When we bought our Hunter 34 we noticed before the purchase that the engine produced a lot of smoke when being started completely cold (IE, hasn't been used in over 24 hours). The PO explained that this particular engine lacks a glow plug and therefore all heat in the cylinders has to be generated by the starting process cranking the pistons and creating compression. Therefore initially there is unburnt fuel creating a huge cloud of smoke. Later our mechanic told us we had one or two scored cylinders and therefore a small compression leak -further cause of the smoke.
Last year we bit the bullet for a complete engine rebuild and now the cylinders are pristine. Unfortunately this made almost no difference to the problem of the engine smoking on cold startup. Is this simply a characteristic of Diesel engines (or specifically 3GM's) that lack a glow plug feature? It's embarrassing to start our boat sometimes in our high-end marina and maddening that a complete rebuild failed to solve this problem.
Last year we bit the bullet for a complete engine rebuild and now the cylinders are pristine. Unfortunately this made almost no difference to the problem of the engine smoking on cold startup. Is this simply a characteristic of Diesel engines (or specifically 3GM's) that lack a glow plug feature? It's embarrassing to start our boat sometimes in our high-end marina and maddening that a complete rebuild failed to solve this problem.