About 6 months ago, I replaced the plenum gasket, but not the plate or bolts...(stupid mistake). But when I looked down my throttle body today, I saw no pooling or oily residue. So I think it is still holding, although I did see a little bit of oil leakage from where the PCV valve hose connects. I have the dealer valve so I don't think this would be a problem. But I am still burning around 1.5 to 2 quarts of oil a week. It will smoke a good amount at startup when I drive around my neighborhood, but then it will only smoke when I stomp on the gas even when it is completely warmed up. So I'm leaning towards valve seals? I've looked at a lot of threads with suggestions, but no one ever follows up with if they fixed their problem or not. Thanks!

 

I have not had much luck ever looking down the tb. I have always had to remove mine completely and look. parking on an incline helps get it to pool toward the back as well.

 

have the same issue with my dakota i did mine about 3 months ago now and im only losing a qt ever 3 weeks or so but im thinking its from somewhere else. i have a little pooling under the truck but i cant tell if it power steering or not,

 

Front or rear main seal. Rear will look like it's coming from the oil pan, front will look like it's coming off the timing chain cover.

 

Smokes at startup?

Sounds like valve seals to me, but 1.5-2 quarts/week sounds excessive for just valve seals. What do your plugs look like? If they appear normal, start looking for drips. The oil is either getting burnt, or it's dripping out from somewhere.

 

I have the same problem with my '94. Plenum plate made it better but it still smokes white smoke at startup and only a little when I stomp on it.

 

Oh, and I go through quite a bit of oil still...

 

hmmm. how many miles does it have?

my truck is leaking at the front crank seal, and i have 212K, BUT i just changed my oil 2K overdue (bad mistake) and i was only a quart low.....my piston rings are shot, so thats not the cause.....rear mains are know to go on these trucks, id start there....and this may be weird but look at your air filter..does it have oil on it? my buddy has a ram with the 5.2, its a 96 and i had to change his air filter cuz it was soaked in oil....plenum was the cause, but whats weird is that in the intake there was no pooling of the oil.

 

I don't think it leaks any oil, there occasionally is some drips under it but that's because of the power steering hose having a leak... It has 181k now and my K&N drop in is pretty dirty come to think of it. Not really sure if it's oil, but I took it out the other day to clean it. I plan on checking the plugs and doing a wet/dry compression test in the near future if I can ever get a day off ugh... I'll keep you guys updated, but apparently I need to replace my throttle cable because it is frayed for some reason? Weird, I know haha...

 

Sounds like the seals to me. Valve seals are quite easy to replace. But there is a guy on dodge forum that did a video for it. Not sure if it will help or not. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btLqysu95bo