How to stop your diesel truck from smoking like a southern bbq

Hello,

I want you to picture this-
you are diving down the freeway mid-day and begin to smell an odd exhaust odor. You check you temp and your mirrors in case your fancy ride is catching fire but nothing is out of the ordinary. You continue to drive for an additional 5 minutes passing all the snail like cars occupying the slow lanes. When you come upon a monster of a truck which appears to be on fire. It bellows sooty black smoke out of its ass. It thunders at about 40mph. You do not stare too long because you are afraid of the seedy mutant driver hidden behind the dark tint glass, but you find yourself unable to look away for long, as if being attracted to it like a moth to your reading light.

Now that you are picturing that. I am the seedy mutant driver and my truck sucked. It did not start out this way. A couple years ago we got this truck
then proceeded to paint is a beautiful green. It was a well planned move. First because 2 years ago we knew that pea green was a 2010 popular color. Second it could match our other Chevy truck of similar style.

Then we proceeded to make the green machine (as it was known then) into a veg mobile - This involved installation of a second fuel tank, a pump and a variety of hoses to suck the waste fat from the bins outside of McDonalds and other fine establishments, A heat exchanger to keep the fat from solidify on the way to the motor and a couple of solenoid control switches to regulate dual tank operation.
I ran like this for a while. Troubleshooting as I went. Sometimes I would break down on the freeway, other times it would run like a champ. After about 1 year of sneak attacking the back of restaurants I got a contract for a lot of veg. This made the truck a viable option (because at the time competition for used veg was tough. There were smaller 300d merc guys from country and other locations ganking my supplies) So I expand the system to use a staging and filtering system at the house- I use a centrifugal filter which brings the particle size to smaller than a micron. This was a great move. I have less waste and it speeds up the process.
Mind you this is a svo system - im not making bio diesel - Fast forward till a 6 months ago -- The green machine began to smoke more than before- it lost most of its power and needed alot of encouragement to start. I actually burnt a starter and 2 solenoids in the last 4 months. This has been progressively worse and worse.
THE POWER - It has not been allowed to go over the pali hwy. On H3 - 35mph max, and the likelike is slower that molasses. Most recently, going over makapuu, i was passed by a tour bus.
THE SPEED- When I look at the freeway limits - i rarely break the minimums.
THE SMOKE- Recently the green machine's name was changed to the Huli Huli truck - and my name was changed to huli huli bosuck. If you have ever been driving around the island on the weekend you will know what i am referring to- there are often huge chicken bbqs for fundraising at schools, parks and most often right outside of bellows base. Theses events make big smoke, very similar to my truck. All i needed was a sticker on the back with a phone number for one of the huli huli companies and a couple rubber chickens on a stick rotating in the wind and there sales would have sky rocketed. Would have - because this blog is about how i stopped the smoke and got back my power. Most recently a dude in a blue grey suv volvo with pipe roof racks and license number NPE 561 drove next to me and curssed at me and my piece of shit truck. Poor dude, must of had a bad day at work. If i could have caught him i would have but 'ol smokey was a little slow, so he just got on the vallet shit list.

Speaking of shit lists, do you know the cost of new injectors these days? ~$100 a pop. That is rediculous!
10 days ago I ordered new rebuilt injectors- Not being much of a gear head, I hoped that was the solution to the smoke and lack of power. I changed the filters and ran the truck on a tank of 80% injector cleaner and 20% diesel. Nothing worked. So i blew 200 on injectors rebuilt from ebay -

They arrived yesterday. It is a challenge to find a 30mm ratchet set (i think the plugs are 29 or 28 or even standard, but the 30 worked), but i had one in the tool room. Other than that, basically all you need is a needle nose pliers and a 3/4 open end wrench. I also used a pop up tent, supplied by Audrey and some technical guidance by the neighborhood auto experts. The best way work is from the hardest injector to the easiest. For me, I started on passenger side farthest back injector and worked froward. The total installation time took about 4 hours.
The fresh injectors were way different than the ones i pulled. The old injectors had what appeared to be a small volcano of carbon build up -

Upon completion, with giddiness like a child, i turned the key. Without a toe on the gas, she roared to life. Eager to check for smoke - i gassed it and low and behold there was no power delay and not a single puff of smoke. It was on to a test drive! Once on the freeway, i gave her the freedom to take some cars- she did with ease! Eat my dust (no longer smoke)

I have yet to put her back on vegoil, because for some reason I feel that was to blame. Although my research on the net. My research with neighborhood mechanics and reading the book leads me to believe the injectors need changing when the injector pump is changed - and i did that about 1 year ago so i am probably running veg as you read this.


Let me know i you have questions

Aloha
Bosuck