White exhaust/sooty drip from gennie exhaust?

jimmy_the_builder

jimmy_the_builder

Well-Known Member
Joined
7 Sep 2005
Messages
8,755
Location
Sussex
Visit site
As it says really, I noticed this evening that my gennie exhaust is a bit white smokey/steamy, and there's a black sooty drip coming from the dry outlet. I don't spend a lot of time studying my generator exhaust, but I've never particularly noticed this before.

What's going on? Normal, or problem?

Cheers
Jimmy
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
As it says really, I noticed this evening that my gennie exhaust is a bit white smokey/steamy, and there's a black sooty drip coming from the dry outlet. I don't spend a lot of time studying my generator exhaust, but I've never particularly noticed this before.

What's going on? Normal, or problem?

Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...
Normally coolant
Is there a way of checking the level ( when it's cooled down )
 
Last edited:
jimmy_the_builder said:
As it says really, I noticed this evening that my gennie exhaust is a bit white smokey/steamy, and there's a black sooty drip coming from the dry outlet. I don't spend a lot of time studying my generator exhaust, but I've never particularly noticed this before.

What's going on? Normal, or problem?



Cheers
Jimmy
Click to expand...

If its is white smoke that's poor combustion , could be a faulty injector.

The sea temp is obviously higher this time of year so the cooling system is having to work harder to keep the engine cool, your system has a separator so you should only has cooled gas exiting above the waterline, a slight black sooty deposit is ok that's just soot in the vapour.
 
You have a wet exhaust then a separator to remove the water that got squirted in a metre upstream. The separator removes 99 not 100% so no worries about the drip

White exhaust could be nowt. Atmospheric. Just keep eye on it
 
Thing is the water from the sea pump should never boil one should not see steam ,or anything white in the gas .
The gas should ( if all heathly ) be diesel exhaust - if anything slight blue/ black+ soot particles ,hence the black stains arround the gas exist we all see on white hulls .
For water to get hot to " steam" it has to be drawn into the cylinder and combusted ,through a leaky gasket or cracked block .Burn,t coolent manifests in whte smoke,but it's being consumed so the level in the header will eventually go down dry up .before this the combustion pressure may blow it all out.The engine may have an temp guard which should shut it down .This is different from the thermal guard it may have on the exhaust manifold which monitors the seawater supply .
Ie if the impeller packs up .
White smoke if from a liquid ? is liquid from closed cooling side not the sea water / gas separator .
As all the levels seem normal
However if the impeller is damaged then the vol of water through the exhaust manifold might be low but not low enough to trigger the alarm so poss steam -white smoke but prob cool back in the seperator leaving the symptoms /signs as reported .
To eliminate this check the impeller and the through the hull fitting for fowling ?
As I say gas is usually pale blue/ black ish ? With some soot specs .
If it s turned a white hue??
White smoke occurs when raw diesel comes through the exhaust completely intact and unburned. Some causes of this include

Faulty or damaged injectors
Incorrect injection timing (could be a worn timing gear or damaged crankshaft keyway).
Low cylinder compression (eg caused by leaking or broken valves, piston ring sticking, cylinder and/or ring wear, or cylinder glaze)
When white smoke occurs at cold start, and then disappears as the engine warms up, the most common causes are fouling deposits around piston rings and/or cylinder glazing. Use of our Flushing Oil Concentrate and FTC Decarbonizer address these respective problems.

Water entering combustion spaces will also create white smoke. Faulty head gaskets and cracked cylinder heads or blocks are a common cause of water entry, and are often to blame. Unfortunately, expensive mechanical repair is the only proper solution here.
 
Last edited:
I checked with JFM and he agrees that heating requires less HP than cooling and therefore turning off the aircon and turning up the heating will load the genny less. Whack the heating to max for 36 hours minimum and I am sure things will be fine........:cool:


On a more serious note, how is the hand?
 
Thanks for all the replies. On closer examination I think it's steam not smoke. I'm surprised at the amount of sooty water that's dripping from the dry exhaust though. Coolant level looks ok. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on it.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
P4Paul said:
On a more serious note, how is the hand?
Click to expand...

Thanks for asking - in fact it's doing really well, better than I expected. Got full flexion back, and most of the extension, which under the circs is pretty good. Got about another week to go then I'm back on the tools hurrah.

Cheers
Jimmy
 
P4Paul said:
Thought you were retired (again).

Make sure this time you stay on the tools and not in the tools!
Click to expand...

I am, but I still like to make stuff (actually, demolition is favourite but we haven't got one of those at the moment). I am treating myself to a new chop saw next week. One with an electronic brake! :D

Cheers
Jimmy
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top