White smoke. Exhaust system leaking?

[GRAY96]

I've been having white smoke pour out of my tail pipe and I noticed that the big cylinder before the tail pipe is spurting out liquid. First of all, could this be causing the white smoke? Second, what is the part called?

 

[dodge dude94]

That's the muffler and there is a small hole in the bottom of it that's designed to let water drip out so it doesn't rust out too quickly.

 

[Ocelot]

I've been having white smoke pour out of my tail pipe and I noticed that the big cylinder before the tail pipe is spurting out liquid. First of all, could this be causing the white smoke? Second, what is the part called?

Um, that's the muffler. the only liquid from there could be condensation which will also cause white smoke in cold weather

Ray

 

[NYCruiser]

Looks like your Johnson rod may need some elbow grease too.

 

[GRAY96]

Thanks everyone! As you can tell I'm pretty new at dealing with vehicles.

 

[GRAY96]

Also I had 4 new Johnson rods put in, paid my mechanic $800! In all seriousness though I appreciate the help. Tired of getting screwed by mechanics so I'm trying to learn how to work on stuff myself.

 

[NYCruiser]

Welcome to RF! You'll learn lots of stuff about your truck on here. Don't mind my kidding. Never be afraid to ask questions.

 

[charonblk07]

If the white cloud has a slightly sweet smell to it then I'd look at a potential head gasket leak, but it's just as possible that it's condensation. I know mine builds a lot of condensation and I'll pump out a fair bit of white even on normal driving.

 

[GRAY96]

Well after the initial condensation it is looking more and more like there's a head gasket leak. I'm just hoping there's no problem with the cylinder heads. Smoke definitely started smelling sweet and there was more smoke pouring out by the minute.

 

[dodge dude94]

Well that ain't good. If you're on a tight budget, you'll need to figure out which head it is just in case you need to buy heads. The proper way to do it on these Magnums is to pull both heads if you have the time and know-how though.

 

[Merc225hp]

I have seen very few head gaskets fail on these motor, you need to start looking for a set of heads. The heads were cast thin and they do like to crack between the valves and that crack can and will go into the cooling jacket. When looking for replacement heads make sure they are the thicker cast heads not just rebuilt heads.

Start with a comp and or leak down test see what you get for readings.

 

[GRAY96]

Well, I did take the truck to my trusted mechanic (Only reason I don't want to use them is their labor is $100/hr) and they ran cooling system pressure tests and everything and could not find a problem. They also test drove it for over 30 miles to try and recreate the white smoke and it stopped doing it. The smoke was definitely coolant, not condensation though. Any ideas on what happened there? I'm hoping it was just some weird issue and I don't have to replace the heads!