Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

My L400 is puking a lot of white smoke when cold.
It does the standard diesel small puff of black immediately on firing up, then roughly chugs out white smoke unless I rev up to 1500 rpm, at which time no smoke. If I don't rev for at least a minute it will continue to puff small bits of white smoke...
Where should I start?

chuckvagon wrote:My L400 is puking a lot of white smoke when cold.
It does the standard diesel small puff of black immediately on firing up, then roughly chugs out white smoke unless I rev up to 1500 rpm, at which time no smoke. If I don't rev for at least a minute it will continue to puff small bits of white smoke...
Where should I start?

if it's chugging a bit when you rev it and goes away as the smoke goes away I would say you might have a small air leak, like the drying up seals issue that can happen, when the van is off and cooling it pulls a little air into the ip this causes roughness and white smoke, the revving it help get the air out of the system. One fix for this is run a Veggie oil mix through it for a bit help the seals plump back up.

Some white smoke in cold temps is normal.

Mine was doing similar to what you are describing.

Two out of four injectors were clogged and the bus bar that connects the four glow plugs was rusty.

The injectors were cleaned, glow plugs tested, bus bar rust sanded off and fuel filter replaced.

Now turns over on first crank below zero in whistler and no smoke.

As simple as having the injectors serviced, glow plugs/busbar checked and fuel filter replaced will do wonders.

The 4M40 engine should have no problem starting at -20 C without any extra help.

As posted by Jessie a check over of the glow plugs and fuel system is the first place to start.The 4M40 engine is famous for the injection pump front seal leaking causeing starting/running issues also.
You will always get a small amount of white smoke this time of year but it should run cleanly after start up.
Be careful when removeing the glow plugs as i have seen a few L400's now with broken glow plugs in the heads!
Hope this helps with the above advice and good luck

mine seems to have a related issue, it starts up first try even at -15 to -20 starts better than any diesel vehicle I've ever seen. There's not really any smoke either. At -10 it idles great for the first minute, then the idle starts to get really rough, And for the first couple minutes, if I touch the accelerator I get TONS of smoke and just can't get the revs to increase above 1200rpm, once I manage to hit 1500 rpm the smoke vanishes, and I can drive away (though if I don't hold that 1500rpm for a few minutes first I'll smoke a bunch on acceleration and have a fairly rough idle at stop signs)

My suspicion is the cold-idle feature isn't doing it's job properly, coupled perhaps with an issue on the throttle position sensor?
I did check the cold-idle setting looks right, but i know jfarsang posted earlier about cleaning out a vacuum/pressure tube to it, so when I get a chance that's definitely on the agenda.

You guys can also put in 2-4L of clean veggie oil to lubricate the IP seals.

This is the low-cost solution for the seals if they are leaking.

Also, keep in mind that this is not an overnight solution.

You'll likely have to go through 1-3 full tanks of diesel mixed with a bit of veg to notice the stop leak and smoother startup in the cold.

You'll have more white smoke, at startup in the cold, than usual when running diesel mixed with a few % of veg because it's actually burning cleaner. That is normal.

Dunno if this helps, but saw white smoke on L300 in the shop, Edwin said whoops and immediately shut off engine, checked the underside of the fuel separator pump and found that the large plastic knob that unsrews to drain water from the fuel separator was not tight but more importantly there is a small black rubber o ring about 3/8 inch across that fits on bottom on the plug. As with any o ring, it got old and brittle, I think we all need to check it NOW. Does L400 have same fitting? Christine.

From left field but on the Toyota Hilux Surf the common syndrome of a low temperature (around 0oC) easy start but then followed by chugging/bucking and smoke for 10-30 seconds on the EFI diesels turned out to be due a few capacitors in the ECU that had gotten old and leaked after 15+ years and thus were no longer doing their job resulting is incorrect sensor readings...$0.50 fix. So if all the mechanicals check out OK (ie injectors, fliter, plugs) its something to think about looking at on the Delica (if the L400 injection pump is computer controlled that is).

psilosin wrote:(if the L400 injection pump is computer controlled that is).

As far as I know, neither the L300 nor L400 have an ECU (despite the fact that people keep calling the glow plug controller an ECU, it isn't.)

Let me get this straight, just cos I got off a night watch and my brain is sore...I can go to the store, buy a litre of regular veggie oil that I would normally use for cooking, and just toss it into my fuel tank? Seems count-intuitive but if it helps the seals in the engine I should do it...I get a bit of white smoke on a cold start up but it goes away in roughly 15 seconds.

I recently noticed that mine is also puffing out white smoke on cold start.

Should I sacrifice extra virgin olive oil to the Delica Gods or will regular virgin do?

dbox wrote:I recently noticed that mine is also puffing out white smoke on cold start.

Should I sacrifice extra virgin olive oil to the Delica Gods or will regular virgin do?

canola

mycale wrote:Let me get this straight, just cos I got off a night watch and my brain is sore...I can go to the store, buy a litre of regular veggie oil that I would normally use for cooking, and just toss it into my fuel tank? Seems count-intuitive but if it helps the seals in the engine I should do it...I get a bit of white smoke on a cold start up but it goes away in roughly 15 seconds.

yes that is true. the veggie oil will swell the seals. it is a fuel conditioner. dont worry about 15 seconds of white smoke on startup

I'd say throw some extra virgins in there lol...

dbox wrote:I recently noticed that mine is also puffing out white smoke on cold start.

Should I sacrifice extra virgin olive oil to the Delica Gods or will regular virgin do?

The Fiance thinks the whole idea is nuts! but, she knows even less about Diesel engine than myself...I think i will give it a shot just help things run a bit smoother, can't hurt....