OK, stupid question time......

If the plenum gasket is 'bad', will it suck less oil with a substantial vacuum leak?

If said vacuum leak is fixed, could I be oil fouling the plugs at idle? (that occasional dead miss I'm getting).

I'll tell what I found after a response or two.

(even at the risk of making my Dakota look like a complete POS, I'm trying to learn here)

Does this truck have an EGR valve on it?

If the plenum gasket is bad, you will suck a lot of oil into the intake and you could have a vacuum leak. If the plenum gasket was replaced and the vacuum leak was fixed, and your still sucking in a lot of oil, the oil is coming from another source, like the bottom of the intake gaskets, by the rings or through the valve guides.

Did you pull the intake? Gene

Truck runs about the same, no worse, maybe a little better actually, but I still get the occasional 'dead miss' sitting at a light.

Been racking my brain try to figure out what I might have done. I was a little distracted and rushing because of approaching rain when I swapped everything out.

Then, I thought of it.

While routing the pass. side plug wires, I noticed the hose for the PCV was barely on (at the manifold), so, I just pushed it on and went about my business.

Looked at the hose tonite. Yeah, its as hard as you'd expect 22 year old hose to be, BUT, the underside is missing a chunk/section as long as the fitting coming out of the manifold. Looking down on the hose, you can't see it. With the hose barely on, this left the manifold port open mostly sucking just air. When I shoved it on, it was far enough that it was drawing from the PCV again.

The missing piece is not laying down in the recesses of the manifold. Deliberate action by someone?

When I posted the video of my truck in another thread, someone mentioned the idle sounded a little high. Hmmmmm.

I haven't been able to swap PCV valves because the grommet is rock hard.

So, with the hose hooked up, could it be sucking oil now?

Forgot to mention, I haven't pulled the intake yet. I have all the parts, just need time and a day or two with no rain.

So the truck only runs like doo doo at idle correct? the EGR valve if sticking open can cause a rough and want to run like crap at idle condition if it is opened at idle. The egr is used at part throttles to purge some exhaust gases into the combustion chamber to reduce the production of NOX for better emmisions. You could have a EGR valve that is sticking open after you drive it and come to a stop or off throttle and allow it to idle.

Next time you start it up and it is running smooth, unhook the vacuum hose to the EGR valve and then road test it and see if it idles better again.

Also fix your PCV hose and grommet, that id for sure a vacuum leak and causing the high idle condition. Might aswell put a new PCV valve in there while you are at it.

I'm thinking its a plug wire. When you moved them around when you replaced the cap, it boogered one of them up on the inside. Now when you hit a bump or move them, it may make contact or not. Again, just a guess.

Try to narrow it down and see which plug isn't firing and see if it is always the same one.