Something happened, but what?

[gavio]

My NA6.2 van just developed something pretty weird.

It's been running fine since I put a fresh IP on it in October. I've been mostly at altitudes of around 6k or so since November, and it's still been running OK. A bit hard to start when below freezing, rattles like crazy under load, especially above about 7k feet, but very little smoke and acceptable power for a 25 year old diesel.

'Til the other day.

I was setting off across the mountains and 10 miles into the trip, it suddenly lost virtually all power and began smoking like crazy. The smoke seemed grey/white - a bit hard to tell in the setting sunlight, but it didn't smell like antifreeze and it didn't smell like engine oil. There was a LOT of it, and the van could barely creep up hill. Had been running fine right up 'til then. I turned around and nursed it back down the hill - could manage 35 or so on long downhill runs, but still smoked heavily. On level ground, best was 15 mph and copious smoke.

Got it back to the homestead, shut it down and pondered. A friend called and we chatted for half hour or so. I went to start it up to see if I could get it across the river to the house......

and it started fine and ran normally - no significant smoke, plenty of power, drove that last 4 minutes or so fine.

Next day, started fine and came back across the river. Then again and once more.

Only other glimmer of anything like this happened a couple weeks ago, driving home from town, coasted down a long hill on a supercold day, and upon diving into the throttle to go up the other side, it bogged down, smoked heavily for about 4 or 5 seconds, then recovered and once again drove normally. Since it did not subsequently repeat, I forgot about it, assuming it to be simply a strange anomaly of temp, altitude and driving conditions. It now seems to have been a precursor to this.

Oil is normal looking, slightly low, but probably was low before. Antifreeze looks normal and is present and accounted for.

I'm thinkin' it's in the IP, but don't really get it.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Gavio

[redbird2]

your info lines say veggie oil is that what you are running it on now? have you checked the or replace the fuel filters? I would start there cheapest repair first.
good luck

[DmaxMaverick]

.....and, if you were driving around at 6,000' this time of year, the temp would likely be well below the cloud point of the veggie oil. Even near sea level at this time of year in northern CA is below. If your system is heated, it may be too cold from the tank to the IP to keep it flowing freely. It could depend on the type of veggie oil you are using now. Some, like palm oil, starts to cloud below 50°F. Most other common oils begin to cloud below 40°. At the cloud point, the oil viscosity really increases. A filter near the need for replacement will not handle it as well as a fresh filter.

[gavio]

Sorry for not specifying........

The van has only had #2 diesel in it for the last three months. Before that, it had been running various mixtures of biodiesel and #2 diesel.

I removed the veggie oil conversion about a year and a half ago - not due to any particular problem, but just because I needed the space the veggie tank had been in for some other purposes (namely living space).

Temps are cold up here, but not that should be particularly an issue for the #2 (it's winterized around these parts).

I considered a filter problem, but honestly can't imagine how it could be, since it came on so catastrophically, then vanished without a trace, and since the copious smoke seems to indicate that there was plenty of fuel available.

The van continues to run and drive normally, but I've been sticking pretty close to home for now, at least 'til my land partner gets back from vacation, so there's another vehicle about.

BTW, I'm living in New Mexico now. I'm gonna update my profile.......... sorry for the confusion.

Any more ideas?

Thanks.