Smoking after oil change

[Terry Gideon]

It is a 2001 ram 1500 V6 (3.9L0, it has never smoked since I've had it for 3 months. Changed oil and filter, started with 3 qts. then started it and instantly it began smoking white out the exhaust. I added the 4th qt. and it still smokes thick white smoke. I did use the wrong oil, I used 10W40 instead of what I later found it takes 5W30. Any ideas of what went wrong and what it may be? I see no oil in the radiator, no water in the oil. Dipstick reads 'Safe'.

 

[muddy12]

Are you positive the smoke is white?

Typically, white smoke from the exhaust indicates that water/coolant is being burnt. Blue smoke means you’re burning oil, and black smoke means it’s running rich/burning excessive fuel.


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[Terry Gideon]

Are you positive the smoke is white?

Typically, white smoke from the exhaust indicates that water/coolant is being burnt. Blue smoke means you’re burning oil, and black smoke means it’s running rich/burning excessive fuel.


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I looked today in better lighting and I was wrong, the actual color is a bluish colored but not quite whitish. I did remove the rocker arm cover (drivers side only) and seen there was sludge all up in there, could it be the valve stem seals? I just bought this truck 4 month sago and never any problems before.

 

[muddy12]

not too familiar with the 3.9L's, but it looks like they share the same "keg" style intake manifold design as the 5.2 and 5.9's. If that's the case, I'd start by checking the intake plenum gasket. It's a known failure point on the 5.2 and 5.9's, and when bad, allows oil/oil vapor to be drawn directly from the crank case, and into the intake and cylinders.

If the plenum checks out, then I'd do a compression test(dry and wet) on each cylinder. Depending on the compression test results, I might also do a leak down test.

 

[BWL]

Any chance you overfilled it? Seems a simple thing, but you wouldn't be the first to do it. Although I'm not a fan of using engine flush since its basically just solvent running through the engine if its full of sludge you may want to consider doing one followed by shorter intervals on changes to clean it up. The filter will plug up and the oil will be full of contaminants early on. Other possibility if you just bought it is the previous owner threw in an engine seal product to make it stop smoking long enough to sell it and changing the oil got enough of it out to start the smoking again.

 

[Terry Gideon]

When it first starts up and engine is cold it does not smoke. When it begins to get warmer is when it smokes and I am noticing liquid dripping from exhaust and if I drive it a couple miles, the radiator fluid is lower but no excessively low.

 

[BWL]

Once it warms the rad fluid should be higher from expansion. It sounds like a head gasket or crack.

 

[muddy12]

I’m with BWL, sounds like a small crack/head gasket leak that opens up as the engine warms up.


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[Terry Gideon]

Thank you all for your help, I took it to a mechanic and had a diagnostics and other tests done. His prognosis is a bad water pump. I was not aware a bad water pump could cause the smoking.....but you learn something new everyday they say.

 

[Quyonmob]

Water pump failure won’t let coolant into the oil or combustion chamber. If you saw sludge under the valve cover, it’s going to smoke. A fresh oil change is going to start cleaning up that sludge and it’s going to be nasty.

Was the sludge like peanut butter, or like black tar? Peanut butter means coolant, black tar means oil change negligence

 

[Terry Gideon]

more like black tar.