kubota b8200 white smoke

[Brad21]

Just bought this tractor a few weeks ago and ran fine aside from the usual black smoke on startup and under load. After getting it home I ran it just a little and everything was ok. Changed oil, oil filter, fuel filter, hydraulic/trans oil, gear oil, battery. Started and ran great right after (<10 min). Started it up again and that's when the white smoke started. Started it several other times during the day to see if it did it every time (never ran more than 1 min probably). All those times had white smoke (aside from one and not sure why). Again, only ran for <1-2 min each time. Changed the oil - no water in it, checked coolant - green color, no sign of any contamination with oil. Started with radiator cap off to see if there was any pressurized coolant coming out - none I could see. Engine sounds pretty much the same - as far as I can tell. Dealer had nothing helpful to say other than to bring it in. Not paying for a dealer; hope I can figure this out and learn something. Talked to my wife's uncle who works on large diesels and wanted to make sure the decompression knob was pushed in and the lever was pushed all the way as well. Very frustrated that I just got this thing and changed all the fluids and now this. Anyone with suggestions where to start would be great. I'm wondering if it's the head gasket? I'll keep researching other's posts and see what I can find there. Thanks

 

[banjodunn]

G'day white smoke is a sign of low compression unburnt fuel might be worthwile to lift the rocker cover and make sure there are no tight valves or the decomp not sticking on a bit
It can also be coolant but if level remains unchanged then head/gasket is prob ok



Jon

 

[Brad21]

ok, thanks. I'm wondering if it's the decompression lever that is screwed up. I removed the cable and sprayed the lever with wd40. It may be something that has to be readjustd from inside. Thanks for your reply.

 

[banjodunn]

G'day can also do it due to cold engine are your glow plugs working? If valves check out ok try running it for a bit longer to get some heat into the engine and see if it goes away


Jon

 

[Farmerford]

Does the white smoke continue as long as you run it, or does the white smoke disappear after a few seconds?

 

[varmint]

I've owned a B8200 for 10 years or so... I can tell you that the manual pretty much says that the compression release is there for emergency shut off, and not regular use. I would be checking that out! I didn't notice, but you have good, clean diesel fuel, right?
I'll be following this thread!

 

[Nicb7800]

Couple thoughts other than the ones that have bein mentioned. If after you start the tractor and it runs for a bit u might check under your radiator cap sense sometimes if you have a head gasket that went south you will get air bubbles coming up threw the radiator and you will be able to see them. Next this is a way long shot and I would have called you a liar if you would have told this to me about a week ago but it happened to me. I do not no how or why, but some water made it in to my fuel tank and I thought I also had went through a head gasket because out of no we're it started blowing white smoke. It also started missing a little, to make a long story short I just happend to look at my fuel filter and there was water in it. I drained my fuel tank and found about a quart of water in the bottom. Sense diesel is lighter than water I could not see it when I looked in the tank, even though after in a bottle it looked like a large gel mass.lol anyhow it's a long shot but weirder things have happened. Nic

 

[tag01]

Is the smoke white? or does it have a blue tint to it? Reason I ask is I just purchased a JD 955 with 950 hrs. When I test drove at dealership back in January I did not see the white/blue tint smoke like I do now. I changed the engine oil and filter and fuel filter 5 hrs ago. I am watching all the oil and fluid levels, the only thing moving is the engine oil (lower on the dipstick). There is just a faint trace of smoke (blow by) coming out of the breather tube. I surely would not think a yanmar with 950 hrs on it would need an overhaul?

 

[Brad21]

Smoke is constant from the moment it starts until I shut it off - (haven't ran it longer than 30s because of being afraid of damaging something else plus it's pretty thick). No blue tint and doesn't smell like antifreeze..i.e. sweet smell. Hard to describe the smell. The thing is, I started it after changing all the fluids, draining the previous gas in it and replacing with fresh from the pump diesel. I was less than satisfied by how the new fuel filter fit in the housing, but seemed to be held in place. Never really got a good bleed out of the valve on the fuel pump. I only used the decompression knob to try and start it with my previous battery. Then when troubleshooting, made sure to push back the decompression lever. I'm still wondering if it's not set right and still slightly open?? Anyway, once I got the new battery, I used my glow plugs and it started up. It ran find for 5-10 min and had little to no white smoke on startup. I have no clue if not getting all of the air out of the fuel line could mess things up - I thought it just wouldn't start or would run and then die. Going to check it out again on Sat. Have someone that may come by to take a look at it. Thanks for all the input. I'll keep updating.

 

[Brad21]

Did start it with the radiator cap off. Did not see any bubbles or any pressurized coolant. Actually, that was after I messed around a little with decompression lever and sprayed wd40 on it (this was after talking to wife's uncle who works on larger diesel engines). This was after 2 starts with white smoke that was constant until I shut it off (~15-20s) and it seemed to resolve and I actually thought it was fixed. Wasn't until a few hours later that I went back out there to start it up again and drive it around - white smoke was back and several times after when I started it again. Not sure if that one time I started it was a fluke or if the white smoke would have come eventually or maybe I didn't run the throttle high enough. White smoke does increase with throttle increase.