LMTV A0 cat 3116 loss of power

[Ned81]

About 1000 miles ago I had a cracked injector cup which let fuel into the coolant. Cat dealer replaced all the cups and cleaned out the coolant system. The fuel tank wasn’t checked.
Last time I drove I noticed low end power loss. I started inspecting tonight and found the primer pump will not pressurize. Then I noticed the bowl on the water separator was full of antifreeze. I opened the drain and pumped the primer and was actually able to get some pressure, enough to drain the antifreeze. I’m guessing when the cups failed antifreeze got into the fuel tank. I have noticed quite a bit of white smoke on start up but figured it’s been cold so that’s probably why. After draining the separator bowl I started the truck back up and now I’m getting smoke starting around mid throttle. Did I just lose an injector? I’m sure there is antifreeze still in the tank, could that cause all of my issues including smoke?
I took a video for sound before I drained the bowl and the another after draining the bowl with the smoke.
Any ideas?

April 4, 2024

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April 4, 2024

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Thanks!


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[Ronmar]

Yes, antifreeze/coolant is not fuel, so you need to drain the tank and get the coolant out. water in diesels has a nasty habit of damaging components in the fuel system, even to the point of blowing the injector tips off when it flashes to steam in the hot injector nozzle/tip… hope this is not the case,mbut you need to get clean fuel into the system to see what happens…

Good luck…

 

[Ned81]

Yes, antifreeze/coolant is not fuel, so you need to drain the tank and get the coolant out. water in diesels has a nasty habit of damaging components in the fuel system, even to the point of blowing the injector tips off when it flashes to steam in the hot injector nozzle/tip… hope this is not the case,mbut you need to get clean fuel into the system to see what happens…

Good luck…

I have a bad feeling this is going to be expensive


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[Ronmar]

Well you need to clear the tank as well. These things only burn a fraction of the fuel they move, so contaminants in the tank would pretty quickly re-circulate thru the system. This should show up as more coolant in the bowl…

 

[Ned81]

I will work on it this weekend and report back. The smoking at mid throttle has me the most concerned


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[Ronmar]

Well the engine isn’t really loaded, and it probably wasn’t up to full op temp right? The plumbing on the A0 keeps them from warming up properly until the transmission becomes a heat source as they send all the bypass coolant to the trans cooler instead of back thru the engine like cat designed it. You need to get the trans into D and bump up the hand throttle a little to load the engine and warm up the trans(ref: cold wx warmup procedure in -10 manual)

First vid definitely sounded like they were not all firing properly. The second vid sounded a lot better… I would not worry about the smoke until you get it to full op temp and loaded.. hopefully sending coolant into the cylinders hasn’t done too much damage to the bore/rings… it looks like oil smoke, but the video is kinda dark. Usually fuel related smoke is white, indicating water in the fuel or improper injection and cylinders running lean enough to not fully ignite properly(unburnt or lightly burnt fuel vapor)…

 

[Ned81]

I thought it looked a bit blue also but it was getting dark out. It only stated doing that after draining the bowl with the primer pump. I started it, reved it 2 or three times then noticed the smoke.


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[Ronmar]

I thought it looked a bit blue also but it was getting dark out. It only stated doing that after draining the bowl with the primer pump. I started it, reved it 2 or three times then noticed the smoke.


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And if you had a cylinder or 2 that were misfiring, it may also have had buildup that will take a bit to burn of with normal combustion…

 

[Ned81]

I have off road diesel in it right now so I should be able to use the drain on the bottom of the tank to drain the water until I have red diesel coming out, correct? Then change the filters.


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[Ronmar]

Or park the truck pointing uphill, let it set for a bit and use a siphon with a straw to vacuum the coolant off the bottom rear edge. Its a flat bottom tank, so you may get more of it out this way.

 

[biscuitwhistler37]

To answer the until red flows, yes, but if it were me, I'd drain the tank completely and either "strain" the fuel, or dispose of it and start with fresh. Can't be coolant in the system if the system is empty.

 

[Ronmar]

Yea that brings up a point, if you had it in your primary filter and it was running rough, it obviously filled the secondary filter enough to reach the gallery. that could explain the dirty exhaust when you revved it up And pulled more fuel(and coolant) thru the second filter… the very least pull the main filter and dump out its contents and refill with fresh fuel, but it is just as easy to change it completely.

 

[Ned81]

Thank you. All good tips. I’m going to change both filters. If I can find some old hose around the house I may park on a hill and siphon.


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[Ned81]

Changed both filter and was able to siphon a small amount of antifreeze from the tank. It’s definitely running better. The tank is pretty full so I’m going burn the majority out then do a thorough tank cleaning. My hand primer pump still isn’t pressurizing I o was I’ll need to investigate that. The rubber fuel line from the tank is new so I’m leaning towards the pump itself having a problem. I see them for sale for a c7 cat. It looks the same. Anyone know if it will fit my 3116?


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[Ronmar]

Changed both filter and was able to siphon a small amount of antifreeze from the tank. It’s definitely running better. The tank is pretty full so I’m going burn the majority out then do a thorough tank cleaning. My hand primer pump still isn’t pressurizing I o was I’ll need to investigate that. The rubber fuel line from the tank is new so I’m leaning towards the pump itself having a problem. I see them for sale for a c7 cat. It looks the same. Anyone know if it will fit my 3116?


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Pretty sure it is the same primer. The only issue these usually have is the bypass flapper gets fouled and wont seal Enough to pull vacuum and lift fuel… it is easy enough to check and clean. I have a couple other fuel system videos on my utube channel…