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Can anyone tell me why my truck is smoking black smoke?
2004 Dodge 2500 Diesel. 52,905 Miles. Had always ran great with NO SMOKE.
8/27/09 Did not have its normal power on the way home (6.5 miles a way). It  did not smoke, pop, knock or backfire.
8/28/09 Morning, would crank, but would not start. I changed the fuel filter after work. I drained the filter housing in an ice cream bucket, I still have this fuel.  The old filter was not very dirty, 6419 miles on the old filter. Still did not start. I tried starting it several time Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Did some searching online, I thought it might be the fuel pump or maybe the injectors. I saw someone wrote that lots of 2004 injectors had been replaced.
8/31/09 I had it towed to the Dealer.
Dealer called and said I had gasoline in the fuel????   If this is true, it has to be some kind of vandalism. It was going to cost six hundred something to repair. They flush the tank, fuel lines and change the fuel filter. Still did not start. 9/4/09 they said they were going to change the injectors at six hundred dollars each. Because of Labor day I should have it 9/8/09. On 9/8/09 I called around 3:00PM Dealer said it was not ready yet but still planned on having it ready today. He did not mention push rod. Around 4:15 pm  Dealer called me at home and said it would not be ready.  He had it running on 5 cylinders, but it has a bent push rod. They changed the 6 injectors and tubes. At some point he said the gasoline caused it to backfire and bent one push rod really bad, I have it. I do not know when they think this happened. I think they did something wrong. They would have the new push rod 9/10/09. They had it ready 9/10/09. He said it is smoking, but it will clear up. I put 80 miles on the truck after I picked it up, it is still smoking. This truck did not smoke. Now it smokes badly (black), mostly when I accelerate. I can fill a room with heavy black smoke. I called the Mechanic 9/11/09.He said all diesels smoke. It is because I had gasoline in the whole system. It will clear up. It may take a month.
The fuel I drained from the filter on 8/28/09 looks and smell different from what was taken from my tank by the Dealer.
9/15/09 174 Miles Still Smoking.
What can be causing this black smoke? Do you think it will clear up?  

i am not a diesel mechanic...   but i would say that they probably bent a connecting rod or broke a piston when they changed the injectors do to the overflow of fuel into the cylinder.. and them not getting it out before they cranked the motor...


there are more diesel people over here

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/index.html    there is also an 8 lug magazine that is newer and notlisted on the front page of that link...

http://www.8-lug.com/index.html     both mags have forums and a tech section where injector replacement problems have been covered...

i would say to contact a lawyer... or the state auto repair licensing people. depending on the state you live in...

it is also a smog violation to fix something and have it smoke like that..

you should also stop by a local paint store.. pick up a few new pint or quart steel paint cans and pour off the samples of fuel that you have a label the cans with a scratched in marks.. then a paper sticker or tape that you can write on...  be sure to send out part of the first batch for testing right away....  

The Dealer installed the wrong injectors. Five diesel mechanics agree, they did something wrong to bend my pushrod. Probably did not seat something right at the rocker while changing the injectors.
Another Dodge Dealer installed the correct injectors and checked the other systems. Now it does not smoke and it looks like I gained 4 to 5 MPG.



Because the Dealer said I had gasoline in my diesel the 7/100,000 warranty did not cover this $5436.76 repair. My insurance paid (minus my deductable) for this because if there was gas in my fuel it was because of malicios vandalism. I think the vandalism may have been from the first dealer to get out of warranty work.