Hello, I am looking for some advice on diagnosing my 2003 2500 HD Duramax.

I have only had the vehicle for about a week now, 180,000 miles.

Random white smoke from exhaust, enough to get some dirty looks from the victims stuck behind me.

Sounds to me to fall under possible injector leaking, but not sure at this point

no other issues, no codes or warning lights even when it is smoking.

I can not define it to any constant so far, hot, cold, freeway speeds, idle, it has happened under all of these conditions at one time or another.

The only thing that is a constant is the amount of time it smokes before it clears up again. Just a few min.

I am trying to understand how a leaking injector is the cause of the malfunction or smoking.

If an injector has a mechanical failure allowing too much fuel to enter the combustion chamber resulting in raw or unburned fuel to be passed through the exhaust, I should be able to isolate it to a specific condition example worse when hot or cold or idle vs full throttle. Right?

Here is my concern, If this is indeed an injector causing the smoke I would tend to believe that it is not a mechanical malfunction. The fact that 90 % of the time the injector is working good, (not causing smoke) leads me to believe that the problem is the electronic signal it receives causing it open or close. Right?

It looks like it is an expensive as well as timely to replace the injectors. With 180,000 miles and no history of previous repairs, there is a good chance the injectors need replacement.

Trying to make sure that I correct the "problem" and not the "symptom" and prevent doing this job over again because I overlooked something.

If the answer to my question is already in another thread, I apologize but could you please point me in the direction.

Any help is much appreciated

 

the best way to know if it is an injector would be to take it to a dealer or mechanics shop that could scan for the injector balance rates

balance rates that are within spec are +/-4 while in park and +/-6 while in gear, any specs out of that range and you have a bad injector

The electronics controlling the injectors usually don't malfuntion, 90% of the time if you have white smoke and it smells like raw fuel then its a bad injector or two, and its so common in the LB7 that I would almost venture that to be your problem

 

Thanks for your reply, I agree, I guess I just needed to hear someone else say it.
I guess it is time to shop for some replacement injectors however I will scan it for injector values, thank you for the specs.