My Smokeless Crusade

[Trumpetrhapsody]

This is half cry for help, half sanity log for myself. I've done quite a bit of gas tuning on EFILive and Megasquirt, but am new to diesel tuning. Within a year of owning my truck I had 3 injectors die on me, so I got the not-so-bright idea to upgrade the nozzles while I was in there replacing bits. I sent my injectors off to DFIS in Portland for testing and flow mapping, which is when they told me 3 needed replacement. At their suggestion (also not the wisest) I only replaced the failed injectors as the others were claimed to be in good shape. I asked them to do a 40hp hone, which I guess via miscommunication turned into a 60hp hone. So far as I know they outsourced that portion, and the name of that shop escapes me. DFIS flow tested them after the hone and said they were all reasonably close to each other. Other than the injectors and a muffler delete my truck is stock. After the upgrade I ended up with a fair amount of smoke at low to mid acceleration boost and rpm (1/4 to 1/2 throttle between 1200-1700rpm) - top end on the factory tune was reasonably clear. This spurred me to go the EFILive route to clean it up - especially since I eventually plan to upgrade the turbo as well.

I've read all sorts of guides here and elsewhere, tips and tricks threads and many of your experiences, but the common theme is that the same thing doesn't work for everyone, and most people leave out crucial bits of information. On gas engines I could quite clearly see results in changes I'd make, whether via wideband or the butt dyno. It's frustrating in the diesel world not to have any feedback other than a non-logged EGT and smoke that I'll forget where exactly it happened by the time I go look at my log. Couple that with the 5 minute flash time preventing me from rapidly experimenting, I'm at my wits end. I understand the basic principles and relationships between duration and timing for the pilot and main injection events and how they affect spool and power, but don't have a firm grasp on how to methodically improve them using street tuning and trial & error. Most changes I make seem to have no noticeable effect, or make things worse.

I've mostly been working off of DoghouseDiesel's "Gift Tune" as my baseline. I noticed a pretty healthy increase in power, response, and smoothness, but also noticeable smoke increase across the board. I don't really care about smoke over 3/4 throttle right now, but I'm hating life at part throttle under 2k rpm. I've tinkered intermittently over the last year but starting today I'm going to dump some serious time into this and detail it here. To start with I have 3 experimental CSP tunes to try:
1 - 50/50 timing across the board using the calculator
2 - 20% duration reduction from 1200-1800 rpm in the 30-80 mm3 range, timing recalc'd based on original %'s
3 - 20% pilot mm3 & timing increase in the same range



Any suggestions are very welcome, otherwise i'll probably just post my results as I iterate through various trials. I'm a big do-it-yourself-er so i'm trying to avoid dyno time or flat out paying a tuner. I refuse to believe i'm not capable of figuring this out!

[Dom_c13b]

Way too much timing down low is the biggest issue. What's your email address? I've got a couple trucks with similar mods that I've tuned.

[arinkuddy]

With a stock tune does it smoke like a pig in the lower rpm? I have 60hps and stock was clean all the way through.

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[Dom_c13b]

stock timing map is really focused on smoke free, that's a decent place to start. The doghouse tune runs good and makes good power but it's certainly smokey

[arinkuddy]

Timing will make it worse but the best way I controlsmoke was with the boost fuel limiter

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[Trumpetrhapsody]

I enabled members to send me emails Dom, if you want to go that route. I guess this forum doesn't have PM's, and i'd prefer not to post it in the thread. The more tunes to compare the better though, thanks! I'll take a look at the timing.

On the stock tune I wouldn't say it smokes like a pig, but it definitely smokes yes. It clears up as soon as the turbo spools though.

Arin - i'd read that the boost fuel limiter was useful for smoke control, but most of the big players talked about working with the fuel/timing tables first before using the limiters, so it seemed like cheating.

I guess i'm thinking about this like putting larger injectors into a gas engine - that you need to reduce the increased fuel delivered - when maybe I shouldn't? Frankly I don't know if I should be starting with the duration, main timing, or leave that alone and fiddle with the pilot. Various people claim success different ways.

[arinkuddy]

It's what ever you want to do, it's there and I use it... I think something else is amiss tho. Even with the 60hp sicks I wouldn't expect to see any smoke on factory tune

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[Dom_c13b]

I use the boost/fuel limiter as little as possible, I try to get rid of most smoke with the duration and timing tables first. Lots of different ways to skin a cat but I strongly believe that the timing table has the most affect on normal smoke/haze.

[Trumpetrhapsody]

Maybe I should be starting from a smoothed stock tune instead of the Gift Tune. I'll messing with the timing, and reduce the duration a tad - maybe 10%.

I didn't notice much difference in smoke on those tests I mentioned in the OP, btw. The increased pilot MIGHT have helped, but it was hard to tell.

[Dom_c13b]

I tried to send you an email through the forum but not sure it went through. My email address is dominic.canonico@yahoo.com. Send me an email and I'll send you a tune to take a look at

[Dom_c13b]

And if you have any datalogs, post them up

[Trumpetrhapsody]

Got your tune and gave it a try. First i'll say that it's very smooth, and throttle response is crazy good. Unfortunately, it's definitely still smoking. Less than the Gift Tune, but more than stock.

At this point i'm starting to think I may have just gotten a dirty nozzle hone. So if i'm not commanding too much fuel and it's just not being burned efficiently, the question is can I do anything about it. Maybe work on the pilot?

[arinkuddy]

I didnt see anything obviously wrong with the log. Rail looks happy, timing isn't really too high. Other things like baro and temps are normal. I would suspect something is wrong with the injectors. Could they have put the wrong nozzles on? This article kinda explains.

http://www.engineered-diesel.com/blog/beware-50hp-injectors-for-03045-04507-are-not-the-same/


EDIT: Wait you said that you just got them honed, so never mind.

[Trumpetrhapsody]

Yeah I'd read about that and dismissed it, but now that I think of it they said that if I ever replaced the original 3 injectors that the nozzles wouldn't fit new refurbs, that i'd have to re-hone the new ones. Something about being able to swap nozzles one direction, but not the other? I don't recall exactly - but the new part numbers correspond to 04.5+ so I would think they should have the correct spray pattern.

I went ahead and attached my flow tests, before and after the hone. I didn't include the injectors we scrapped. Flow increase is right around 20%.

[Dom_c13b]

One thing that you might try is to increase rail pressure on the lower end. If you send that file back to me I've got a rail map that I use on my truck with the 220ddp's that helped clean up the low boost smoke a bit.