Pinzgauer D24TIC

[Hecklebone]

Hi all,

I recently bought a 1987 Pinzgauer 718, pictures are in my profile. It is one of 15 that were used by Delta Force is Desert Storm. All the gun mounts are cut off. Also, I am in Denver (5280ft.) and routinely drive it up to 11k feet.
I bought it from a dealer that serviced it after sitting for a number of years and use of high sulfur diesel. The VE pump was rebuilt and all hoses that carried diesel were replaced. I have several manuals on the VE pump and guides from various places on how to affect each adjustment.

When the main fuel screw is adjusted for setting the baseline fuel there are three three responses: 1) no smoke, low idle, no throttle response. 2) a small band of tons of power and quick throttle response, but lots of smoke. 3) Too much fuel to run smoothly.

I have played with the LDA, and it works fine. I have the pin rotated to minimum fuel, the top screw is all the way up. But, I am at the stage of not getting to boost tuning yet. Seems I should have the baseline fuel sorted first...so I disconnect the LDA and plug the manifold.
At altitude or coasting down from the mountains the engine blows a lot of white smoke and the engine temp drops to the minimum on the gauge. I have a hot thermostat in there.
Also, I removed the cold start device and put a cable in place so I could manually tweak the timing...this has helped when going to 11k feet.
I also suspect it will be better to fit a higher A/R turbo (garrett T3/T4) once I get this sorted out.

Is this behavior normal for the D24TIC?
Am I really stuck at a very fine point of smoke/power trade off with the main fuel adjustment, where I can't get reasonable power and I still have smoke?

BTW, I am not expecting the truck to move fast, it is 6,200 pounds empty and has six wheels, each with with a gear reduction. I would like to be able to get to 100 km/h within a 3 minutes and be able to drive it at altitude.

Would pictures of the engine help at all?

Cheers,
rob.