on cold mornings without plug ins, i get rough starts....idle is set art 800 so its goog...but when i start it i gotta hold her at 1000rpms for about 10-15 sec ...it shakes...smokes white kinda chokes on itself for 10 sec....then smoothens out and its all good i let her warm up for a couple min and the white smoke goes away


im making a list of things to look into....
1) timing ...im thinking thats my biggest problem never been checked since factory i dont think
2) over flow valve?
3) fuel filter?
3) pre heater?

anything else i should scope out when the weather breaks??

 

what about your grid heaters,are they working,check or change rubber fuel lines,service the prefilter-here is a link http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/filter/pre-filt_clean.htm

 

Sounds just like my 95...........untill I raised the timing to 16.5. No more white smoke.

Used to be on long downhill sections in the Rockies (miles of downhill) mine would smoke like a fog machine, last fall after rasing the timing, even that smoke was gone.

 

yeah bud i kinda figured its probably the timing...like i know its been cold up by my neck of the woods this winter and white smoke is expected but i know whats normal during cold starts and whats not...im gonna get that timing done as soon as i find a place that will do it to 16 degrees without soiling themselves

 

I was having identical problems with my 1994.

My heater/strainer was burned up so when I decided to break down and fix it I decided to replaced fuel lines from tank to engine, new lift pump, rebuilt the heater/strainer, new overflow valve, and adjusted the valve clearance.

All done with these repairs and I think I helped it some, it idles great but it always did, it runs rough and wants to fall on its face if I stomp on the pedal while it's cold along with still producing a fair share of eye burning whitish/blue smoke. Runs as smooth as a sewing machine at RPM's below 2000 while cold but doesn't seem real confident to run much over that.

Guys on DTR have said I need to have the timing checked so I guess that's my next step along with making sure my heater grid is operating.

Let me know what you find out, I'm probably not the only one that shares your problem.

 

my 94 does the same thing. she gets real crabby with me till she gets warm. I also need to get my timing done but I dont have any shops around here that know what they are doing. Everytime I mention timing they all back up and make weird faces, lmao. So ill just figure out how to do it and do it myself. Gotta love this site, I have learned too much for my own good!!!!!

 

well thats what im saying...give me a day with the tools and im a happy camper....be a couple 24's for ya for lending me the tools...too many lil tools for the job...a gear puller is no problem..barring the engine is no problem...i need that adapter for the #1 fuel line...and a couple of the other pieces....

glad to see im not the only one experiencing this....as far as im concerned its the timing

 

I would attempt checking the timing myself also if I could get access to the tools necessary.

Just don't know if I have the confidence to reset it if it's off from the factory setting.

Hang in there guys!

 

Mine doesent smoke to bad, but if i try revving it up when its cold it will start missing at 1800-2k , and rolling the white/blue smoke. I am also thinking timing, as i doubt its ever been set, and its probably slipped a little from factory. I would like to do 16-16.5*. I am also thinking this will solve my problem. My buddies truck also does the same thing(95), and my uncles doesent do it as bad, but will do it(97), but dads doesent really miss, but maybe just a little when its cold. Im thinking timing though. I replaced my O/F valve with a little improvement, but not much. It also misses(and white.blue smokes) at high rpm's(2900+) even when fully warm. You can drive it 300 miles straight and it still does it, so im thinking timing myself. I hope to get mine done soon, and when/if i do I will start a thread if it fixes my problems. Keep us updated

Eric

 

does your truck sometimes shutoff/stall while its choking and stumbling. mine was doing it a few months ago. i looked at my batteries and the terminal for the grid heater was coroded in half.

 

Sometimes if its pretty cold and i leave it unplugged and fire it without any throttle it will lope really bad a few times, and die, but it never dies when it pops or anything like that.

Eric

 

I agree with the heater grid as the first thing to look at. When you fire it up, you should see the volt meter drop and rise as it cycles. If it is not, then my guess would be to check what halerazor said, the battery terminal connection. Very common.

Good luck.

 

That is the best thing that gave me more mileage on my 95 auto. I have 3.54 gears. I set my timing up the first time and I had never heard of TDR. But I will say that I found out the 95 has two different timing charts. I used the wrong one at first, the truck got good mileage and really responded good to the throttle. After finding about the other chart from the TDR, I changed the timing back to 18 degrees. I did not see a change in mileage. When I installed injectors 215, I installed the washers I thought were the correct ones, however I did not like the way the engine ran. I asked around and I installed, the next day, the thinnest washers in the kit. That helped a lot or I thought so. I have to wonder when I changed the timing the spray from the injectors was different in the bowl of the piston. By lowering the injector in the head I brought the spray angle closer to what It was. Fuel economy with the combination of the increased timing and 215 injectors and the thin washers make a difference in mileage, power, and egts. If you look at the off set bowl you have to wonder how a set of injectors that have the spray angle to compensate for that and a extra hole too add more fuel would work. Does not adding bigger injectors also advance the timing a little. Or at least add the fuel early in the injector cycle to help on power and lower egts . Just an idea Jim

 

Yeah. My grids work fine though. Starts a lot better when its cold using them, and my volt meter draws down hard so i know its working.

Eric

 

yeah my grid heater works fine as well and cycles the way it should when cold...when im cold and rev it past 2000 i definitely get white smoke...when fully warm its pretty much gone...i think the a new overflow valve and timing bump will completely get rid of the problem and make the truck feel brand new maybe better

Andrew

i'll keep you guys posted as the timing should be done by next weekend time permitting