Hey guys, I’ve recently purchased a 95 Dodge Ram with the 360 magnum. I’ve been trying to clean it up and make it something decent. I’ve got a couple issues though. The body has 299,000 miles and the guy I bought it from says motor was rebuilt a year ago. About 18,000 miles. The truck does not like to start. Probably takes 30-40 seconds of cranking to get it to fire. When it does fire it blows out some white smoke and then stops. So I always assume the worst and thought it was head gasket. The smoke smells of gas”kinda smells like a lawn mower” it does not smoke at idle and only smokes when you take off. Or giving it any revs will produce the smoke. I can’t notice anything that it would be. No water in oil and no oil in water. No milkshaky substances to be found. Whoever rebuilt the engine was not very smart. There’s vacuum hoses plugged and the bank 1 02 sensor is cut. Any suggestions would help. Pcv valve? Throttle body? I’m at a loss. Thanks

 

You can test for combustion gases in the coolant. Your local parts store will have the test kits.

How is fuel pressure? I think yours should be right about 40 PSI.

Got a scanner that can read live data?

Need to fix the O2 sensor wiring......

 

I’ve not tested fuel pressure with any sort of gauge my father just checked the valve and it sprayed out fuel. He said it was okay. And I don’t have a scanner yet I guess I’ll have to get one. And I hope I can find the connecter for the o2 sensor. It kind looks like Edward scissor hands got ahold of the engine bay.
EDIT also when I got it I was unable to check oil because they bent the dipstick tube. I’ve got that fixed now and when I checked the oil it barely had anything on it and the oil was well past it’s change date. Coolant was probably 2 quarts low

 

Not good..... Hope you didn't pay much for it........

 

Being a '95, an OBD II scanner isn't really needed. Chrysler used the key dance. 1996 and up you can use a scanner or the key dance. That is turning the ignition key on, off, on, off and leaving it on the third time. Do not try to start the engine. If you don't bump the starter the computer will go into self test mode. Your check engine light will start to blink. If it blinks once, then twice, that is code 12. If it blinks 5 times twice, that is code 55. You'll often get 12 because of a battery disconnect in the last 50 to 100 key starts. 55 means end of test.

2 quarts low could be a leak, blown head gasket or just poor filling. White smoke that smells like gasoline is a stuck injector. I've worked in vehicles like that before. You can often end up with a decent vehicle but running down the little things that someone did poorly can be a real pain.

 

95 360 came in two comfigs, 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton were single exhaust and one o2 sensor with one cat,

1 ton trucks with 360 v8 And heavy duty emissions had dual exhaust , dual cats, and dual o2 sensors ( Left and right bank)

also the 1tons had an air pump that fed fresh air into both cats.

if you have single exhaust, you have one o2 sensor and if it’s not hooked up you have lots of problems with the engine not running right

get that fixed first and see how it runs


viperdave