I just bought a 1999 Dodge Durango SLT 4x4 with a V-8 5.2 motor. It has 147,000 miles on it. I knew it would have issues but i got it for a really good deal & just drive it about 5 miles a day back & forth to work....not really a family car, just something to make me feel like a man

Anyway, today I noticed when I start the engine a small puff of smoke will come out of it....this only happensd when I first start it after it has sit a while. While it is running the oil pressure is fine within the normal ranges on the gage. If at an idle, it hangs out around 40 or a little below & if I gun it down the road it will go up above 40 but never out of the normnal ranges. I have not checked yet if it is using oil, since I just noticed it today & I vought it over the weekend, I did check to make sure it was not leaking anything, and is was not, & the engine looked fine around the seals, no evidence of leakage.

My question is, what is the small puff of smoke that smells like burnt oil that comes out of the muffler after it has sit for a while a sign of? I know it is probably using a little oil or maybe something else but I'm clueless about the mechanics of this sort...I know if I take it to a mechanic it they may tell me it needs a new engine but can these symptoms be caused by something that can be fixed instead of getting a new engine? any advice will be appreciated.

 

There are a couple of ways I would approach this, all are easy ways to check. First I would probably do an oil change and be careful to watch for possible fragments in the oil. If not replace the filter and put new oil in it, start it up the next morning and see if that helped anything.

Second, I would take the air hat off, shine a light down the throttle body and see if your lower intake gasket (plenum) is blown. You will likely see some oil deposits down there and it is a very common thing in these rigs. If this is the case I would encourage to purchase a plenum repair kit rather than replacing with another Mopar gasket.

Hughes makes the best kit I've personally seen and they have a nice priced one, and again it's not the hardest repair in the world to do. These are the 2 places I would start because anything else is going to be a pretty in depth repair. Of course monitor the oil level and make sure it's oil that's burning off in the exhaust and not something else like coolant.

Also, for the record the official "normal oil usage" for Chrysler vehicles over 75,000 miles straight from STAR Help Center is 1/2 quart-1 quart for every 1,000 miles.

Here's a link to that Hughes Plenum Repair Kit:

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...p?partid=26190

 

That is too much oil consumed IMO.

 

Thanks so much! I really appreciate your input. I would like to add, the puff of smoke that comes out if not black, it is an off white color but it does smell a little like oil. After reading your post & other sites on the Internet, I'm hoping it is just over filled with oil or something that can be fixed for a few hundred dollars rather than me having to do something major to it....

 

I believe the same in my opinion but that is what we are required to tell customers before starting an oil consumption test on any given vehicle. This is mainly implied in the vehicles that require 6 or 7 quarts of oil that can burn off 2 or 3 quarts and still be fine in the schedule B interval. With the Durango the 5.2 and 5.9 requiring only 5 quarts of oil with a normal oil pan, I'd say 2 quarts is about right for normal oil consumption in 3,000 miles.

You'd be surprised how often we see this also. Cross your fingers and say your prayers but more than likely it will be something much less than even a few hundred dollars. Of course make sure when you change the oil you're running the correct viscosity oil thru the system.

5W-30 or 10W-30 is the suggested, depends on where you live.

 

I wouldn't worry about it. my 95 5.2 (318) does the same thing at 180k. I get a good puff of oil when it starts up, sometimes more, sometimes less. Most likely the valve seals aren't sealing very well anymore. They are like an o-ring on the valve stem to keep oil from "leaking" down the guides. They get hard over time and lose their sealing ability. I look at it as extra upper cylinder lube

 

As a rule (at least in my 30+ years experience in working on vehicles), a motor that smokes a little on startup for less than a couple of minutes probably has worn or hardened valve seals, possibly caused by being overheated at least a few times, but poor maintenance could be a large contributing factor also. I've heard that those seal conditioners sold as oil additives can soften them up and make them last awhile longer, but I've never tried one myself. If it were mine, and the oil consumption were more than I liked, I might try it and see what happens. They're pretty benign, from everything I've read, but don't take that as any kind of guarantee that nothing will go wrong. I wouldn't be afraid of it, but then if my Durango sprang a huge rear main leak, I can fix it myself in an afternoon, while someone else might have to spend $500 to get that job done, if they take it to the wrong place.

P.S.
The Chrysler Corporation states that a quart per 1k miles is "normal usage" because they don't want to have to pull your motor under warranty and fix it. A 1/2 quart every 3k to 5k is more "normal".

P.P.S.
Magnum4406, I just read your post....if I hadn't just spent 5 minutes typing this, I'd delete it and let yours "do the talking", as it's much more succinct and to the point.

 

***UPDATE ON THIS POST***

Today I actually had my wife start the engine & I went to the rear of the Durango so I could get a better visual than seeing it from inside & so I could actually smell it. When she crank it up there was a moderate poof of white smoke that came from the exhaust. Again this poof was white in color & I was about 4 feet away from the tail pipe & it blew in my face so I could smell it. It just smelled like regualr exhaust...not oil like I originally thought. I went to Auto Zone to get new wipers for it & told one of the guys in there what happened & he told me it could just be where condensation is building up since it is starting to get cold...& since it does not smoke all the time, only at start up.....what are some other things that could cause the white smoke that smells like regular exhaust fumes?

 

Oil smoke is usually a little blue, black is fuel (running rich), and white or invisible is normal (usually).

Ambient temperature has alot to do with whether your exhaust will be white or clear. If it's cool enough, the moisture in your exhaust will condense into a fog as it comes out of the pipe.

A single "poof" of white smoke....why are you worrying about this at all? I'm assuming that, since you are hyper-concerned about something like this, that you keep a close eye on your oil and coolant levels...you're basically looking for something to be wrong. Keep watching your fluid levels and enjoy driving that gas-guzzling beast and don't worry about things like this.