I've been loving my truck a lot lately, but even ecstasy at the results
of your own work doesn't mean nothing else will go wrong. I just
thought I'd share my evening's experiences with all of you....
Anne and I were on our way from Rochester westbound on 490 and 90 to
Pembroke, NY (just over halfway to Buffalo) to meet my dad for lunch.
About 3/4 of the way there, I notice that I started blowing a lot of
blue smoke. My oil pressure was fine so I didn't outright panic but I
did pull over to check things out. I found that I was loosing oil from
somewhere around the adaptor landing for my dual oil filter relocation
kit, and it was burning off the header and y-pipe giving me a nice blue
trail.
I mucked around for a minute or two and couldn't tell at all exactly
where it was coming from. Restarting the truck didn't produce any
clues, either.... I decided my hose clamps were loose, so I tightened
them and we were on our way. The smoke thinned out and I figured we
were all right with the last of it burning off the exhaust. Just shy
of exit 48A for Pembroke, the smoke thickened again, so I knew all was
not well. I pressed on keeping a tight eye on my oil pressure (which
never wavered) thinking I'd just head into town to get an oil filter
after lunch, and take the relocation kit out of the picture.
After lunch and making sure dad's truck started (he's had trouble with
it the last two mornings - it seems his fuel pump is loosing prime when
it sits overnight, but was fine for the 2.5 hours it was shut down
during lunch. So he'll probably get to spend tomorrow afternoon at a
fine Rochester Freighshaker dealer....) all of us went out to take a
look at my problem. We saw more of the same (nothing specific) so
after putting in a quart to replace the one I'd lost in the last 20
miles I fired it up to see if anything had changed. Now instead of a
mystery leak I was looking at oil slowly pouring out of the return line
where it had abraded against the engine mount.
I had some other hoses in the truck, but all were 3/8" ID instead of
the 1/2" I needed, so the first plan of quickly replacing that hose was
out. I also couldn't get a large enough radius bend in the remaining
good hose to not kink it in order to bypass the filters. I decided to
pull the landing and see if one of the filters I was using would fit
even though I was thinking it was the wrong spec for a Magnum engine.
I'd installed the relocation kit before my headers, and the collector
is in such a position now that I had to partially disassemble my
fittings in order to get it out, but once I did, I was able to pull one
of my two relocated M1-204s and put it back on the stock location. No
visible leaks and I didn't use any at all on my way home.
Unfortunately I missed the car wash closing by an hour thanks to my
delays so the right side of the truck is still nearly dripping in oil.
I'm sure the shop doing the alignment tomorrow will appreciate that =((
-- Mike Maskalans <http://mike.tepidcola.com/dodge/> '98 Dakota SLT 318 4x4 SFA & 35s '84 RamCharger Royale SE 360 4x4 stock & 32s mobile.612.618.4652 home.585.935.7129
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