my truck is 2003 dodge 3500 4x4 with 5.9 turbo diesel w/ 6speed manual transmission (130k miles). i have white smoke comming out of my exhaust... not to much, but enough to tell me that something is wrong... the smoke is more evident when the truck is ideling. i live in florida and had to go to california with it pulling load... 10k miles later, it is still doing the same thing. before the trip i noticed coolant level in reservor gone, so i added 50/50 coolant. everything works ok... not over heating, no power loss, oil looks good, coolant level has only slightly changed, but almost the same. what can be the problem? i searched many forums and the others experiencing the white smoke have discoloration in oil or oil in antifreeze... which this is not the case in my situation.
as a side note, not sure if this has anything to do with this issue or not . the truck makes a rattling noise which i though was from my clutch kit because it only makes it when it is in neutral and idelling... if i give it a little gas, ratteling goes away or when i press clutch, noise goes away then also.the noise started after i had new clutch kit installed. i took the truck to transmision place and they changed synch and bearings, but the ratteling is still there. they claim that the rattelling is comming from the motor and not transmission or clutch... this was $1800 later. my dodge sounds like a ford diessel. help PLEASE!!!!

 

White smoke tells me possible head gasket issue..

 

does your exhaust have a sweet smell to it at all??


In a diesel white smoke can mean more than just the typical antifreeze getting burned..

If the exhaust smells sweet lean more towards a headgasket issue and that you could be burning coolant..


White smoke can also mean a lean condition with a diesel. So you might be having an issue with your in tank lift pump or injection pump. I don't remember what year dodge made the swap from the VP44 injection pump to the CP3. If yours has the VP44 then it is imperative that you have the intank lift pump checked out.. The tank pump isn't a very pricey fix.. but if the tank pump goes out the injection pump if it's a VP44 will be damaged from being run dry. This is not such an issue with the CP3.. thing is though.. a new injection pump is an easy 1100 dollar part..

Those are the two things I know of that could cause white smoke to come out from a diesel engine.

 

Since the coolant was low, I'd lean toward a blown head gasket.