Cummins 330b smoking on start up. Normal?

[scotts15]

I'm looking at a 2003 boat with Cummins 330b engines and on start up, the engines smoke very badly and they continue to smoke while at idle.
The engines only have 300 hours and they appear to be well maintained.
Is it normal for this engine to smoke so bad?

[jleonard]

"Smoking bad" is very subjective. Diesels smoke when started cold. Esp when the ambient temperature is cold. Period.
The 330 has a sea water aftercooler. That will keep it smoking for a longer period of time than a non turbocharched or jacket water aftercooled engine because it is cooling the air charge. At idle a diesel will bnever really warm up. The fuel/air mixture is so low that thee is not enough fuel being burned to heat it up. It needs to be under a load to warm up.
The 330 has an air grid heater in the intake manifold. If it is working (many folks disconnect them) that will help reduce the amount of start-up smoke (but it won't eliminate it).
I had a new Cummins 270 (jacket water aftercooled) and it smoked at atsrt up from the day it was new. Once the engine temp gets to about 130/140 F it cleared completely.
Most diesel engines clear completely at that temp.
As comparison, my marina neighbor at the time had twin turbocharged Yanmars. They smoked about the same amount at start-up. My current Ford-Lehman (4200 hours) smokes a little at start-up. The Perkins turbo diesel I had smoked "a lot" at start-up. The Dodge-Cumins pickup I had smoked "a little" at start up. It was not aftercooled.

Bottom line.....normal.

[scotts15]

Thanks for the feedback. That helps a lot. Scott