Webasto air top series heater exhaust smokes

[yorangerjim]

Hello, I have a five-year-old R27 with a Webasto diesel heater that started smoking dark exhaust. A couple of times, any thoughts;

Jim

 

[glider4]

A couple of questions for you.
Is the black smoke happening just at startup or does it continue until the heater is turned off?
How often are you running the heater? It’s recommended to run it at least once a month, every month.
When did you last change the tiny Webasco fuel filter?
Are you getting any flashing red error codes?

 

[Red Raven]

Hello, I have a five-year-old R27 with a Webasto diesel heater that started smoking dark exhaust. A couple of times, any thoughts;

Jim

We have had problems with black smoke on several occasions. It has always been due to placing a fender (when fender is not deployed) in front of the Webasto air intake. The solution is to burn up the excess fuel that builds up. Make sure the air intake is clear and restart the heater on max heat as many times as necessary until it burns clean. Don’t forget to apologize to your dock mates for the smoke 😉

Curt

 

[yorangerjim]

Hello, yes /no. There is no heat in the summer, so I will start running it in the summer. No, I haven't changed the filter; I will, But 1st, I am at a new slip, and the exhaust is close to the dock. I will do a test when I take it away from the dock. I will get back to my findings.
Thanks

Jim

 

[Pugster]

Another vote for not enough intake air and a too rich fuel/air ratio. There's most likely an air filter installed at the intake as well, you may also want to check that for blockages or interrupted airflow.

If that doesn't solve it, you might have deposits in the combustion chamber that can also lead to black smoke. I don't have a Ranger Tug (yet!) but I've built a portable diesel heater setup for my rooftop tent and it's a common complaint in that crowd as well. IIRC it can be the result of running the heater too "cold" most of the time - seems to be more common when people put a heater that is oversized for their application in and run it at low settings consistently. Those cheapo heaters really seem to benefit from being run good and hot to clean out the combustion chambers.

Disclaimer on this - my info comes from the cheapo Chinese diesel heater builds. My guess is that the Webasto's are much more resilient...

Peter

 

[yorangerjim]

Hello, Thank everyone. I have used the heater two times, and it's okay. I must have had a little speck of lousy diesel. However, I will change the filter and run it more often in the summer. Thanks

Jim