With all the knoweledge on this board i figure someone might have had this experience and or knows what the problem might be? I bought a 97 dodge pickup 2500 series which has a 360 motor. Truck starts up and runs very nice but days later I noticed that she was blowing out blue smoke on first start up in the morning. She'd smoke for at least 30's or more then back to normal. But when driving it the exhaust fumes were to much so I'm thinking she's still burning oil along with the normal carbon. A friend of mine is a mopar tech for some time now. Some of his suspisions were correct based upon some of his experiences. The intake manifold gasket was bad, number 5 cylinder plug fell apart in his had after being removed along with oil on the plugs. We removed the heads and found alot of carbon buildup on some of the valves especially number 5. He cleaned up all the valve surfaces along with seating job and replaced all seals, intake gasket, head gaskets, cleaned out the original pcv valve. Did the injector cleaning, Replaced wires, plugs cap and rotor for tune, and also a new oil sending unit. Truck performed great for 4 days. The 5th morning i go to start it up and she started smoking the same way again? Took it back to the garage and removed the plugs and noticed oil on them. Checked the seals to see if any had popped off, nothing. All seals still on. I;m thinking if it were the rings wouldn't it constantly be smoking when driving? She does not smoke on start up after using her all day, just after sitting for 10 14 hours initially. Hmmm? any ideas? Thanks ahead of time

Did you replace the belly pan gasket? Open the throttle or remove the throttle body and using a bright light check for oil in the bottom of the plenum.

Intake manifold may be warped. A friend of mine works for the Dept. of Natural resources [ fisheries biologist ] and his state issued Dodge Ram with a 360 started pinging especially when pulling a boat. Also using a fair amount of oil. It turned out to be a leaky intake gasket. Runs fine now. His manifold probably wasn't warped, but yours may be. That would explain it appearing to be fixed for four days and then starting up again. Once the engine got a few heat and cool cycles on it the new gasket started to leak again. It may of course be something else, but this would be worth looking into.

Thanks guys didn't think of that. We'll check those out and see? I ask him what gasket he used also/ Also I might do a leak down cylinder test and compression test while were there. We'll get back to ya on the results. Any other ideas are welcomed. THANKS AGAIN

Replace the pan itself...and NO silicone on there!! The OEM gasket has a "sealer" put on it in certain spots.
My kid's truck used to like puking those belly gaskets....used the new stuff and pan ...been good for 3 years.

I have a 1997 1500 with a 360 that does the exact same thing only the #8 cylinder... Put a new intake gasket in and tuned it up still does it... Runs great otherwise just fouls the number 8 plug once in a while because of all the oil...

About the possible warping of the intake man, this may be the reason and problem? We checked the plugs on both sides. Plugs on driverside were alittle wet, plugs on pass side were dry except for the front no.2, it had alittle oil. Upon removing the intake initially we noticed that the heads of the last two bolts on either side were completely corroded off. I'm sure this happened during the last 30 to 40 thousand miles. This most likely could have caused the intake to warp over time? when we replaced everything and torqued down the intake, it lasted for four days then back to leaking again. What we will do next is re-torque the bolts again being they probably lossened up and see what happens? if it solves the problem again then we know its a warped intake and then procced from there. Thanks for the input you guys. Let you know what happens.

Yep found oil build up in the rear of the intake again so it most likely is due to a warped manifold being the rear bolts were corroded and nothing to keep it tight during the years.