle since the day I bought it. It always smoked on the highway too, but not all that bad. In the beginning I played with the AFC. It's been a long time, but I think I remember replacing the diaphragm. It had little effect.

The thing is, that I kept the truck around for a spare, in case of emergency, only running it bobtail around town occasionally when I was home. Then, about 4 years ago, I needed the tow truck to get my 93 FLD 120 back to the house, first time in 15 years I had to go on the hook. Since that time, this Caterpillar, with the RR 15 speed, has been great to me. I love that engine. I will swear by an old 3406b Caterpillar as long as you let me talk.

Tomorrow I'm going to crack the fuel lines at the injector pump and see which cylinder is causing the smoke.

I'm still hoping the entire problem turns out to be a bum injector. I've pulled them all out and replaced them once before when the engine was making oil. There are O-rings inside them that go bad, causing them to leak fuel into the oil. I pulled them out and reinstalled them myself, but I had a local Cat mechanic change the O-rings for me. They are tough to unscrew. The guy told me he was going to pop test them for me, but when I picked them up, he said he hadn't done the test. So they have not been pop tested.

Thanks for that tip. If I crack the lines one at a time, and there is no change in the smoke, then I'll figure I oughta be checking other things, but here's hoping my only problem is a bum injector.

Thanks again.

 

At this point I am baffled. I woke up in the morning ready to look for a smoking cylinder and I couldn't see enough smoke coming out of the stack to be able to tell if there was going to be any difference.

Also, the long, thick plume of dark grey smoke trailing behind me when I put the pedal to the metal is gone. I have been spinning wrenches all my life on all kinds of motors and other mechanical things. More than once I have fixed things just by looking at them. More than once I have taken things apart and put them back together, without finding anything wrong, and discovered that the problem was gone and I don't even know what I did.

I will keep a 3/4" wrench handy, and if I see smoke at an idle like I used to, I will immediately pop the hood and crack lines.

For now all I can do is count myself lucky I have an engine that no longer displays any symptoms of a problem and keep my fingers crossed that there is nothing lurking ready to cause a major malfunction.

Thanks for all your advice. I learned much from reading your replies.