Hi there Folks,
So this week I took on the Plenum endeavor. I Just got this truck (2000 Ram 1500 Sport 5.2L) and I noticed that the power from it was just **** poor, so thanks to this forum, i learned I needed a new plenum gasket. Anywhoo, I replaced the gasket, as well as the Keg gaskets, changed the oil, and the spark plugs. and Now I have high oil pressure, and the truck pumps out SOOOOOOOOOOO much blue smoke, it looks like a cummins blowing coal.

The truck has 132000 miles on it, I changed the oil, plugs, and coolant as well when I did the plenum.

I used only red high-templ silicone on the gaskets just to give myself a little bit of safety from future plenum failures; I did not change the actual plate.

Help? what did I do wrong? Can I fix it? Should I just got out and find a 5.2 replacement?

Thanks in advance
-Colozzus


EDIT: Upon further review, its not oily smoke, its coolant. I'm assuming i'm not getting a good seal at the intake manifold. Tips would be appreciated!

 

Try re-torquing the intake manifold bolts. 12ft/lbs

If that don't solve the problem looks like you have a intake gasket messed up between the intake and the head. If that's the case you'll need a new gasket set and do it all over again.

As for the high oil pressure...check to make sure you have the oil pressure switch plugged up.

 

Blue smoke can indicate a possible piston issue..I'd jump all over a comp test, dry and wet. Also change the pcv from dealership..post test results

 

My oil pressure will read higher after I change it. How high is the oil pressure? If its extremely high, it possible that old gasket material fell into the motor and is plugging the oil pump pick-up or something else in there.

As for the smoke, blue is oil, white it coolant. If your burning coolant, the exhaust will have a sweet smell to it also. If it did not smoke like this before you did the plenum, chances are something isnt sealed properly.

Probably going to have to go back in with new gaskets and do it again just to verify everything is seated properly. But, first try retorqing the manifold.

May need to drop the oil pan and check for any chuncks of gasket in there also. But as I asked already, how high is it reading?

 

^^ This is why I will not attempt the plenum repair myself. Murphy lives at my house.

 

Ahhh, come on now. It isnt that bad. It took me about 8-10 hours to do mine. That was taking smoke breaks, lunch break and BSing with friends while doing it.

It isnt hard, just time consuming and tedious.

As for the gasket material, I had a shop vac to suck all the crap up as I was scraping it off, along with a rag covering the oil valley.

 

You have a gasket partially blocking an oil port. You are causing high pressure behind the gasket blockage and starving your engine of oil ahead of it. DO NOT RUN THAT ENGINE FOR 5 SECONDS MORE BEFORE REPLACING AND PROPERLY SEATING THE GASKETS!

 

I second that. Remember, STARVING your engine for oil WILL CAUSE IT TO SEIZE... Which isn't fun to fix.

The plenum fix really isn't hard, just take your time, and you will get it done right.

 

Excuse me for maybe sounding dumb but how is it possible to block an oil port with the intake gasket when there are no oil ports on that side of the head? An out of place gasket will cause a coolant leak but will not block oil flow.

 

It depends on how much stuff he took off. But, what he is describing, I have personally seen twice on rebuilds.