My powerwagon was exactly like that... big puff of smoke on start up. Pull the valve covers and see if the seals are even there. Some valve seals and valve cover gaskets are cheap. I'd go with poorboys suggestion with a compression test first, just to make sure the cylinders are good.

That is the first thing you should do (1) Compression test - dry (2) Compression test - wet (2 squirts of oil in each cylinder before testing) this will determine good rings or bad, if no change and still big variation in numbers then you have a valve sealing issue. Testing is cheap and will prove a lot.

I'd say you shatter a ring or two, when I did that it started using oil and smoked...

Yea, I did that in my younger days. Bought a nice big block car from a little old lady, then my young butt started hot rodding it. In very short order it started smoking. My boss informed me that a ridge forms at the top of the cylinder above the top ring travel. When you dramatically increase engine rpm over what it usually ran, the rings travel up the cylinder walls a couple thousands and the rings hit that ridge and break the rings, or the pistons around the rings. OOPS!

The more something costs you, the better you remember the lesson. Gene

I won't be able to diagnose it until this weekend, but, I noticed something different today.....

The PCV valve doesn't buzz anymore.

Back in April I posted here asking why it would buzz, most people felt it was 'normal'.

Pulled the PCV valve out tonite, its not full of oil, and still has strong vacuum.



Saturday can't get here soon enough......

How much blowby does it have with the PCV valve pulled?

OK, here we go. My gauge reads in 5 lbs increments, so slight differences are hard to put an exact number to.

Cyl 1: 160
Cyl 3: 155
Cyl 5: 155

Cyl 2: 160
Cyl 4: 165 (checked this one twice dry, same reading)
Cyl 6: 155

A squirt of oil had minimal affect.

Here's a pic of the plugs:



Nothing looks 'wrong'.

One thing I did notice is I smelled gas quite a bit on the plugs, even though the truck had been sitting for about 10 hrs without being started.

Same thing when I was doing the tests, I could smell gas. I had the fuel pump relay unplugged, the coil (power) wire unplugged, and the throttle body held open during the tests.

It smelled enough that my wife asked if I had spilled gas.

Smelling the oil, it just smelled 'used', no strong gas smell.

I'm leaning towards it being the valve stem seal(s), but, the fuel smell has me concerned.

Ideas?

Those are good numbers and nice looking plugs. Have you looked into the intake to see if there's oil in the bottom of the plenum? Also see how much vacum it pulls at idle, a blown plenum gasket should show low vacum

I couldn't find my vacuum gauge, so I have no readings.

I just have this unscientific video....

PCV vacuum

Oh, and the 'buzz' from the PCV returned yesterday.

One more video showing the V6 at idle... idling V6 zzzzzz

Like I said previously, it runs no different. It just smokes at first fire and uses oil now.

Still sounds like valve stem seals or intake.

I agree. Just to dang hot out right now to dig in.

It takes a lot of extra oil usage to add up to the cost of most repairs. Think maybe I would give it a fresh oil & filter change, and track exactly how much oil it is actually using. Back in the old days, Chrysler said a quart in 500 miles was acceptable, even in a new motor! From my perspective, a quart in 1,000 miles is borderline excessive.

When you have to add oil between gas fill ups, I believe the oil consumption has exceeded excessive, and its time to do something.

Most of my higher mileage Mopar motors have given a puff of smoke when they start. At least I know they are getting upper cylinder lubrication. Gene

At start up, SMOKE or STEAM?

As I said earlier, it takes MANY $3.00 quarts of oil to equal a quality repair to rid the SMOKE. Even at a qt every 1000 miles, and say $300.00 to fix seal, that's 100,000 miles of driving. Just sayin'...

Sounds exactly like valve stem seals. Probably not to hard of a job to do this fall or winter.

Oil consumption.....

It's definitely using more at freeway speeds.

Took the truck down to West Beach (Galveston) yesterday. Checked the oil before leaving, dead on the fill line.

I drove approx. 90 miles round trip, 30 of which were slower 'in town' speeds.

Checked oil a few hrs after I got home, it was down to the add line.

Yes, I've had a few cars that burned WAY more oil, but, to go to this much use from less than half a qt in 3500+ miles is a bit of a .

On a side note, I didn't have a full tank of gas so I couldn't calculate the MPG, but, the truck used about a 1/4 tank to cover those 90 miles.

You hear any pinging on the highway cruise?

With the compression numbers you have, I think I would be looking at an intake gasket failure, either the bottom gasket, or the actual intake gaskets. Its got to be pulling oil into the combustion process, the compression numbers you have means its probably not coming by the rings, and that is a lot of oil coming through the valve guides, even if the seals are nearly gone.
Two other possibilities come to mind.
1) Somehow the oil returns to the pan got partly plugged up and the oil is sitting up in the valve covers.
2) Oil is running out on the ground from someplace, Oil sending unit maybe? Gene

I don't hear any pinging at hwy speed, or any speed for that matter....

There's no puddles under the truck or on the engine. It just looks like a typical high mileage piece, no excessive oil on the engine anywhere.



I'm just gonna stick close to home with it until this heat breaks and I can dig into it.

Thanks everyone.

Like WO23 asked " Have you looked into the intake to see if there's oil in the bottom of the plenum?"

I took a look Sunday, it doesn't look as clean as it did, but it doesn't look wet either.

Oh, and here's a shot of where I always park my truck at home.....not a drop on the ground.