Do all of these have poor smoking units in them. I have two and both have to run about 60 seconds before a wiff of smoke can be seen and need to run for about 3 minutes before a decent amount of smoke comes out. Also about 4 drops of smoke fluid when smoke disapates and it will keep smoking but 10 like instructions say and it quits altogether. sure not like my steamers which take a full eye dropper about every 5 minutes to smoke good. any fix for the diesels???
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Simple answer: Yes. Of course that is my experience and one large reason that I have sold off all of mine but one. I have had multiple smoke motor failures and voltage regulator failures along with burnt wicking after seemingly adding either not enough or too much. I have moved on to GP35 and GP9 units which for whatever reason work much better.
I have a recently released SD70MAC and a Dash-9 a couple years old (only two Lionel's I have out right now) that both smoke just fine. My Lionel's seem to take a little longer to warm up than my MTH's, but the smoke output is quite good when it does get going. I usually add quite a bit more than 4 drops to mine, probably more like 20. I use a needle point bottle and give them a couple of good squirts. I turn off the smoke unit and let it cool down a little before adding more fluid. I do that with all of my engines when adding smoke fluid.
I probably should add that my SD70MAC gave me the 3 cab blinks right out of the box, first time on the tracks. Resetting it did not fix the problem. I replaced the smoke fan motor with a new one I had on hand and it's been working fine ever since. That was a few months ago. That reminds me I need to re-order and replenish my stock.
I have one from 2011. It never smoked well.
Ive got like 8 or 10 of the Lionel SD70ACe and they all smoke just fine for me. I dont run em much tho
My ACe smokes just fine. This is probably a moot point, but setting the smoke level to high on the Legacy remote and increasing the labor effect will increase voltage to the element.
I've also noticed on the diesels at least that the smooth vs. chopped sine wave does make a difference. So which transformer you use will also affect smoke output.
Good point on the smoke Legacy levels and voltages. Should have also added to the above that I only have command control, no conventional. That would also make a difference just like the chopped sine wave.
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