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White smoke at startup - out of ideas

5.5K views 39 replies 12 participants last post by  Skipper Jer  
Doing a compression test on a vintage marine diesel is a plan that sounds simple but isn't. I have a similar problem with a 1994 Perkins Perama M30 in my Catalina 320. Like Glossa, I have asked 3 different Perkins dealers, as well as a ship yard and an independent repair guy, but I have not found anyone that can tell me what adapter will fit in place of the injector or glow plug. The on-line vendors for compression testers are no help, because they specify all the adapters by what truck engine they fit.

My white smoke on start-up goes away when the engine warms up, and I'm thinking a ring or a sticky valve that un-sticks when the engine heats up. But short of buying adapters blindly until one happens to fit, I don't have a great way to test the compression. If anyone else has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.