Westerbeke W30 white smoke and missing

I just purchased a used Westerbeke W30 and it is "missing" and puffing white smoke see video.

Compression is equal across all 4 cylinders around 400 psi. Pulled and pop tested injectors and spray pattern looks good. Also tested the injectors on the lines on the engine and pattern looks good. They are pintaux style injectors so I could not test them for presure setting. No blow by noted by removing oil filler cap which coincides with decent compression readings. When the engine is run above 1500 RPMs everything clears up.n The engine is on a skid right now so I cannot easily put a load on it.

New clean oil and I have it set up with an electric fuel pump out of a can. Everything should be pressurized so there should be no air leaks.


I am thinking pump or pump timing but thought someone might point me in the right direction.

Sounds like a possible exhaust manifold leak. Was it connected to a coolant/water source? Could that coolant/water be leaking back into the intake some how or through the exhaust? It seems to only miss at idle and white smoke indicates water or coolant being burned off. Possibly a head gasket.

Not unusual. Comp check and injector check is what I would have suggested. And you can pop test pintle injectors to check pressure setting.

Sometimes injector pump is set a little "heavy" on one cylinder, and next one will misfire cold. Warmed up, it might be all ok.

Get it in a boat and load it up. Things tend to clean up under load.

White smoke is usually water or unburned fuel. Water can mean a bad head gasket, cracked head or cylinder wall. Unburned fuel could mean a cylinder isn't firing and the fuel is exhausted. If the cylinders all have the same compression then they're all reaching ignition temperature. One injector might not be firing. If you have a temperature gun, measure the temps of the exhaust ports or before the ports get too hot, feel with your hand. If one cylinder is cool, switch that injector with one from another cylinder and see if the problem moves.

If it moves, bad injector. If the problem doesn't move then it could be the pump, head gasket or cracked head/cylinder. Sometimes a injector will get gummed up from sitting too long with old fuel. A good fuel treatment helps clean injectors.

I have not had a chance to get back to the engine yet. I did remove and clean up all injector nozzles. They are a Pintaux style nozzle. These nozzles have an axillary jet that only operates at low RPM and points toward the glow plugs. This is to aid in starting. At Higher RPMs both the main and Aux jets work. Because of this two jet system I read that a special set up is needed to set the pressure on them.

I believe the entire cooling loop on this engine is fresh water including the exhaust manifold. If there were a water leak anywhere I would think I would be smelling the glycol in the exhaust which I am not. I will have to confirm that raw water does not pass through the engine or manifolds anywhere.

The engine still smokes when run for over a half hour with coolant and engine oil warmed up.

Think I will move forward with using infrared to try and isolate, Change out nozzles with some used spares I have and make certain it is fuel vapor and not water.

I was thinking just installing it and giving it a good hard run but it is a pretty challenging install and not a vey easy place to complete any major work if needed.

Hopefully this weekend may answer some questions. Thanks for all the replies.

"and make certain it is fuel vapor and not water."


Smell the exhaust.

Mule said:

. Westerbeke used a Perkins 4-91. IF Westerbeke follows their established business model, engine parts from Westerbeke will cost you 3-4 times what you can source them from a Perkins source.
I Figger you are well aware of that factoid but still worth mentioning. I reallllllly despise the Westerbeke company for that and a few other service related reasons.
BTW, they do assemble and sell excellent equipment but their end-user attitude about the consumer sucks.

Click to expand...

Mule, I have seen the W30 referred to as a 4-91 but yet to see anything relating to a Perkins 4-91 other than a few posts that mention it. I have seen it listed as a British Leyland 4-91, A BMC 1500 and Thornycraft 90. Also as an older model Westerbeke 4-91.

Boatdiesel.com does not list a Perkins 4-91 nor have I seen it listed in any other Perkins reference.

All the names I listed fall back to British Leyland or BMC as being the manufacturer.



A.S.A.P Supplies in the UK has the BMC parts for the W30 at reasonable prices.

