Hey guys,

Got a 98 ram 1500 5.2 160k
A little history, had heavy white smoke coming out the tailpipe. A shop told me its valve seals and i had them do it.

Got truck back and it still smokes. Long story short, mechanic told me to get lost and wouldnt refund me any money back.

Now in here.

The truck is easily burning a quart of oil every 75miles or so. Thats a lot of oil.

It sometimes smokes at startup but mostly its constant stream of white smoke while driving and idling, if i floor it, black and white smoke comes out. I can be sitting at a red light and when its green light a huge amount of white smoke comes out the tailpipe.

Theres no check engine light, but theres some strange things happening.
Before i got the valve seals done and even after, the truck would start and be rough idling really bad with check engine light flashing and a cylinder 8 misfire.

I change the cylinder 8 spark plug, and that issue goes away. The spark plug is caked with oil and the rest arent.

Its only that cylinder.

I also lose coolant almost the same anount of oil im burning.
Theres no visible leaks of oil, there might be coolant leaking small drips right under the middle of the engine. Im not sure if thats from the AC or actually leaking from engine.

When i got valve seals done, they did headgasket job also.

So my question is, is this piston ring issue? Headgasket or the plenum?

I always thought it could be the plenum gasket but always ditched the thought because of all the smoke thats occuring from tailpipe.

Does bad plenum cause alot of smoke?

What does this sound like?

 

You have a blown head gasket. If you paid for the valve seal work with a credit card, you can dispute the charges. Be prepared to get a second opinion on the problems though, from a qualified mechanic.

Going thru that much oil/coolant, it is likely time for a rebuild. You are going to have to pull the heads in any event...... Might just want to find a low-mileage motor, and toss it in there.

 

I paid cash and i learned my lesson from doing that. Always use a card.

The heads were also rebuilt, went to the machine shop and all that.


I remember the mechanic showed me what i think was the plenum gasket when he tore into engine, it was ruined and i told him that could of been the issue the whole time. The engine was already tore apart and he still went ahead and partially rebuilt the top part of engine. I dont think he even changed the plenum gasket becuase he didnt tell me anything about it when i got the truck back. We was already on bad terms since he had my truck for 3 months.


But the truck did overheat or atleast thats what the temp gauge said, it went all the way to red one day with no visisble signs of shaking or typical overheating signs. This happened not long after i got the truck back.




I did put more coolant in there as it was missing some. I also put a cheap 5$ pvc valve from autozone with a new hose.


After all that the truck got worse.


I dont see how i blew the headgasket if they replaced it at shop?




This doesnt sound like no regular plenum issue does it?


Was hoping it was so i could buy the better plenum kits online and get it done.

 

What does the smoke smell like oil or antifreeze?

 

It smells like oil for sure.

 

Its blue smoke.

Does a blown head gasket cause the oil to burn this quick? Its all burning out my tailpipe with the blue smoke and no leaks on the ground. If i punch it, black smoke happens out the tailpipe and back to blue.

Does a blown plenum gasket cause this type of problems?

 

Yes a blown plenum gasket will cause blue smoke and burning oil. How are your mechanical skills? I would start with a compression test to see how the engine is and go from there. With the amount of oil you're burning I would suspect rings.

 

White smoke is coolant.
Blue smoke is oil.
Black smoke is carbon/poorly burning gas.

If you're burning a lot of oil and you have a cylinder 8 misfire with an oil caked plug, you probably have a cracked piston ring in cylinder 8 -especially since you say the head gaskets were recently replaced.

You may or may not also have a plenum leak. If you have 160k miles and the mechanic didn't replace the plenum gasket, then you can bet your shirt you have a plenum leak. If he did replace it, the new gasket may have already torn by now.

If you're also seeing white smoke and you say you're losing coolant at the same rate as oil, and it's not puddling on the ground, then your coolant is getting into a cylinder somehow (and it may be a different cylinder than #8). Only 3 ways this can happen: cracked cylinder wall, a crack in the cylinder head, or a head gasket water passage not sealing. A cracked cylinder head is the most likely culprit -ask me how I know.

 

I bought this truck and it had not been moved in 2 years. It had no coolent in it but I didn’t realize that until I got home, however I only lived about 15 min away. When we started it the the smoke was coming out of the exhaust pipe but the when we got down the road it stopped. However we turned it off and about an hour and a half later started it again the white smoke was coming out again but it stopped shortly after. Is this anything I should worry about? If so what should I have the mechanic check out? Please help! Thanks!

 

Use your nose. Fill the cooling system. Fire the truck up and sniff the exhaust. If it smells sweet, it's probably coolant. White smoke is USUALLY but not always coolant. If an injector is stuck open and flooding a running engine, it can be unburnt fuel but that will smell like gasoline. With no coolant and blowing smoke, I'd say the engine needs major work. Swap another engine or rebuild yours.