Grant it, that's an easy enough test to prove/disprove, but it makes absolutely zero sense. Sure 51K seems very little to have a seal where out, but then again, 30K seems awful short for a fuel injector to stop working too. **** happens.

His symptoms are classic valve seals. Can't see how "bad gas" would cause a bit of "greyish" smoke to come out temporarily. Let's not forget the symptom of the amount of smoke is directly proportional to the length of time the truck sits. How does bad gas explain that?

Not trying to offend, but knowing a lot about the way an engine works, I just can't see it being "bad gas". Maybe you can shed some more light on reasoning behind your theory?

 

Bad gas (ie high water content) would not burn as completely as normal gas does, during normal driving the converter takes care of the unburnt fuel. At shutdown it gets caught in the cylinders, manifolds, and to a lesser extent the catalytic converter, when he starts it back up the engine and exhaust is cold, it can't burn the high water content fuel as well and it gets by the converter. Thus taking a few seconds to clear up.

Another clue is he says the smoke is greyish, Burnt oil smoke is white, a rich running motor (not all fuel burnt) wil have blueish-grey smoke.

 

Hey Guys,

Well I checked the oil level last night and it's fine. The smoke was a greyish/blue tint and smelled terrible.

The start-up after work was fine with just the faintest trail of smoke coming out one pipe for less then 2 seconds, same thing when I started up again on the way home because I had to stop at the store. Didn't have any smoke this morning when I started up for work. I'm going to keep an eye on it and monitor it.

At least it's better then what it was over the weekend. The smoke on those start-ups was enough to get you wondering if the entire truck was going up in flames. On Sunday it was so bad it looked like I did a NASCAR burn out. I'm just glad it's not to that extent anymore.

Duke

 

That does make sense.

But his symptoms do lean more towards failing seals, at least to me. Duke's latest post really drives this home with :

These symptoms are too inconsistent for contaminated fuel. Sounds like a valve seal which won't stay in place; hence the varying degrees of "smoke" even after sitting for the same amount of time. The mentioning of a bluish tint is also indicative of burnt oil. H20 in the exhaust would definitely be white, and most times have a very faint glycerol odor to it.

 

Even though I feel failing seals is premature giving the mileage, It's possible and in this case probable. Bad gas would be a consistent, whereas seals could produce this condition. These engines are built on an assembly line. Something could have been done wrong during this procedure. But as of now I'm leaning toward a bad seal or one or two not installed correctly or just plain deteriorated. At least it's not a major tear down and can be checked.

 

Would seals be covered under the powertrain warranty?

 

No as only major mechanical components are covered. Such as camshaft, cam bearings etc. If valve seals were listed on the policy, the seals would have to be leaking and not seeping as in your case.

By the way my 05 screw with 35000 miles does this on occasion. It bugged me at first but i done pay much attention to it now.

 

That's what I was trying to say earlier. So I agree 100%. Given todays materials, valve seals shouldn't be a concern for a VERY long time, but things happen. Nothing is a 100% perfect.

Duke should just keep an eye on it and the plugs. If the plugs were to be too contaminated, he'll notice his MPG dropping and the motor will start running/idling rough.

One other possibility, but much less likely is that oil is making it's way into the PCV valve and into the intake track. I haven't bothered to look at the plumbing of this motor to know how everything is arranged. When I was fabricating the blower install on my stang, I had a problem with oil getting sucked through the PCV valve. I just did away with it and let the valve covers vent into the atmosphere.

 

My father in law has a 2005 and his does the same thing a little when he starts up. He has had his motor replaced once to for the fuel injector sticking open. I have a 2004 and no smoke. Maybe it is a 2005 problem?

 

Item Part Number Description
1 14A464 Positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) heater element electrical connector
2 6K817 PCV heater element tube quick-release fitting
3 W701724 PCV heater element bolts (2 required)
4 9F695 PCV heater element
5 — PCV heater element O-ring seal (part of 9F695)

Removal and Installation

Disconnect the battery ground cable. For additional information, refer to Section 414-01 .
Disconnect the positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) heater element tube quick-release fitting.
Disconnect the PCV heater element electrical connector.
Remove the bolts and the PCV heater element. Remove and discard the O-ring seal.
To install, tighten to 6 Nm (53 lb-in).
To install, reverse the removal procedure.
Install a new O-ring seal on the PCV heater element. Lubricate the O-ring seal with clean engine oil.

 

Wow fellas, thanks for all the info. I'm going to monitor and see if it comes back. I'll have the plugs changed next year as I'll have more free cash around. I never would have thought that building a house and getting married would suck up every penny. Now I even value quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies.

If the plugs look bad when they get pulled in a year, and it's been smoking again between now and then, then I'll just have the seals changed too.

 

mine did something similiar the other day when I changed the oil. At the first start up after changing the oil, I got a big cloud of oil smoke. It was blueish gray and smelled like burning oil. However, it has not done it since the first start up. I really didn't look at the pcv plumbing either, but I was thinking that maybe since I bought the oil in one gallon jugs and used a big funnel I filled the valve cover faster than the oil could drain into the pan. This may have caused some oil to seep into the pcv system and get burned at start up. I have been watching mine since then and have had no smoke since. at least that's what I hope happened.

 

WE HAVE A WINNER! That's the same way they filled my oil during the oil change at the dealer. The hoses were not working so he had to use a big funnel and a jug to fill it. I think that explains why it hasn't done it, the first start-up after getting home was terrible the subsequent start ups were not as bad, only showing a bit of smoke and now it's non-existent.

 

I didn't know the PCV system had a heater element or why? Guess I'll have to explore this a little. Beats me, maybe someone can explain. I don't want to tear it apart to try to figure it out. It's raining like hell right now. Maybe it comes on when temps are below a certain degree?

 

Well I guess I'm going to have to recant on what I thought the problem was. After sitting for 24 hours straight from Friday thru Saturday this weekend, it smoked for the better part of a couple hours, starts and stops as we did some running of errands on Sunday.

I guess it is the valve seals....oh well...not much I can do about it at the moment until it's starts running rough, miss firing or something more drastic then just smoking.