Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) Why is white smoke coming from my breather tube?

[Royk]

I removed the bottle long ago and extended the hose down to where I can just see the end of it if I bend over. Lately there is what looks like exhaust coming from it. What is wrong?



Roy

 

[Rman]

That's normal, wait till a nice cold winter day! It's just crankcase ventilation. Most people aren't used to this since the days of PCV valves.

 

[Royk]

Why haven't I seen it before in the last three years that I've owned the truck?

 

[JR2]

How much white smoke? I get some coming out of mine after I drive real hard. My hose dumps under the truck next to the drivers door. I see smoke drifting up by my window all the time. Sometimes I smell it before I see it.



If white smoke is POURING out of the hole then you have a problem, if it is just a little smoke then don't worry about it.

 

[Royk]

I don't know what constitutes pouring, but you can see it steadily. Like I said, it looks like exhaust. You can easily see through it. A couple examples of when I see it: I start the truck at 4:30 am, drive 4. 4 miles to my first red light, and can see it blowing out in front of my headlights (wind is usually from the rear at this location). When I come home in the early afternoon, I'll drive 16 miles to my driveway, get out of the truck while its running and walk to my mailbox about fifteen feet away. I see the smoke. Basically I always see it, not matter how warm or cold the truck is or how hard I've driven it.

 

[WyattEarp]

i Know that during chilly mornings and during the winter mine does the same thing. . i have a hose that drops just above my front axle. . even on warm day s you can see a sort of slight haze or fog coming from it... In all aspects its normal, if your truck is running fine and there seem to be no other problems then i wouuldn't suspect anything bad, but this is my opinion. . if the crankcase was not able to breath like that you would have some serious problems, and make sure that hose never gets cloggeg up

 

[Firehunter]

Do you have an exhaust brake? i just went through hell and back with dodge over this same issue. they tried telling me it was my pistons. it ended up being a vaccuum hose between the Pac brake and the engine.

 

[Royk]

Nope, no exhaust brake.



Actually I guess I shouldn't have written the word "lately" in my original message. It actually started doing this during the summer, so it doesn't just happen when it's cool out. I'll try to get a picture if it ever stops raining.



Roy

 

[Rman]

What you describe is what happens to me and has ever since I did the breather mod. I've seen big rigs coming up hills (as I've come own) with a substantial smoke stream coming from the bottom. Case pressures rise with rpm, so naturally after driving and stopping the pressure will be releasing and appear to have a lot of smoke. It's normal. A good picture would help though. It should just seem like steam and dissipate rather quickly.

 

[Royk]

It should just seem like steam and dissipate rather quickly.

That is kind of a good description of it. But why have I never seen this until this year? I've owned the truck 3. 5 years and it didn't start until this past summer.

 

[EGaskamp]

Mine does the same thing. On a relaitivly cool day it will be a steady haze coming out of the breather hose which dumps right underneath the skidplate. Even when I had the stock sticks in it it did it. No worries! Hope this helps.



Eric

 

[DThelen]

The older it gets the more wear on the engine, the more blow buy you have. sounds like your getting a bit more than you should. If the power is still up and you don't burn alot of oil, don't worry about it.

 

[CFAR]

How many miles?



Blow by, we all have it, but most don't want to talk about it.

 

[Royk]

Mileage is at 79K.

 

[Nate]

Mine does the same thing. I changed the oil not that long ago and I could smell Rotella a bit when I was waiting at a stoplight :-laf



Mine's a fairly steady stream of steam bascially. I figure with 155,000 on it, it's pretty normal. I use about 1-1. 5 quarts of oil between oil changes, so I don't think it's too bad.

 

[Mabrown]

Mine does this where I quite often see it drifting out in front of the headlights with the breeze blowing in the right direction. I used to be concerned with this but my previous questions like yours brought answers that it was normal. I always thought mine looked excessive but now I ignore it, even think it smells good! I run the %#@* out of my truck and with 40k on it it uses absolutely no oil so if it was a blowby or serious problem like rings or something I would be using oil. No reason why you never saw it before but I'm used to it as this is my second truck that I see it with.

 

[Royk]

OK, I feel better now. If you see it blowing out in front of your headlights too, with only 40K, I guess I'm OK. There was only one time that I thought I burned oil, but it might have been me not adding enough make-up oil after changing my filters before a long trip. After running 570 miles at 65-75 mph towing my boat to Maine, I found I was about 2 quarts low.



Roy

 

[2broke2smoke]

when i put a flatbed on my '91 i welded a 1" nipple on the side of the headache, and attached my breather to it ... you could see the steady puffing real well...



did it after i filled the drain tube with mud and popped the inspection cover off the side of the block ...



now there's a gasket i hope i never see again!

 

[MACHINEST]

For what it's worth i had an 1989 TDI puffing blow buy out the tube,it was a seal on the injection pump pumping #2 in the crank case... .