CTD question on smoking from the exhaust on modded trucks

I see a lot of the local younger diesel truck guys around here in Bend, OR that have modified their trucks that make a bunch of black smoke out of the exhaust when they jump on the throttles, why is that
Is that unburnt fuel?
My current 2006 Ram 3500 4WHD is stock with a little over 140,000 miles on it now and I'm thinking of buying and using a tuner to help it get better fuel mileage when not towing and maybe a little more power when towing my race car trailer. Do all tuner kits make them smoke like that?
I had a 1998 1/2 Ram CTD EFI 2500 2 WHD truck before moving up here to Oregon in 2005 that I bought a tuner module for it and it didn't smoke that I could see in the mirrors
All comments and help welcomed

No all tuners don't smoke. Higher flowing injectors probably have much more to do with it and yes its unburnt fuel.

a good tune on a newer truck should not smoke. on the 12valve trucks, you do get the smoke before the turbo lights. Because there is limited control over varying the fuel rates. My 1st gen will smoke good if I jump on it hard, but once it boosts it clears up.

Yes, every teenage boy in my neighborhood all have straight pipe loud as hell diesel pick up trucks that are rollin coal as they call it. They take of from the stop sign on the corner of my street & you can't see anything for like 5 mins. lol. I guess we were all teenagers once but we used muscle cars squealing and smoking the tires instead to terrorize the neighborhood.

Yeah, a lot of the guys seem to take their tuner and ramp the fuel to max just to push as much smoke as possible. I guess they like buying extra diesel.

Yes, that is unburned fuel. Hydrogen burns off first, leaving the carbon behind. This happens when the air/fuel ratio reaches the "smoke point".

This is the kind of stupid behavior that gets laws passed. Then we all suffer.

Colorado has a law making it illegal to operate a vehicle that has visible smoke. They have a toll-free number one can call with the license number. I got a letter one day saying I had been reported. It was true, burning a quart every 100 miles will show.

R.

Elevation has a big effect on the amount of smoke. My 05 smokes with or without a tuner. I live at 6200'. Below 3000' no smoke. The tuner is good for a couple of mpg's and makes more power. I recently switched back to an Edge EZ from a Smarty. I run a little larger injectors, and a cam. With this combo the smarty over fuels at low rpm. No smoke with the Edge until you put your foot into it. This results in the best mpg's. Yesterday I drove from Elko NV to Reno. Hand calculated 17.6. That's doing 75 to 80 mph. Before the mods I would get about 15.5 on the same trip.

I have 100 horse power injectors and a edge comp box in mine... it only smokes when the engine has to lug from being in too high of a gear. I'm not into "rolling coal", but like the extra power.

You could probably pick up a smarty programmer for cheap that would let you play with a few parameters. EFI live would be the ultimate programmer but you won't need it just for better fuel mileage and power unless you were going crazy. My 06 ran 12.50 @110 and does not smoke much at all once I got the tuning all figured out.

My 2006 Ram 3500 4x4 4 door long bed single wheel is used to tow my race car trailer around 5 % of the time, the other 95% is running empty going to local places (less than 35 miles) and some times on trips from 35 to 300 miles
I have kept track of the fuel consumption since day one, it is worse now than ever
I had one stock injector replaced around 105,000 miles, what is the normal life of the stock injectors?
I would like to keep driving it for another 150,000 miles
Any suggestions on what to do preventive maintenance wise to get that done
Thanks in advance for the help

When was the last time you set the valves?

Kevin

I sold my '06 3500 Dually with 561862 miles that NEVER had the valve cover off---NEVER!!!. I hotshotted with it and always kept it full of fuel when I came in from a run.

I set the valves on my '01 24v at about 100k... to .010/.020". The lash was all over the place. Some loose, some tight by as much as. 013". It ran fine before, and really didn't notice any difference after the adjustments. Just a heads up though, it's nice to have a good baseline setting, so in the future you can tell if anything is going sideways.

I had them set at the same time I had the one injector replaced, probably around 115,000 miles.
I should do them myself but I can't lean over the fenders on this truck motor now like I use to be able to do several years ago
I remove the slide off front end off of my S/P tube chassis car now so I can do a leak down test and set the valves easier than leaning over the fenders
Work Smarter instead of harder, correct I'm trying to learn that lesson and practice it every day