I have had 2 7.3l PSD in the last year. I got fed up fixing them and sold the last one and bought a 04 3500 laramie cummins about 3 weeks ago because I was done with wrenchin and praying for cold starts in the morning before I went to work and need a work truck to feed the family. I noticed a burnt rubberish smell coming from engine bay the next day. Under medium throttle blows mild smoke but its not black. Sales rep said its the shiny armerol they put on the engines at the lot to make them look good and it will burn off and smoke is normal. A week and a half goes by and smell doesnt go away. Noticed when I came home at night my headlights were still on and i was checking the mail and saw faint smoke coming from hood toward windshield. Took truck to dealer. They said they smelled the burnt smell but could not find anything wrong with the truck. They degreased the engine and all the shiny slime off and said it is better and the rest should burn off. So 2 weeks later (today) its still stinkin, blowin white smoke under medium acceleration and I am freakin out. I can't deal with more broken down fixing truck drama. I have missed to much work and its just scary. I have ben towing a dump trailer with 3-11 thousand pounds in it. I am not in the position to fix major problems financially the last 2 trucks ate me alive money wise. I have had the most horrible luck with trucks and Im just lost. This dealer doesnt want to handle this problem. I am not a seasoned diesel expert. I have to post a pic of this but in the glove box i found a "plug with a light for a signal" that as some sort of duck logo on it. Maybe its a programer? The truck does book and feels like it has a lot of torque. 4;10 gears. Maybe its chipped? How do I tell because if it is I want it back to stock. Maybe the stock cat is backed up? There is not one leak and the truck is super clean. It has no problem starting and has no driving problems, tranny is super smooth and carfax is clean one owner. 136000 miles. I have only a 1 year powertrain warranty that only covers internals and it was sold as is so I dont have a leg to stand on for the dealer to fix anything. I dont know if the burning belt smell is related to the smoke. I know it could be a lot of things I have done my research. Head gasket, injectors, turbo etc... What should I check for and how? I would be out of pocket for anything done by the dealer or a shop so whats priority here? Injector test? Boost test? turbo check? PLEASE lead me in the right direction so i dont get raped by a shop to find the problem.

 

Its really hard to diagnoise an issue like this without being their personally. White smoke can be fuel or coolant related I would ask you to smell your exhaust and see if its smells like coolant or fuel.

The burning smell can be electrical or a belt or something like that?

If it had a programmer you would either see it or who ever had it had a programmer such as a smarty that you connect into the DCL connector under the dash and reprogrammed the ECM, and PCM for timing and fuel. But common rail have good power and torque unlike the PSD. Also Cummins reach peak torque and Horsepower at lower RPMS than the powerstrokes.

 

The dealer checked all the belts hoses etc and so have I. The engine is seemingly perfect. Best way to discribe smell is when your vacum cleaner belt gets stuck and burns up.

 

Hmm I had a ranch truck like that and it turned out to be an electrical harness. I dont know if you will be able to do this But leave the truck off and turn the headlights, fans and radio on. See if you can smell it again with the tuck off, if you can then we can narrow it down to electrical. If you cant do it because your worried about draining you BATTS that ok but maybe its worth a shot.

 

10/4 worth a shot but I have a feeling its not, if it is whats up with the white smoke

 

The white smoke can be from a simple dirty fuel filter to an injector or a coolant leak into the cylinders. I cant see why you would have an coolant leak already at 136K but injectors can have issues on these truck because of the High pressure the common rails produce. But if it was injectors it should produce white smoke all the time. I would check your fuel filter, and fuel pressure to you High pressure fuel pump. If the lift pump is weak it too can also cause white smoke, and same for the high pressure fuel pump that feeds the injectors.

 

How woud I find out if it is an injector or coolant leak?

 

Have a coolant pressure test done, and the easiest way to test an injector is with a good scanner that you can cut injectors out with. But I would just take the 5 minutes to pull your fuel filter and check it and see if its clean or dirty. If the filter element is not white, or yellow and is more dark then you have a dirty filter. These truck have a really easy filter change its just a cannister filter like the 6.0L PSD's. The fuel filter is located on the driver side engine almost under the windshield. it has a spin off cap.

 

Is the oil level rising? Does the dip stick smell like diesel? Is the white smoke coming from the tail pipe or under the hood or both?

 

INFIDEL(me too)---Are you sure you are not smelling the crank case vent from under the engine?-??????????????????????
-My 04 sure stinks at times from the draft tube(CCV) .
The white smoke hopefully as previously posted is due to a dirty fuel filtet(I HOPE) and not a more serious problem.
Do NOT trust what a stealership says.
Best of luck(And we all need that) to you.