2001 Ram 1500 - Still blowing white smoke after changing heads - Ideas?

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Chevygal

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I have a 2001 dodge ram 1500 5.9 (gas) - a few months ago it overheated once and then started pouring out white smoke and oil from the exhaust. we took it to a mechanic and he said both heads are cracked and so we fully replaced them (not machined them). He put everything back together after it had been sitting for a month and it was still blowing a lot of white smoke. He cleaned up the oil pan and pulled the intake and regasketed. he said after further looking he didn't see water leaking anywhere. He pressure tested the cooling system and there is no sudden nor over pressurization of the system that would indicate an exhaust gas leak into coolin system. The cooling system also holds proper pressure. He said heads are good as are the intake and gaskets. He said he did a full oil flush - Still blowing white smoke.

Runs good in idle - I asked him about retorquing the head bolts and he stated "They were torqued to spec and retorqueing is not necessary. further torque could break them off inside the block"

The mechanic is at a standstill, 3 weeks later. (now been missing the truck for 2 months) - Any ideas at all what could be causing the white smoke still? Any and ALL help is definitely appreciated.

NOTE: It is BLUE smoke now coming out of the exhaust, NOT white.
 
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dogcar3

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Depending how much coolant leaked, there may be some residual still stuck in the exhaust. Did he do a compression test?
 
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Chevygal

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He said the other day the compression check all turned out good - no issues with that.

He did say Bank 1 of the SPark plugs had fuel and oil and Bank 2 was clean. I asked why it had fuel he said when he did the compression test he didnt undo the fuel pump so it got into the spark plugs? (I'm not sure If I'm making sense.. I'm trying really hard to understand everything as it happens)

Not sure how much oil got onto the spark plugs or if something he did was the cause of the oil to get onto Bank 1.

No sweet smell coming from the smoke (that he said).
 
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Chevygal

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Was just told that it is burning oil severely now.. which didnt happen before we took the truck in.

And one catch our mechanic just told us.. He's colorblind. So when we brought it in blowing white smoke, he thought it was still blowing white... Just told us today it's been letting out blue smoke out of the exhaust since it was fixed which didnt happen before.
 
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TexasCornBread

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You may have a burnt up rings in it . You also may have bad valve guides and seals . .

Just for tips

White - water
Blue- burning oil
Black - rich fuel

Also your plenum may be shot



TexasCornBread - If you can't Dodge it RAM it !
 
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Chevygal

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The plenum gasket was replaced before we bought the truck (5 months ago) and mechanic said no signs of leakage there. Normal deposits on the intake, nothing excessive.
 
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Chevygal

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My question is.. Could he have caused the oil leak if it was seals or an oil-ring? It was never leaking oil before so I'm just not what caused that all of a sudden. Or would it just be wear and tear on the truck?
 

BAILEY1

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Maybe the over heating was more severe than originally thought. Bad enough it could have caused the block to crack. Which, if small enough, would not lose oil until the truck is warmed up properly and the crack expands with the heat causing the oil to be pushed through.

Hopefully! It's just the oil that got into the exhaust and its burning off.
 

TexasCornBread

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Could have also warped the cylinders and made them oval instead of round .


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smiley

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I would be willing to bet that it was not even head gaskets or the heads at all but that is my opinion based on my lifelong owning Dodge habit. Plenum issue makes sense for Dodge but heads and head gaskets is more of a GM trait :) I don't know of anyway to tell what is wrong other than ripping it open unless it shows up on the computer. My dad had a 98 caravan with Mitsubishi 3.0 and it burnt a valve and the computer told us it was the problem it still ran okay. Good luck sometime people should ask for help. I mean if the guy can't see colors well how the heck would he know what is wrong?


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Okiespaniel

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Here's a thought and a lesson I learned a long time ago with Mopar products. When you do a good valve job or new heads on a high mileage motor, you increase the compression in that motor.
Unfortunatly the rings are also worn, and if worn enough the compression increase will blow air past them and allow oil to pump into the combustion chamber. Instant blues.
BTW you may still have a compression test within specs.
 

TexasCornBread

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In the reason your still getting good compression numbers is due to the fact that u have oil on top of the pistons cause a good enough seal ! It's steadily putting oil on your pistons which is why your have a consistent blue smoke . Make scense . To what okie said . I would go ahead pull the heads bak off order you a nice wiseco piston set and gaskets for your motor have the jugs honed or bored over just a tad have them installed and I could almost guarentee you would fix your problem but why not go ahead and get so e new valve seal and valve guide in there also to 110% fix your problem !


TexasCornBread - If you can't Dodge it RAM it !
 
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