Warm Up Smoke
 

My truck smokes until it reaches normal operating temp...usually a few minutes. The smoke smells like oil. I put a new chrome tip on the end of my exhaust, and the inside of it has black residue now, only after a week. I can wipe it off, but that's not the issue. I'm wondering what all could cause the smoking. I don't have an oil spot in my driveway. I did before replacing the valve cover gaskets.

I have no idea on the historical maintenance of the truck. From what i've seen so far, I don't have a lot of confidence that it was rigorously maintained, or even occasionally maintained. I changed the valve cover gaskets, plugs & wires, checked pcv valve (it shakes), changed oil & filter, cleaned air filter, changed pitman arm, checked steering, changed gear oil / differential seal. Other than that, the battery is new, but is starting to hesitate before cranking. The rest is unknown, which is a lot of stuff. I plan to check the plenum this weekend. I'm learning as I go.

On our trip this weekend to Alabama (250+ miles approx) I averaged about 16 mpg pulling a 4 x 8 trailer. I used my cruise on the interstate and set it at about 64 mph. The tranny shifted smoothly. It did use about 1/2 a quart of oil, however. I'm not sure what "normal" oil consumption is, but I thought that I read in another thread that a bad plenum would cause horrible mpg and struggling to accelerate. I don't necessarily see that, but at 148K miles, if the plenum is not bad and hasn't been replaced, it wouldn't hurt to do it anyway. If the smoke isn't caused by the plenum (and it might be for all I know), what else could cause it to smoke for 5 minutes then stop?

Blown plenum.

Well OK. Short and sweet. I like it (but not the diagnosis). What all do I need to buy? New pan and seal? Anything else (and where do I buy it)?

Maybe valve seals contributing a little also.

Check plenum sticky it will tell you literally EVERYTHING

Search.......

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

thanks. i did search. there is such a thing as too much information, but the sticky helped.

So i performed the magnet-on-a-stick test yesterday. The plenum plate has never been replaced. There wasn't a lot of pooling in the bottom of the pan that i could see, but it was the same as the pic on the hughes engines website. so i went ahead and purchased the kit from hughes.

The problem I'm worried about is all of the parts that I have to remove to get to the plenum repair. I'm fairly mechanical but have never removed half of the parts that I'll have to remove for this repair. I'll use the sticky and the instructions from hughes to do it, but I'm a bit nervous about attempting it. When working on something new on my bike, I always take plenty of pictures before removing any part so I can reference them when I try to reassemble.

How long should I expect this to take me? All day if I start early in the morning? Any special tools that I will need before i get started?

I too had never tgone that far into an engine. Most I had done really was vhnage the plugs and dizzy cap. Its not hard though. just labor intensive.

Take tons of pictures like you said. Label things. Keep track of which bolts go where.

For example. Some of the water pump bolts go through to the block and are longer. And the other shorter ones just go the accesorry bracket. Make sure you mark which ones go where


I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY reccomend changing the timing chain to a double roller. Roughly 60 bucks. A timing chain tensioner is not neccessary but some like to have the added insurance.

If you do the timing chain the only thing you will need is a harmonic balancer puller. Make sure to rent/buy the small block mopar variant.

Use lots of pb blaster. Take your time and try not to break bolts off.

If this is your only vehicle. I would block off at least a weekend to do the job. My only snag was having to 're do the intake gaskets. I folded one and had coolant get into my oil.

My gaskets I got from Hughes were trash. Go get fel pro gaskets and have piece of mind.

Do it once, do it right and be done with it.

Thanks Ham Bone. Which Fel pro gaskets...intake and plenum? Any others? I use PB Blaster a lot on my bike. I'll use it on my truck too. I don't know anything about the timing chain. Nothing. I can swap it out if you can maybe give me a link to a site where one is available? Do I just swap the chain (i mean, will the new double roller chain still fit) or do I have to replace other parts as well? How will the new chain help? I don't have a harmonic balancer but a buddy with a 94 Ram 2500 diesel up the road probably does. He'll probably help me with this process as well.

He's talking about the Intake Manifold gaskets. Get Felpro ones for that. They actually sell an intake gasket kit. You could just grab that.

Here's what I used when I did my timing chain: http://www.pavementsucks.com/tech-article-37.html

You'll be replacing the Timing Chain (with a double roller chain), the Camshaft Sprocket and the Crankshaft Sprocket. You're current chain probably has a lot of slack in it, and a new chain takes that slack out. That slack messes with the timing and if the chain is bad enough, your truck can jump time.

I would recommend having a 3-jaw puller handy when you do your timing chain. My crankshaft sprocket wouldn't come off and I had to use a puller. Call a local parts store and see if they will rent you a 3-jaw puller and a harmonic balancer puller.

Oh wait the 318 doesn't have the harmonic balancer like the 360s do. Derp.

Several.places to get a chain. The dealer. A mopar double roller or cloyes double roller.

Lots of people here get it from rockauto. Or you could get it from summit

I had a noticeable difference from installing my new chain. It runs much smoother. It's more.... Crisp... And responsive if that makes sense.