could be rear main or oil pan gasket

 

I bet its the rear manifold gasket, probably pushed it out of place when you installed the intake manifold.

 

This is my bet. There is oil everywhere, the smoke is coming from the cat where oil is just caked around it. I am pretty sure that its the rear gasket, but I will be going to a mechanic tomorrow. This fix has created a giant hole in my pocket but I guess I should have known that before I bought a truck.

 

That happens to the best of us, Hell, I just went to war with a header bolt that snapped off in the cylinder head. My own damn fault, but I got it out.

You can try it again for the cost of the gaskets and 4 hours. Here's a tip:

The easiest way to get the intake lined up is to connect the bypass hose to the intake and then the water pump. Only after that is connected do you need to worry about centering it onto the gaskets.

You can bend the **** out of that hose (a fresh hose, not and old one) to get it centered after it's connected, but you'll play hell connecting it if it's the last thing you try, and that manifold will scoot all over the gaskets while you chase that tip down.

A little RTV on the nubs of the rubber intake gaskets can help to hold them in the guide holes too.

I'd give it another shot, 4 hours of shop time ain't cheap. Brake parts cleaner the **** out of the back of that engine and the left over oil will be gone.

 

your can use a few of the old intake bolts as studs to help line it up

 

That is what I did, worked like a charm. Just cut the heads off of the old manifold bolts and thread them in just a bit, and you can use them as dowels to line them up, put two in the back, two in the front. Then once the intake drops in, thread some of the new bolts into the other holes, and pull out the old bolts that you used as dowels. Works great. Hope you get it all situated brother.

 

Well just got her back from the mechanic. It turns out that it was leaking tranny fluid, that was causing the smoke from the motor. Still not sure why I was low on oil, I will be checking oil daily. Also got my U-Joints fixed. Hopefully this fixes everything.