I have eventually cured the problem on my 2.5 ducato based motorhome, Having trawled the internet for weeks to find the cause and cure of excessive white smoke when cold (and I mean clouds of it ) herewith result.
1 changed fuel filter no change
2 changed air filter no change
3 ran with intercooler disconnected no change
4 checked cold start flame plug and solenoid(Disconnected from fuel to eliminate excessive fueling no change.
checked all lines and air hoses no fault found.
I then discovered that my 1997 has a solenoid under the pump connected to the wiring loom, discovered that this is a cold start automatic timing advance system, that on earlier ducatoes was operated via a cable into the cab.There was no power to the cable to this solenoid, even when the cold start light was on in the cab.So assumed that the later models relied on the single flamestart and solenoid and that the pump advance was bypassed.
looking at the under pump system there is a wire running out of the solenoid linked to an arm that operated a lever which runs into the pump. So I pushed the lever back and wedged it to simulate the system working and as soon as I started the engine it was obvious that it was now far to advanced clattering and now producing black smoke. So with the lever still back slipped a tie wrap round the wire so that on releasing the lever it was prevented from returning to the original position by adout3 mill before hitting the stop of the end of the wire.
Started up no more white clouds and feels more responsive.
just after this I discovered a timing tip for ducatoes on the net, and old mechanic stated that with these pumps its no use using the timing marks on the pulleys when doing a cam belt change. Unless you have a dial gauge ,because you need to fine tune it after the initial timing is set. He said every ducato he had done he set the timing to the marks and then drove it pulling the cold start cable in the cab(obviously on the earlier models) until he got the best performance and then rotated the pump to this position before tightening up, then when the cable was pushed home ,engine was timed correctly without the need for a guage .
So it looks like mine needed advancing slightly,I know it had a cam belt change just before I got it so whoever did it wasent aware of the need for fine tuning. Going to run mine as it is to see if all ok , before touching the bolts on the pump,you need a special socket to reach the bolts. So will just leave it alone until I can beg or borrow one .
My not be the same on all 2.5s but if you have the white smoke problem have a look under the pump,If you have this solenoid it will be obvious its clearly in view.and my cure yours. good luck
1 changed fuel filter no change
2 changed air filter no change
3 ran with intercooler disconnected no change
4 checked cold start flame plug and solenoid(Disconnected from fuel to eliminate excessive fueling no change.
checked all lines and air hoses no fault found.
I then discovered that my 1997 has a solenoid under the pump connected to the wiring loom, discovered that this is a cold start automatic timing advance system, that on earlier ducatoes was operated via a cable into the cab.There was no power to the cable to this solenoid, even when the cold start light was on in the cab.So assumed that the later models relied on the single flamestart and solenoid and that the pump advance was bypassed.
looking at the under pump system there is a wire running out of the solenoid linked to an arm that operated a lever which runs into the pump. So I pushed the lever back and wedged it to simulate the system working and as soon as I started the engine it was obvious that it was now far to advanced clattering and now producing black smoke. So with the lever still back slipped a tie wrap round the wire so that on releasing the lever it was prevented from returning to the original position by adout3 mill before hitting the stop of the end of the wire.
Started up no more white clouds and feels more responsive.
just after this I discovered a timing tip for ducatoes on the net, and old mechanic stated that with these pumps its no use using the timing marks on the pulleys when doing a cam belt change. Unless you have a dial gauge ,because you need to fine tune it after the initial timing is set. He said every ducato he had done he set the timing to the marks and then drove it pulling the cold start cable in the cab(obviously on the earlier models) until he got the best performance and then rotated the pump to this position before tightening up, then when the cable was pushed home ,engine was timed correctly without the need for a guage .
So it looks like mine needed advancing slightly,I know it had a cam belt change just before I got it so whoever did it wasent aware of the need for fine tuning. Going to run mine as it is to see if all ok , before touching the bolts on the pump,you need a special socket to reach the bolts. So will just leave it alone until I can beg or borrow one .
My not be the same on all 2.5s but if you have the white smoke problem have a look under the pump,If you have this solenoid it will be obvious its clearly in view.and my cure yours. good luck