Tractor engines other industrial engines...fork lifts and so on....match Total displacement to all things Perkins. That is how I uncovered that I had an L3A Mitsubishi. It was a struggle even then but I finally got what I needed at 1/3 the price that Westerbeke offered for repackaged parts with their name on them. Rebuilding just the top end was not an option at their prices, maybe it would have made a good mooring ball anchor.

To the OP, post a photo of the complete engine, should then be able to tell if it is Mitsubishi or Perkins.

Ski, it is not a Mitsubishi. It is a BMC 1500. BMC later became British Leyland. Do either relate to Perkins?

The earlier production of this motor was a Westerbeke 4-91 and later became the Westerbeke W30.

I have seen mention of the 4-91 being a Perkins but cannot find any data anywhere to substantiate that. See the 4-107, 4-108 but no 4-91 as a Perkins. Just the for mentioned builders.

I've got the 4-91 with the same problem

I've got the 4-91 version engine with the same problem. An occasional miss and puffing white smoke. Mines in my sailboat (shh don't tell), but hard to find anyone with some experience with these older engines. I'm thinking either fuel or coolant leak via head gasket. No compression tests yet, no blow by judging by the oil filler and breather tube. I seem to be loosing a very small amount of coolant and haven't ruled out a leak of some sort for the cause of that. Curious if you ever found out your issue.

Also from what I've seen over the years of pouring over the manuals the only difference between the 4-91 and the w30 is a redesigned injection pump with a better bleeder screw set up, and the elimination of the air filter for the metal box as on yours.

Appick, I have not gotten back to the Westerbeke engine yet. I did have a really sharp Diesel guy by my shop the other day just for some generator maintenance. After I told him everything about the Westerbeke he said injectors, timing and he asked how old the pump was.

I should get back to the old Westerbeke before the cold weather sets back in.

Said you're running on a temp fuel supply so I doubt this is your issue but it is worth mentioning for anyone else searching for "white smoke". Witnessed a long, expensive process to determine that, in that instance, fuel contamination was the cause of white smoke. Gas mixed with diesel was the problem. Fuel aeration is also a consideration.


Color coded gas cans are a great idea. A separate instance, my better half dumped diesel in the lawn mower recently. She's the type that doesn't know when to quit. Found her fruitlessly wearing-out the starter cord. Good exercise, anyway.

Update

Well I dragged the W30 out of the cellar the other day to get back to working on it. I installed a new set of injector nozzles from ASAP supplies, set up temporary fuel and water and started the engine up. I would say I noticed a slight improvement with the new nozzles but not much.


After doing some reading and consulting with a local diesel mechanic I advanced the injector timing about 2 degrees. This created a significant reduction in smoke.


Since injectors do not tend to change their timing I figure that maybe the timing chain has worn causing both valves and injector timing to be off a little. On further reading it seems as though a worn chain will cause smoking and missing. Another thing I read was the drive for the injection pump in the block is prone to wear and cause a retarded injection situation.

All my reading was done on the internet searching the BMC 1500 which is the base engine for the W30.


My next steps are to check/replace the timing chain and check the drive mechanism for the injector pump located in the block for wear.


I fully expect one of these two things to be the issue at hand with this engine after my advancing of the injector pump test. I probably could just advance the pump another degree and be fine for years but it is easy to work on the engine now and the parts involved are cheap.

Good on the inj timing. A few degrees of retard can absolutely cause smoke. Advancing two degrees won't hurt anything. And if cam timing is 2deg retarded that should not hurt anything.

W30 video afte 3 degree advancement of injector timing

https://youtu.be/1uErzZWig_Q

Cold start, 75 degrees out and 30 seconds on glow plugs. After about 30 seconds of running virtually all signs of smoke gone. Westerbeke made a special tool for setting the injection timing pointer up but it does not seem to be available anymore.

I am pretty confident I have it pretty close now.