I was lucky enough to be the proud parent of a 94 1500 Reg Cab 4X4 with a 5.9 with 271,xxx miles by only paying $800.00. I drove the beautiful baby girl 150 miles home and immediately bathed her. I have driven her now for a week with no real issues other than the birthmarks I got her with (Broken rear drive-rside window and middle slider, motorcycle/stars headliner (I KNOW... I', have to change this quickly), and slight blue smoke @ takeoff.) I am working on the windows and thinking of what I'll do on the headliner but have the over all question....

Would blue smoke at take off (not seen under load from a stop) be piston rings, or valve jobs, or any thing else?

Over all the truck is VERY solid for the monies paid, drive with no issues, no feeling of lack of power, no visible large drop in oil from dipstick over 1000 miles. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'd suspect valve guides first.

Welcome to the forum!

 

They are your valveseals. When you let your truck sit parked for a few hours, the oil will settle and get past the valveseals and into the combustion chambers. Thus burning and showing blue exhaust.

Just get new heads. YOu can drive like that for a while, but don't use synthetic oil, EVER for your truck.

Here is what I would do:

1. Hughes plenum kit (and intake bolt kit): 145 from www.hughesengines.com
2. 180* thermostat (JET performance $14 at summit)
3. SCT Tuner from Hemifever $275 (just PM hemifever)
4. Get stock heads from EQ/Clearwater on ebay. THey are new castings and better than what you have now. But for a couple hundred extra, you can get some really good heads.

As for performance heads:
1. Clearwater/EQ heads from Ebay (Monster Magnums brand new) about 900 for the set.
2. Iron Magnum Heads from Hughes (2.02 valves) $999
3. Edelbrock Heads (Aluminum) with 58CC combustion chambers $1500. Personal preference is NOT to get aluminum heads for a truck.

 

Sounds like you got a steal. I've got the same smoke at 276xxx miles. Been driving that way for quite some time. Still powerful, still reliable. I'm just waiting for some time off and extra cash to pull the motor and give her a complete rebuild. Point I'm trying to make is you've got time to decide the route you wanna take. As far as that headliner goes, have a look here:
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...eadliners.html

And CPTA, does Hemifever do OBDI tuners? The truck is a '94 is why I ask. If so, I'll have to pick one up eventually for my '95.

 

yes at start up or down shifting it would be in the heads

but i would say "taking off" it would be piston rings


but to be sure...
do a compresstion test dry and wet,,, also a leak down test for the heads

 

I know you love your new "Baby Girl" . But the first thing you should have done, instead of giving her a bath, should have been to change ALL the fluids and do a normal tune up.

 

I'll bite -- Why not?

 

i have heard that synethic will burn off more then regular oil but i aint sure if its true or not

 

Because it is going to find every leak there possibly is in that 275k mile engine. Over time it has probably developed leaks, and covered most of them up with sludge and gunk. Synthetic is going to uncover all of those little leaks.

I'm assuming that's where he was going with that.

 

That's a myth from the 1970's that won't die. Early synthetics - yes. Today's - No.