Hello to all. I have an 89 Dakota LE 4x4 3.9L with 111,000 miles on it. It sat up for a couple of years before I bought it. I got it running and it smokes like a mosquito fogger. I replaced the valve seals and they were hard as a rock. Put it back together and it still smokes. Someone suggested that it could be the modulator valve on the transmission allowing fluid to go to the intake hence the smoke. Someone else thought it was stuck oil wiper rings. Any thoughts, suggestions or new curse words will be greatly appreciated.

 

Probably bad head gaskets if you didn't replace them by not remove the heads when you did the valve seals. Or bad piston rings.

 

Try using some seafoam and give it a good clean out, might do the trick.

 

Dodges do NOT have vacuum modulators on their transmissions!
what color smoke and when does it do so?
I have had many vehicles that had sat xtended periods before my ownership and have yet to get one that smoked

 

Agreed. We need more info. My truck sat for 2 years before I bought it and it started fine, no smoking at all. Without any more info, I'd say just use common sense and replace ALL fluids, spark plugs, wires, etc then see how it runs...

 

I changed all the tune up stuff and I found out today from Dodge that they do not have Modulators. I also found out that it could only be two things. The rings or the intake gasket could be letting oil into the intake causing the smoke. I ran a compression test and the low was 157 and the high was 170. There is no oil in the water and no water in the oil. Thanks for your response.

 

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think if you pull your carb off the truck, you should be able to see if there is oil pooling in the bottom of the intake.

Did you do a wet compression test to see if the compression in any cylinders increased after adding some oil? It can be an indication of worn rings.

I've heard of people having luck with putting something like ATF fluid (as it has alot of detergents) in your cylinders (not much) and letting it sit for a while, to see if it will free up stuck rings.

Just because a couple people have had good luck with vehicles not burning oil after having them sit for a couple years doesn't mean that yours can't have stuck rings.

 

With numbers between 157 and 170, I SINCERELY doubt its bad rings... probably the intake gasket or something else letting a fluid into the cylinder. Most likely not head gaskets either. My bet is on the intake seal.

 

also noted here w/o you having to contct Dodge themselves...
just because the compression rings sound good the return grooves in the oil rings could be clogged or the oil rings sticking... running it may help free them....

 

cd36, I'm going to try the cleaning of the oil system in hopes that it is stuck rings before I go to all the trouble of pulling the intake. marcar1993, I think it's the intake gasket too at least that's what I'm hoping. It would be too easy if it turns out to be stuck rings that free up with a good cleaning. Rings aren't that hard just really time consuming. I'm doing the cleaning this week end and I'll post the results. Merry Christmas to all here.