Hi there, so I just bought a $900 Dakota for winter because I can't drive my mustang without it fishtailing and doing donuts everywhere. Picked this up for cheap but of course has some issues. Other than it having faded paint, rusty wheel wells and over 240,000 miles on the clock. I don't think it's too bad being a V8 4x4.

Issue #1: Look Ma No Keys and it's ON!


Issue #2: Weird Air Noise

Issue #3: Smoke Puff After Idle

#1 not uncommon you can see by looking at key its worn out.. my TJ was like that when I got it, went to Chrysler paid 17 bucks gave ownership and cut me a new key dosent do it anymore ...

Vaccuum lleak it souns like seems to be louder underneath tho. maybe the vacuum lines to the 4x4 leaking or something ....

Smoke.. proly plenum gasket.. or its just worn out but it looks like its white..... can you verify the colour?

#1, i'm not sure it's the key that's worn. I can turn it on by hand, just gotta turn the ignition.
#2, sounds about right, after looking around this truck sure has a lot of vacuum lines.
#3, The smoke is like a white blue. Does burn a little oil from what the owner said. The valve covers, PCV, and some vac lines are oily I was almost thinking it's sucking too much oil. It only does it after a long-sh idle.

ah.... see I was able to pull key out after it was unlocked... if you can turn it without key ignition is worn out not uncommon.

pull off air filter cover and look down throttle body if you see oil pooling its plenum gasket.... if you don't its prolly old age ..lol

From experience with old GM cars this was normal. Didn't know Chrysler had the same issue with this. Hopefully insurance isn't high because of it. Might try fixing it or installing a kill switch. Tomorrow i'm going to de-grease the engine, i'll pull out the air cleaner and see if I can see oil. Think it would be a bad idea to Seafoam this thing because it's so old?

No I sea foam all my vehicles just be careful doing it. #1 easy fix get an ignition switch and comes with key. #2 hard to really say without being their but I'm sure it's an easy vac leak. #3 pull your spark plugs and see how they look. Bluish smoke could be leaky piston rings or valve seals. Good luck

Took apart the intake to find an oily surprise. Update Video:

I have yet to pull the spark plugs but by seeing the intake drenched in oil, i'm sure they aren't looking too good either.

The item on the R/H valve cover to which our air cleaner hose connects is a crankcase breather. It vents crankcase fumes into the intake so that they would be burned rather than released to the atmosphere.

Your breather is passing oil in addition to fumes and that's probably a sign that your engine's rings are very worn or broken. However it is possible that much of the oil is a result of an inoperative (plugged) PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve and that would be the first place I'd look, with a new valve in hand. The valve can be cleaned by soaking in solvent until the checkball within rattles upon shaking it but it's easier to just change out the valve for new. They're cheap.

Look for the PCV valve connected to a different hose into the crankcase. The PCV system is a circle, one part of which is he hose and breather you know of. Now find the other side of it.

Don't be too surprised to find that even with a clean and operating PCV system oil enters the air cleaner. When it's as bad as what you've shown it's more likely to be engine mechanical issues than it is simply a plugged PCV. You might be lucky, no one knows.

I'm really hoping that it's just the PCV system, I've been working on it in and out all day. Wouldn't surprise me at all that it could be the rings. But I'll update as I go. Thanks for all the info and help everyone.

It's a $900 truck. Get it running well enough to get through the winter, put some bags of sand in the back (500 pounds will do.) And don't worry. You want three things. Engine running good enough to get you home, enough heat to defrost the windows, and a good set of wipers. If it uses oil, at least you don't need to worry about oil changes.

And don't worry.