TurboDiesel delica issues - help my friend

Hey guys, one of my buddies recently bought a 1995 Delica import, 4M40 engine. He lives New Mexico, at elevation. 

Apparently in the last few weeks, when it's below 40° out (cold starts only), he's getting a lot of smoke, and a substantial delay (10s) from actually pressing the throttle to getting and response in RPM and motion.

He's purged the fuel line and run injector cleaner with no changes yet. No coolant issues.

Anyone have advice 9n what would cause that? Head gasket? Injectors?

Thanks!

That would be a Gen 2, and most likely the Zexel electronic instead of the rotary mechanical distro pump.

I would start testing sensors like it was going out of style.  If nothing is happening when he presses the go pedal, sounds like Zexel isn't responding to Nike, or it's responding to Nike but going all nanny and trying to protect from something.

Are the glow plugs working?  If it's white "smoke", that's probably unburned fuel fog.

Agreed on the glow plugs, but once it started, that shouldn't cause the long delay in acceleration response.

When your friend presses the pedal and experiences that delay, is it "trying" to do something, or is there zero change?  For instance, when they push the pedal, is it like the pedal is disconnected and nothing happens, or is it trying to accelerate but failing to be effective?  

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

It's trying to accelerate. Like you can see the rpms slowly creep up a bit

Sounds like it's dark smoke, too - not light smoke. 

What happens if he free revs it in neutral?  Can he hear the turbo spool up and wind back down on a rev?  It almost sounds like something is causing the turbo to be very slow to spool. 

Does it have an intercooler that could accumulate water?

A cautionary tale about glow plugs. There is a point where there is supposed to be a hard switch from 6 volt to 12 volt glow plugs in that era. I know of two shops that each got the wrong glow plugs. One 12 instead of 6, and the other 6 instead of 12. Shop one the Delicia wouldn't start, shop two the glow plugs melted sending carbon into the cylinders they had to remove the head. The moral is if changing the glow plugs make sure you have the right ones.

White smoke is unburned fuel and usually caused by incomplete combustion with a cold engine. If it's doing this, check glow plugs first but could also be a sensor commanding incorrect fueling. Usually this will clear up once the engine is warm.

Black smoke is running too rich. Could be a frozen charge cooler, or also a sensor out of range commanding overfueling. It would have to be pretty extreme to keep it from revving if it's a fuel problem, but an airflow problem would do it. If it's not below freezing you can rule out the frozen charge cooler though.

Altitude would contribute to both of these problems, and the 10 second delay might be turbo spooling up to actually give some air density to get combustion going again. Low compression can make this worse too, but I don't see a reason to suspect that yet.

I wouldn't think fuel gelling, but it can happen as temperatures drop around freezing. Not likely to cause extra smoke, though.

Testing coolant temperature sensor and intake manifold pressure/temperature sensor would be a good idea; both have a big impact on injection quantity and timing.

Does it clear up once the engine is up to temperature, or does it do this constantly?

This has to be an L400 Space Gear Delica. The 4M40 was not available in the L300 Star wagon. These engines are well know for injection pump issues. Could be a worn seal or timing being off some. These don't use a timing belt, but the timing could be off on the pump from wear. My 4D56T in my L300 Star wagon had issues with the EGR. Mine would stumble and cause smoke from time to time. Once bypassed it was fine. Have him check the EGR.

Hi everyone, I'm the buddy with the delica. I figured I'd get on here to skip the middle man and answer some questions. This is my car to learn on, so I'm no expert on these things. 

There is a bit of white smoke on idle, but I'm pretty sure it's just water vapor from the cold. Hit the pedal and it blows a ridiculous amount of black smoke. It revs fine in neutral though, which I've been doing to warm the engine. As soon as it's warmed up at all, the problem goes away. Sounds like I should check sensors to make sure the timing is okay? Or check the turbo? Definitely sounds like an air-fuel mixture issue?

In reply to jacketsfriend :

Definitely check the egr as well. Deleting this is a great idea anyway. 

My 97 powerstroke  van tow beast belches white smoke on cold startups.  A big help for it is the block heater. Cold diesels are not happy when started. I would install a block heater/oil heater/coolant line heater. It will start much faster, easier on the motor & your heater will work much faster as you start out driving. 
Those Delicas look super cool. 
Here is my wierd tow beast. 

Thanks for all the great ideas guys. I'm going to start with an EGR delete and a block heater, as those seem easy enough.