Smoke coming out of the puke box??

[mopar440cu]

Ok heres the latest on one of our trucks...Now theres , what a peers to be, white smoke coming out of the drain tube that connects to the puke box in the front of the motor. What gives, and what does this mean???

[ISX]

That is where the blowby comes out. Crankcase vent really. Just means it's breaking in lol. A lot of smoke means it's got excessive wear on the piston rings since compression is "blowing by" excessively.

[white01]

exactly....since our engines make 17:1 to 18:1 compression ratio!!!cool huh?

[Mopar1973Man]

I would suggest you think about my crankcase mod... http://mopar.mopar1973man.com/personal/2002/crankcase-vent/crankcase-vent.htm Because typically the oil vapor will plug the radiator face up.. Plus not to meantion the 2 TSBs for the problem. As for the white smoke coming out the vent it could be seeing water vapor coming out from the high humidity nights. But when to worry is when the underside of the truck is coated in oil and the your constantly adding oil to the crankcase. If your not doing that you fine with a vapor leaving the crankcase.

[mopar440cu]

Mopar1973 what is a "TSB" ?.........I dont have oil coming out of the tube just alittle smoke. I did notice that i have a little gasket leak on the intake manifold. Im going to replace it this weekend. Could this cause it?? Again thanxs for any info!!!

[ISX]

Truck Service Bulletin, kinda like a recall notice, means be aware of these issues.. Your manifold gasket won't do it, it pretty well all lies in the piston ring's state of wear. I have enough smoke coming out of mine to form into droplets of oil that drip out when I park it :banghead: but that is just a sign that I have a lot of miles, still won't get below 20mpg so it takes a lot more blowby than that to tell you your engine is worn out.

[Mopar1973Man]

Truck Service Bulletin, kinda like a recall notice, means be aware of these issues.. Your manifold gasket won't do it, it pretty well all lies in the piston ring's state of wear. I have enough smoke coming out of mine to form into droplets of oil that drip out when I park it :banghead: but that is just a sign that I have a lot of miles, still won't get below 20mpg so it takes a lot more blowby than that to tell you your engine is worn out.

Close... Really close... Technical Service Bulletin...

But ISX is right that its a service bulletin that Dodge/Cummins put out in regards to the possible problem with your truck, safety issues, etc.

As for the oil weepage it could be a valve cover issue... But as for wore rings I really don't it unless your putting a lot of oil in it over time... CaJflynn here has 807K miles on his 2001 Dodge 3500 truck. He's actually got wear he's putting a few quarts in every day. But he covers between 800-1000 miles a day towing boat cross country.

[ISX]

Technical-Truck same difference I don't think anyone would ever have a blowby issue on a truck that is taken care of on up to 400-500k. Your mileage will drop at the same time your blowby increases. I don't know what CajFlynn gets for mileage but theres a guy around here with somewhere around 900k on a 12v and he tops out at 12mpg since there is almost no compression left.

[Mopar1973Man]

At that point you bore it out, re-sleeve it, and put new pistons in... Or just find another block that is low in miles...

[mopar440cu]

Truck Service Bulletin, kinda like a recall notice, means be aware of these issues.. Your manifold gasket won't do it, it pretty well all lies in the piston ring's state of wear. I have enough smoke coming out of mine to form into droplets of oil that drip out when I park it :banghead: but that is just a sign that I have a lot of miles, still won't get below 20mpg so it takes a lot more blowby than that to tell you your engine is worn out.

Thanxs ISX...........I have around 280k on it and do alot of towing with it. She still has alot of power, but I maintenance her well. In fact Im going back to the original turbo with a j-hook to get lower egts, changing a exhaust rocker arm#4 ( due to the plastic cap busted and they only sell it as a complete rocker arm only), and changing the intake manifold gasket this weekend!

[white01]

intake manifold gasket...hhhmmm...if a person had the dollars now would be the time to put a thetunnelram.com on the truck...are those sweet or what!!!!!!

[Wild and Free]

There is a simple test for excessive blowby for all engines with the use of a manometer, any shop would probably let you borrow one. The procedure and good or bad specs is in pretty much every engine manual I have ever seen. I don't have a manual but if someone does could you post up the procedure from the FSM for him please so he can see how easy and simple it is.

[guesswho512]

There is a simple test for excessive blowby for all engines with the use of a manometer, any shop would probably let you borrow one. The procedure and good or bad specs is in pretty much every engine manual I have ever seen. I don't have a manual but if someone does could you post up the procedure from the FSM for him please so he can see how easy and simple it is.

http://www.cumminsforum.com/forum/94-98-powertrain/8684-how-much-blowby.html

or the same thing without everyone's posts

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_is_excessive_blow_by_in_a_5.9L_cummins

and here it says these # are at 100% load. i don't know how to achieve that without a dyno but:

http://www.4btswaps.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-9298.html

and this guy says if the #'s are bad, do a leak down test before rushing into a rebuild:

http://dieselenginetrader.com/diesel_talk/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=3679

---------- Post added at 02:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 PM ----------

another gentleman said it best. "Generally speaking, the rings on a Cummins will outlast the Dodge."

"It is much more common to have a head gasket start to leak, or to have some cracking happen on the exhaust valves. Either problem can reduce compression, and affect performance."

also a vacuum leak can cause excess blow by

[Mopar1973Man]

Had to copy that over... Make it easier to find next time... (thanks! for the find Guesswho512) You need a blowby tool. The Cummins blowby orifice tool is simply a tee with one .221" (15/64-in) outlet. Connect one end of the tee to the end of the blowby tube. Put a manometer on last tee outlet. That is your blowby tool. They sell them at the Cummins, but I have made my own plenty of times, less than $10. A simple manometer can be made by looping into a 'U' 6 feet of clear tubing with water in it half way. Measure how high the water level rises with a tape measure, multiply it by 2, convert it to LPMs. Rough conversion is 1"= 27 lpm, add 3 lpm for each one inch (1/2'' of rise in the tube) of water The reason for multiplying by 2 is that inches of water equals the water rise in the open end of the tube plus the inches the water is pushed down on the engine side of the water tube. For simplicity my numbers below are the measurement of rise only. Cummins new 5.9 engine numbers are: 63 liters per minute(2.5" water rise) @ 2200rpm, 76 L/Min (3.5" rise) @ 2500rpm 85 L/Min (4.5" rise) @ 2800rpm. Worn engine that needs rebuilding are roughly double i.e. 126 L/Min(10.5"rise) @ 2200rpm 152 L/Min(14.5"rise) @ 2500rpm 170 L/Min(17"rise) @ 2800 rpm Beside indicating a compression problem the valves could also be out of adjustment. Another way (mine), same idea, is to block the blowby tube with a 1/2'' pipe nipple with a cap that has a 15/64 hole drilled in it. Use 3/8'' id looped clear tubing with water in it slipped over the oil dipstick tube. Other tubing end remains open. Use a sharp tipped felt marker to mark the water level with the engine off, have a helper start an already warmed up engine and run the rpms up to 2.2, 2.5 & 2.8k rpms. Mark each water level with the pen, measure the distance from engine off mark then multiply each by 2. This is all very simple to do, just hard to explain with words.