Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) ? about smoke

[WDimig]

hey everybody since i got my truck back on the road from the head gasket failure, ive had a couple of problems, all of them related to the head gasket failure, first of all, the biggest mistake i made was driving the truck from where it blew back to my parents house, i regret doing that, for a couple of reasons, one the excess crankcase pressure cracked the gasket on the lifter cover that is on the side of the block on the drivers side of the engine, ive got a replacement gasket, but the cracked gasket is causing an oil leak that is maneagble, just waiting to get some time to replace it, second i had to replace my thermostat, i dont know if that was related to my head gasket failure, but it started to climb to a higher temp. than normal, and i had not replaced it since i got the truck, so i decided to do ahead and replace that, seems normal now, now my question is the smoke that my truck is making, i know i have many aftermarket accesories on my truck, and the one that affect that are the 370 injectors, the cut delivery valves, and the advanced timing, my problem is the smoke color coming out of the truck at mid throttle is what appears to be a slight grey bluish color, which seems a bit odd, and it is somewhat aparent when the truck is in gear and idling, but goes away when in park and idling, i know i need to change my fuel filter, and get some power service in the and see if the injectors are just dirty, other than that smoke color, everything else seems to be ok, the smoke color may have not changed since the head gasket blew, and im probably just paranoid that something is wrong, but there inst, since the head gasket blew, if i notice something is slighty different, or changed it alarms me that something might be wrong, soooo in short do i need to be worried about the color of my smoke, it is black and grey when i stomp on the go pedal, just like before, it just seems different when just crusing around. thanks for the info everyone! and i just tell me im paranoid!



sorry for the long post... .



wes

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

How far did you drive it after the gasket blew Wes? Hopefully no ring damage was done. How hot did it get before you got to your parents? Did you mill the head to square it up. . . 12-valve heads are pretty warp-prone, much more so than 24v heads.



Like you suggested start with the easy stuff first, like a new fuel filter. Have you ever done the prefilter service? If you're sucking in air somewhere that can make blue smoke. Make sure the preheater is OK (not leaking around the connector and sucking air) and put new O-rings in on both sides of it (see here for more info http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/filter/pre-filt_clean.htm ).



Let us know if any of this helps. Next I would try some different injectors. . . 370s will have a tendency to smoke blue a bit especially with large DVs.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Woops I meant to say, are you sure your tappet cover gasket is split? Might just try tightening the nuts, mine were really loose on my '96. Or maybe it's just pushed out. . . you could loosen the nuts and try pushing the material back. It goes around the outer edge of the tappet cover. If indeed it's bad it's a bummer you didn't find it with the head off, it's a bugger to replace with the head on. The one on my '96 was pretty hard and brittle when I replaced it at 386,000 miles.



Vaughn

 

[WDimig]

vaughn - yes ive looked at the gasket closely and it is clearly cracked on the bottom of the cover, where it apears to be leaking, unfortunately i did drive it about 8 miles, i suspect no ring damage, the engine did start to get hot just before i shut it off, i never had coolant mix with oil, and when i got the head off the engine, there was coolant on the top of the piston in the #3 cylinder, i had no leak down that i could detect. i got the head off and took it up to the shop that i had the fire ringing done at, left it up there to be checked, the head was almost . 10 thousandths warped, which really made me mad cause it was a brand new head that i had bought from piers when they had them on sale, the head was torqued properly, the fire rings were checked, all were consistent. i had the head resurfaced, and checked the block before the head was put back on, i got new fire rings, and a new . 20 thousandths over marine head gasket, cleaned all the studs, reinstalled the head, torqued to 60, then 90, and then up to 125 initially, then retorqued the head to 130 2 more times, and im planning on doing another retorque hopefully this weekend, and recheck valve adjustment. im sure the head is sealed properly, i just cant explain why the smoke is so aparent to me now, it is possible that it was there before, and i just never paid attention to it, only now since im always looking to make sure everything is ok combustion wise...



im going to change the fuel filter this weekend, and get some power service in the and see if the injectors are just dirty, i know the 370's are not the right injector that i should have in there, but im not sure which injector i want to put in there yet, i know that better injectors will get rid of alot of my smoke problems.



wes

 

[JGheen]

I have a similar smoke issue. Ever since I installed my new Piers head a while back the smoke color and level seems odd. Not sure if I just need to tune my AFC a little better to clear that pre-boost smoke up but it hazes somewhat when cold, goes away when warmed-up but cruising around town and low throttle seems to put out a grayish blue smoke until boost comes on and it clears up somewhat but when I hammer it, nothing but pure black smoke comes out. I did have my EDM'd injectors opened up a little more during the headgasket change and they are definately putting out more fuel, so that could be the obvious reason but just wanted to chime in and put out my similar situation in the way of smoke.



Joe