I had a 94 Dodge Dakota (3.9L) that would smoke on start up. Neighbor down the street was a motor head (hes in the 60's so you get the idea), he mentioned using a quart of ATF to clean out the internals. What I did, I changed the oil with cheap motor oil and good filter, then one quart of ATF. Drove it for about 500-600 miles. By the time it was time to drain the oil, I did not see any smoke on start up and it bumped up my oil pressure. Changed oil and ran it for 1000 miles. After that, I just did the regular oil change interval.

You should try it, it may or may not fix your problem.

 

i realy wish i got that lucky. i knew just what you was thinking. i may have read one of your old post about it aswell since i have searched like crazy trying to find an awnser to this other then rings before i ever posted about it.

just kinda wondering did your truck have the ping when the plenum was still bad? and did it go away with the just the plenum fixed or did you have to fix the pcv before it went away?

thank you for your input

 

normally smoke on start up only is valve guides. not sure if that would really help me or make it worse. i did try that lucus stuff witch has worked well on other engines but dont seem to help this thing.

thank you for your imput

 

Could be if your using Full Syn oil you might not see it burning oil IIRC FULL SYN burns clear........ thats what the smog tech say to run if you fail for visible smoke is full syn.

 

Never had any luck with Lucas stuff.

 

Spark knock got a lot better with the plenum fix, improved some more after doing a seafoam treatment...... Not sure if the PCV did anything for it or not..... I STILL get some light spark knock from time to time. Not sure if it really IS spark knock or not though........ my cat is hollow, and that tends to alter the exhaust tone..... so, not really sure on that. I am going to do another seafoam treatment here in the not too distant future, and hopefully clean things out some more.

 

nope not syn oil. any more i have just been dumping the cheapest stuff in it i can find since all its gona do is burn it.

yea its kinda a toss up weather its gona work or not. worked great on a newer john deere tractor that would go threw a gallon of oil in 3 days and slowed it down to a gallon every 2 months. it was worth a shot i guess.

mine was real bad before i fixed the plenum gasket and now it is totally gone after the plenum was fixed.

i guess what its sounding like is she needs a rebuild. i stayed up late last night looking for a older crew cab that i could stuff a cummins in