smokes bad in cold weather

Geees! All over the board are we? White smoke.....is coolant. A gallon in 2 weeks isn't too bad but should be zero! First, check the air pipe at your intake. If there is moisture or white residue, your loosing water thru either the EGR, head gasket, or injector cups. Could even be a bad air compressor.

Check list: remove the radiator cap while cold. Dump all the air off the system and remove the main airline (leave it off for the next step). Start the truck and run hard for about 30 minutes (about 2k rpm's) look for any signs of bubbles in the cooling system. If none, the air compressor isn't the culprit. Hook the air line back up and continue running. Any bubbles now? If none, head gasket isn't culprit either.


Now, you can pull the pipe off the back of the turbo. Check for signs of coolant there (will be white). If nothing there, pull the cross over pipe from the top of the EGR cooler. If this is wet, EGR cooler is the culprit. If all else fails, you may have to take it to a shop to check for injector cups of leaking valves.


Coolant temps are not going to rise with bobtail or light loads in cold weather. That's like trying to heat your house with a match while leaving your front door open and its 20 degrees outside. NO GONNA HAPPEN!

 

Sounds like its running to cold (Thermostat's) Some smoke on a cold start not unusual unless its a perfect world

 

As a baseline, I have a 2006 (none dpf but egr) fl Columbia with a 14l s60 in it.

Mine almost never smokes on start up or otherwise. In cold weather mine wont get above 130 idleing at 900 rpms. Bobtail it will stay around 155 or so but wont reach the 180 that it will under load. How cold are you running in? I'd check your stat first. Also check that your engine fan isn't stuck on.

 

Same engine, in 15 degrees mine are at least 150 while cruising at 60mph.

 

I dont think the over flow is supposed to be under pressure is it? That could be the problem.

 

well wait for someone else to confirm im right, but i would imagine it would be a clog somewhere if its pressurizing in the the overflow. Your talking about the white tank up high right?

 

a new cap might fix this. Its worth a shot.