Low hour MEP-803a blue/white smoke at startup

[washington]

Low hour MEP-803a blue/white smoke at startup. Videos added

I got a MEP-803a last summer with 11 hours on it... It starts quickly runs smooth and has no problem running my house. I have already used it to keep me powered during two outages that lasted a total of about 40 hours without any drama. without doing anything to conserve power it is typically loaded between 50% to sometimes just over 100% without complaints.

I bought a MEP-802a with 7 hours on it to take over at night when I have almost everything off and just want to keep the water warm and the food cold. I was thinking it would keep me from wet stacking the 803 and use less fuel.

after I got the 802 running I noticed that it doesn't smoke like my 803 does during startup. I had taken it for granted that the military may not care if their generators smoke when started and I thought that it was normal but now that i see how much cleaner my 802 runs on a cold start and after watching videos of other 803s starting up I think that mine smokes more than normal until it gets nice and warm.

any ideas why my 803 likes to smoke at startup?

 

[Korgoth1]

How long does it smoke?

 

[CT-Mike]

My 803 smokes a little white/blue at startup, but clears right away after it reaches operating temps.

 

[washington]

That is my question... it smokes more than the 802 always but when at operating temp it only smokes when loaded over 80%... is this normal? does it need more break in since it is still a 50 hour machine? do i need to adjust it? the smoke is not really a bother but I want this machine to last a long time and I want to make sure i am doing all i can to take care of it.

 

[dangier]

If it were mine, I wouldn't worry about it. May just be a sticky rings from sitting. Needs to run loaded and get everything warm. May reduce smoking or may not. My 003's still smoke blue/white for 3 to 5 minutes or so until everything gets up to temperature. My operational 002 stops smoking in 10 to 20 seconds from starting. I run them all loaded for 45 minutes to an hour monthly. YMMV

 

[Korgoth1]

If it smokes alot when loaded above 80%, I might pull injectors and check timing(sometimes, apparently, the shim packs get swapped/doubled up and that of course screws up the timing)

But as stated, diesels gonna smoke.

 

[washington]

Thanks for the help. sounds like it may not be optimal but perhaps not anything to worry too much about. perhaps some day I will fiddle with the injectors and see if I can make an improvement. I have never really worked on a diesel before so I could just as easily make things worse.

For now I will just make sure that it gets a good monthly workout and watch it to see if it gets better or worse.

perhaps I will take a photo or video sometime soon and post it.

 

[washington]

OK so here is a video... I had run the generator the night before so this is a cold start after running at temp and full load for about an hour the night before... so is this normal? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2daAXO8i5Xw

 

[washington]

full load a few minutes later...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sASmXytV6so

 

[MtnSnow]

I had run the generator the night before so this is a cold start after running at temp and full load for about an hour the night before... so is this normal?

Yes that is pretty normal for a cold start. Your next vid shows it totally cleaned up when the engine was up to temp and carrying a load so I wouldn't be concerned

 

[washington]

Yes that is pretty normal for a cold start. Your next vid shows it totally cleaned up when the engine was up to temp and carrying a load so I wouldn't be concerned

Thanks MtnSnow, I Have another MEP-803A on a trailer with 1342 hours on it that I have at the office (people are starting to say I am addicted to military generators generators)

I started that one up today for the first time since summer and it hardly smokes at all... It also runs a bit smother than the one I have at home. I wonder if the difference is that it is fully broken in or if they just vary from unit to unit?

regardless thanks everyone for your help!

 

[jamawieb]

Most of the 802a and 803a's I deal with do not smoke that much. I currently have a 802a that I'm working on, that smokes lightly at start-up and does not run as smooth as others I've bought. It doesn't have a smooth sound, sounds like a small miss, so I'm going to change out the injectors next weekend and see if that helps. I'll let you know.