Lots of blue smoke at startup and idle

Blue smoke=burning oil Black smoke=unburnt fuel White smoke=water Which on a diesel can mean lots of water in fuel.

Blue on start up usually points to valve seals and valve guides.

Whitelightning

diesel 180000 miles. While driving tonight the truck slowed down from 60 to 0 on the highway. I couldn't get it restarted, again lots of smoke. Could it be the turbo? A few times when I tried to start the motor there was lots of knocking, but that could be from fuel problems, etc.

Well since this is a diesel, I'd guess your turbocharger has a leaky oil seal. Did the oil smoke just start when you changed oil? If so, did you change the type or viscosity of the oil?

Ed

Although it could be the valve guides (particularly the start-up smoke). Smoke from valve seals when running usually isn't a big problem with turbocharged diesels. I'd suspect the turbocharger as the main culprit. Another possibility would be an engine with a lot of sludge. The sludge blocks the drain path from the heads back tot eh oil pan. This leaves a lot of oil in the heads around the vale stems - and encourages leakage into the intake track.

If I wanted a decent answer, I'd ask for Jim Warman's advise. He actually works on Ford diesels.

Ed

I don't know for sure, but how about 180,000 miles?

That's nothing on a diesel. Diesel motors usually outlast the body/chassis they're installed in, when properly maintained. My dump truck has a Caterpillar with over 800,000 miles on it. It leaks a little bit of oil, but still doesn't smoke.

Spdloader

from valve seals when running usually isn't a big

culprit. Another possibility would be an engine with a

pan. This leaves a lot of oil in the heads around

I had a '84 Ford Escort with worn rings & guides. Tried to gain additional mileage on the tired engine by adding some "no smoke" oil additive. Problem is it thickened up the oil a little too much & I blew the cam seal right out of the block & set the engine on fire. Had lots of smoke then.

bananna in the tail pipe..