4d55 started misfiring and smoking horrendously

[Clouse]

Thanks for the replies!

I have done a compression test on all cylinders, everyone came up to 400 psi (give or take about 5lbs). I checked for any valve lash or cracked cam shaft bearing caps, didn't see any issue. I thought maybe something happened and I jumped a tooth on the injection timing but everything seems to be ok there too. I've tried bleeding the system, when I crack open the lines the engine doesn't seem to idle all that differently. I was hoping as I went through cracking each injector line, that maybe I could determine if I had a single bad injector. The video makes the smoke appear a lot more blue than it is. My first assumption was also a bad turbo seal or something (and I do notice a little oil residue around the housing, but there is virtually no shaft play, so I was hoping it had a little life left. I did recently add some royal purple deisel fuel system cleaner/addative. I did this after the issue began in hopes of clean out the injectors or something, and I will say the smoking grew increasingly worse after adding in the royal purple. I think today I'm going to pull the fuel feed line to the injection pump and throw it in a clean container of fresh diesel and see how it runs. Perhaps I've got something bad in my tank. After that I'm sending the injection pump in to get rebuilt.

Anyone have experience with refitting and timing a rebuilt injection pump. The shop in Seattle said I would need to get the truck to a shop to the pump timed unfortunately none of the shops here in my little town want to touch the thing...

[Uncle Spence]

By PA Washington are you referring to Port Angeles Washington? I know that people from there called it PA. If so there might be someone in Sequim who would take a look at it. You really need a competent diesel mechanic and ideally an injector pump specialist. They do still exist. Sometimes you might have to consider shipping to someone reputable.

[huff]

Anyone have experience with refitting and timing a rebuilt injection pump. The shop in Seattle said I would need to get the truck to a shop to the pump timed unfortunately none of the shops here in my little town want to touch the thing...

I think you are just referring to the basic timing described in the repair manual? In a nutshell: Set the engine to a little before TDC. Remove the plug at the back in the middle of the 4 injector outputs. Put a dial gauge down there and set it to 0 (need an adapter to hold it in there while you let go). Set engine to (5 degrees?) atdc. Rotate IP until dial reads 1mm.

[Clouse]

I think you are just referring to the basic timing described in the repair manual? In a nutshell: Set the engine to a little before TDC. Remove the plug at the back in the middle of the 4 injector outputs. Put a dial gauge down there and set it to 0 (need an adapter to hold it in there while you let go). Set engine to (5 degrees?) atdc. Rotate IP until dial reads 1mm.

Thank you!! Yes, I just need help with the IP timing. The procedure from the manual didn't look too complicated, but they listed a special tool that I couldn't find for sale anywhere. If I can get away with using a dial gauge then I'm in business.

Uncle Spence, yes I live in Port Angeles, cool to see someone who's familiar with this area! I've gone into a handful of shops in Port Angeles and they all tell me they can't work on old mitsubishi stuff. I should probably have told them it's Bosch style injection pump, nothing too scary about it. If you happen to know of any competent mechanics around here (Port Angeles or Sequim) I'm eagerly looking for one. I'm going to send my pump off to Seattle Injector on Monday, hopefully when I get it back I can find a shop to lend a hand if I have more problems.

Regarding the blue smoke, I swear the video makes it look a lot worse than it is. Don't get me wrong, I'm certain my turbo is on it's way out, but this smoke looks a lot whiter in person, and doesn't have as bad of an oil smell as I'm used to with engines that burn a lot of oil. That being said, it does have some blue to it, could it be possible that my turbo seal is causing all my problems? I wouldn't think it would have such a dramatic effect on engine idle and performance. It still builds about 12psi of boost. It wasn't consuming a lot of oil it didn't seem. Who knows, I hate to spend $700 on an injection pump rebuild if it's something else, but I gotta start somewhere I guess.

Thanks for the help everyone, great to see people on a forum for these vehicles. I thought it was pretty dead. I have lots of plans for my truck once it's back on the road. I'll start a build thread pretty soon with pictures. So far I've installed a front mount intercooler, electric power steering from a Toyota MR2, a bed mounted lithium ion battery and solar panel, and a few other things. I love this truck, hoping to keep it on the road for many many years.

