Bought a 97 Ram 2500 4wd v 10 cheap with intention of fixing it. Doesn't smoke (blue) when you first start it but the longer it runs the more it smokes. Found oil dripping from first exhaust clamp on right side exhaust, pulled all 10 plugs, 2 had more than normal carbon deposits and 1 was slightly wet but not near as much as you would think with the smoke and oil in exhaust. Tried to do an compression test but somethings wrong with my tester (with the readings I was getting I doubt it would start let alone run). Also when you start it there is a slight random tick in the right valve cover almost like a lifter but a little louder and sounds a little heavier, this gets more frequent in tempo the warmer the truck gets but does not seem to make any diff in how eng runs ( ie no studder in eng) eng does have slight miss but nothing serious. Power wise it seems a little low from what I would expect. 160,000 miles n no codes. Any ideas especially the liguid oil dripping out of exhaust.

 

Gotta be coming from somewhere. Are you sure it isn't just dirty water??

 

You need a functioning compression tester. If the smoke isn't at startup, it's not the valve guide seals. If it's not running rough or over-heating, it's most likely not a cracked head or blown head gasket. So that would lead me toward bad rings.

 

Definitely oil dripping from exhaust. I thought maybe rings too (need to get a new compression tester) but with amount of oil dripping from exhaust and condition of plugs makes me think something else is going on. Truck also fires right up and doesn't seem rough at all which I would think it would do with rings bad enough to drip oil out of exhaust.

 

Need to do a compression and/or leakdown test. See what the numbers say.

Replace your PCV valve with one from the the dealer too. They are less than 10 bucks. Aftermarket valves don't always have the correct flow rate.