I drove my truck 206 miles today and changed the oil once the only problem with that is i didnt pull the drain plug and it dosn't leak anywhere. however it does smoke, why does this thing eat oil that bad if i change the valve seals will that help any, it really dosnt have blow by that i can see it dosnt push out the dipstick or the filler holes it has 110 thousand on it. and its a 95 318 any suggestions would be helpfull. thanks

 

Plenum gasket, when i got my dodge it did the same thing, thought it was valve seals (wasn't familiar with a dodge). So i called a mechanic and he said that it was very unlikely that, on a '99, the seals would go, and he pointed me towards the plenum, and sure enough it was. Does yours ping at all when its under a load or have a lose in power. I would check your plenum. There is a write-up in the DIY section on how to change it. Also, i would not wait too long to fix it, mine caused a valve to burn up and cause a miss, the owner before probably had the plenum blown for awhile and did not know, so mine was probably blown for a good amount of time before i fixed it.

 

Thanks i will try it tomorrow.

 

After you replace the plenum gasket, make sure you de-carbon the motor. Seafoam works good. You may have to do the treatment several times depending on how long the plenum has been leaking.

 

well i did that and it wasnt the answere. its just as bad nothing changed. wonder where i should go from here.

 

Nm, found my answer.

 

This is a great thread. Ok, so I have been noticing the loss of oil between oil changes but figured I was just burning it slowly. I did the self-check and found a very thin layer of wetness on the plenum, it still was tricky using the mirror and light to see clearly down there. I used a wooden stick ( not from a tree ) to see if I could scrap up some residue to smell for oil but barely got anothing on that stick.

My question is should there be any kind of fluid down there at all, Im thinking not but you guys will know the answer. The thin layer probably is oil, it isnt dark brown since I just changed my oil about 500 miles ago. I am thinking it would take an average person about 6 hours using the do-it-yourself tutorial?

Any thoughts?

 

There should be a little residue on the bottom of the plenum because the breather hose from the valve cover comes up into the air hat to recirculate the air back into the engine.

 

Forgot about the breather hose off the driver side valve cover. I use to own an '84 Ram and those had an actual breather where this '99 has just a hose (might be a filter filament inside but I doubt it). I noticed that the pcv valver also goes into the air hat but unless it's stuck open no oil should be getting past that valve ( I change mine every oil change just cause they are cheap). The small amount of oil in the plenum then is probably normal.

Maybe I'm just burning oil thru the rings, tho I dont see any major smoke out the exhausts upon acceleration. Would some type of engine restore additive help to prevent oil loss thru the rings?

 

well i do have an excessive amount of smoke upon acceleration and use allot of oil and have no idea what i should do please help!!!!