[Uncle Spence]

Uncle Spence, yes I live in Port Angeles, cool to see someone who's familiar with this area!I should probably have told them it's Bosch style injection pump, nothing too scary about it. If you happen to know of any competent mechanics around here (Port Angeles or Sequim) I'm eagerly looking for one. I'm going to send my pump off to Seattle Injector on Monday, hopefully when I get it back I can find a shop to lend a hand if I have more problems.

I don't know of any strong diesel mechanics in the peninsula but keep asking around. Ask other diesel fanatic guys. A lot of diesel truck fans usually think these mitsubishi motors are cool and like to take a closer look and could offer some referrals as to who would be willing to help with the injector and potentially the turbo. I wish I could help you out more. Will be in the Kennewick area here in about two weeks. These trucks can make some long trips though. I drove mine from Utah to North Dakota twice and then have driven it out to Nebraska loaded and that was almost 1000 miles. Sometimes wish I had kept the other Ram 50 I had. It had a brand new rebuilt injector on it.

So far I've installed a front mount intercooler, electric power steering from a Toyota MR2, a bed mounted lithium ion battery and solar panel, and a few other things. I love this truck, hoping to keep it on the road for many many years.

Post a picture of your intercooler set up. Really curious of what you robbed it off of. What is with the lithium battery though? Do you use that as your power for your starter? Bet it cost a pretty penny if that's its purpose. Is it just in that little compartment behind the cab? Did the gas motors come with those compartments?

[claych]

Clouse,
Update on,
" I think today I'm going to pull the fuel feed line to the injection pump and throw it in a clean container of fresh diesel and see how it runs".
????
As to the Turbo seal, well weirder things have happened, with that much smoke, removal of the cold side piping for inspection would
certainly show 'gross' oil contamination...
Not trying to be argumentative Honored Posters, just tryin to help !

[huff]

Clouse,
As to the Turbo seal, well weirder things have happened, with that much smoke, removal of the cold side piping for inspection would
certainly show 'gross' oil contamination...
Not trying to be argumentative Honored Posters, just tryin to help !

yes! this would be an indisputable test. great idea.

[Clouse]

Thanks again everyone for the quick responses.

I've been called into work all week so I haven't had a chance to try running it on some fresh diesel, I'll be doing that tomorrow hopefully, and will update on how that goes.

The gray box (it's actually green, just weird lighting) is an ammo can in place of my battery. I used it to house relays (glow plug, radiator fan, electric power steering pump, and headlights (I always relay headlights on old vehicles, usually brightens them up a touch and saves the old wiring harnesses and fuse blocks from heating up as contact points slowly oxidize and corrode)). It's also got a little fuse block inside for the relays and what not. I also mounted isolated battery posts on the outside so I can jump the truck from both the front and rear, kinda nifty. I'll post pictures of that tomorrow too.

The intercooler isn't officially plumbed up yet, but it's installed. It's from a starion and I mounted it between the radiator and oil cooler. I bought an aluminum radiator that is for the 2.0 liter gas d50s and it's a touch narrower and taller than the stock radiator. I mounted it slight off center to the drivers side which gives me space to run the intake plumbing. I had to make custom radiator brackets and all that but it worked out pretty well. And because I removed the stock power steering pump and replaced it with an electric pump from an MR2, that cleared the path from the turbo to intercooler. I'll take pictures of that as well, much easier to see than have explained.

The lithium ion battery I installed is used as the main vehicle battery, and yes it would have been spendy if I had purchased it new, haha. I work with a company that installs battery backup systems and we had a large pack melt down on us. Fortunately quite a few cells were ok and my boss didn't want them, so I put them to use. I installed four 3.3v 250Ahr cells in a large ammo can mounted in the bed. I also mounted a 100watt solar panel on a piano hinge on the bed rail. I go camping a lot and had the panel laying around so I figured why not.

The engine and transmission have both been recently rebuilt. I installed a Centerforce II clutch (which I DO NOT recommend). I have a limited slip rear axle waiting in my garage to install. It's currently got a 2" body lift, slightly cranked up torsion bars, montero sport upper control arms, and I did my own version of the "Zuk Mod" to cure the saggy rear end. It actually worked surprisingly well. That's about all I can think of that I've done so far, but I have a lot more plans for it, just need the cash haha.

Oh dear I've written too much.