94 ram 1500 5.9l gas 4x4 auto. Hooked truck to small trailer headed to work, all is well got on highway truck would not go over 65mph. Ran truck like this for about hour. There was a loud knock that seemed to come from under car when i would lay off the accelerator. Car started picking up speed as normal about 50 minutes into my trip. Got back to my home and white smoke was coming out the tailpipe, there was engine oil splattered on the passenger side front and rear fenders and inside the hood by front fender. i could not find any broken oil houses or anything near the spill (about3/4 quart engine oil).I think it came from the air intake tube that is connected from front fender to air filter. I I checked oil and no water in oil, i checked the air filter and it was covered in oil, changed the pcv valve and air valve /air filter. Car is still smoking bad and seems like there's a lot more smoke coming from the passenger side tail pipe than driver side tail pipe (don't know if that matters). Checked spark plugs and they are normal. Truck still running rough starts fine no knocking or any engine leaks or noises. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

I'm trying to figure out what you mean by front fender. There are 2 fenders, drivers side and passenger side. Do you mean it was all over the front of the passenger side fender?

Sounds like maybe the front main seal failed (catastrophically) and oil was picked up by the fan which slung it all over the place. As to how it's getting into the combustion chamber (smoke) I dont know.

White smoke is usually indicative of a blown head gasket... You sure there was no water in the oil? Overheating at all? What does your oil pressure look like?

Oh, and there are no "oil hoses". All of the oil is internally circulated

Pics would help your results tremendously.

 

Hmmm... a clogged catalytic converter seems likely, and the ugly part is that running too long that way causes excessive combustion chamber temperatures which can crack the heads. The #8 cylinder is usually the one to go first.

Get a nice bright flashlight and an inspection mirror, crack open the throttle plates, and have a look at the belly pan underneath. If you see pooling oil you've got a failed plenum gasket allowing oil to be sucked from the crankcase into the intake.

Check for a pinhole in the oil filter. They can spew oil like mad, and this might account for the oil on the front of the vehicle where it's also being taken up into the air intake system. I mention this only because I've seen it several times and it usually confounds the hell out of people.

Compression test all eight cylinders before driving it again.

Thump on the catalytic converter with a rubber mallet. If you hear the bits inside bouncing around, the cat's a goner and should be replaced before you drive the truck again. If the cat doesn't rattle when you thump it, remove the pre-cat oxygen sensor and take a short drive. If near normal power returns, the cat's a goner and should be replaced before you drive the truck again.

Open the radiator cap (don't burn yourself) and give a sniff for combustion gases. If you smell fuel/exhaust in there, you've got a teardown coming your way.

With oil in the exhaust, the pre-cat oxygen sensor is a goner even if it's walking wounded today. Replace it as soon as the other problems are fixed. If the cat's not failed today, oil in the exhaust is killing it and it's also walking wounded toward the boneyard.

Is your CEL illuminated? If so, get the DTC's read.

 

Yet again unreg, you have taught me something.

 

FWIW: The most common cause of those pinholes, in my experience anyway, is some random dip5h17 at a quickie-lube joint. I've traced pressurized oil spew to unlubed filter gaskets and/or oil filters scored by having been cranked tight with a strap wrench. Luckily it was only the first time I found one of those that I had to resort to steam cleaning the engine to find it. Ever since, I look there first -- and that's been where the spew originated every darn time.

It used to be not terribly uncommon to find bad seams on oil filters, but it's been a long time since I've heard of one, and the last one I saw myself was in the late 1970s.

 

Thank you all for your response. The passenger side inside fender is what was covered by engine oil. I got a chance to do a compression test today and cylinder #6 had no compression,#8 had 150 all others where in the 100-120 rage. I also noticed that there was oil blowing out of the oil dipstick when i gave it gas. No water in oil, no smell in radiator. Again thank you all for your help time to pull the engine and replace it. fun

 

Ooohhh, that sucks. I was hoping it'd turn out to be something simple and cheap to fix.

Thanks for the follow-up to let us know what you found.