White smoke, hard to start when facing down hill

Hey everyone,
This seems to be a common question on forums but have yet to find a definitive answer. When I park on a hill facing down and leave it for a while it is hard to start and blows white smoke with a diesel smell. When I say hard i only mean it cranks about 5-6 times before kicking over but i'm worried this could be symptoms of a more serious problem. Otherwise the car runs perfectly. I have a new secondhand engine (td27t) which has full compression.
Appreciate any suggestions

I'd wait for Tappet/Pinelli/Tweak'e for a definitive answer, but I suspect there's a fuel valve that isn't doing its job and allowing diesel to enter the intake manifold. I assume it doesn't happen when you face uphill?

Certainly sounds like fuel. You are letting the glow plugs work before starting?

Maybe next time before you start when facing down hill, check the priming pump is primed and hard before trying to start. Might give a clue.

There is s cut off solenoid in the injector pump, but I can't imagine that would matter if you were facing up hill or down hill.

yeh i am glowing it. i'll check the priming pump and report back. cheers

Silly question, when you say new second hand engine, was it always a diesel engine in the car?

white smoke is usually water in combustion chamber, bit wierd it only does it downhill whatever the problem is

Sometimes a massive overfuelling makes it produce white smoke as well. Black smoke is partly combusted - white smoke is NOT combusted. Light a match and it goes up. It happens because there's not enough oxygen to combust the fuel any more, so the fuel mist just heads out the back.

It's actually quite, quite dangerous.

pinelli it was a diesel before just went from stock d21 td27 to wd21 td27t

I dont think its water because of the diesel smell. The exhaust always smells pretty diesel'y, especially on start up (regardless of incline). The cars real inefficent too, i think im getting 14+L/100km unloaded. what should it be? does that narrow the problem down?

EGR intact or removed? I'm going to guess intact (I'll tell you why if I'm right)

I suspect that's not brilliant fuel use, but possible depending on how you drive it. I'm more a petrol sort of fellow, and just learning about diesel

nah, EGR is removed

I'm a little stumped and unfamilliar with this engine. It certainly sounds like uncombusted fuel. Just stabs in the dark really but perhaps some sort of leak down of fuel. Only thing that gives a bit of a clue is the extended cranking to pump it up for start. Perhaps leak down of injectors into the pre-chamber. If it is a leaky injector/injectors could account for you less than average fuel consumption. Could be quite a few things. Tricky part is, it's happening only in a downhill situation.
The plot thickens.

Edit: Have you tried other situations. Like down hill with the tank near empty or full? What about parked uphill?
Did the engine sit around for somtime before it was installed?

That's what I was thinking too.

Any chance that there could a leak at the front of an injector, meaning when its downhill, it leaks more??? Seems a stretch, I know.

(I thought an EGR in place might allow the fuel to trickle out when facing up hill, but not down)

Did you ever try the priming pump? If its leaking a little, it might be enough to lose a bit of pressure.

Tappet said:

Did the engine sit around for somtime before it was installed?

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yeh the engine was sitting around for about 6months, where you going with this?

Louie said:

yeh the engine was sitting around for about 6months, where you going with this?

Click to expand...

I'm thinking unprimed injectors sitting around for somtime. Possible corrosion on the needles? Leaking down? Still dosen't explain the problem starting with it parked downhill.

Hopefully someone else will pop in with possible cause for your problem.

I think you're on to something, Tappet. If there's a pit in the injector needle, the vehicle is downhill enough to allow the fuel to apply a little pressure to the fuel system and let diesel seep past the pitting ... filling the prechamber. Fuel level in tank higher than injector = exactly this scenario.

It would also most definitely explain the poor fuel consumption - under the pump, the pitting could allow a fair bit of fuel past (constantly).

If this is the case, parking the car in the same position, leaving it for a couple of hours then trying to prime it should leave the primer operable only a couple of times at best before it's firm (because it's full of fuel already, and just needs the pressure to rise).

cheers for the help. Im gonna try changing the injectors. Its a jap import so i doubt they've ever been changed.

on second thoughts that sounds expensive. Can i just take them out and have a look? or do they need to be pressure tested? i've never messed around with injectors before so i'd just be winging it with a bit of help from youtube.

Louie said:

cheers for the help. Im gonna try changing the injectors. Its a jap import so i doubt they've ever been changed.

Click to expand...

I'd have a small wager that they haven't. Engine Maintenance is fairly low on the list in Japan. They just buy a newy.

Looking will reveal nothing. Drop them into a dedicated diesel injection shop, they will help you out. Better still maybe get a second oppion from them before you take them out. The labour cost or taking them out and refiting wont be to much over having them overhauled. Prolly only a couple of hours labour.

Good Luck!

If it helps, they're identical to td42 patrol injectors, but testing shouldn't be too much

hey, did the same thing facing up hill this time. does that change things? or just more confusing...