I haven't posted in awhile, but I have tried searching and I figured I might get a better answer if I just asked my question outright.

I've started to redo the body on my truck and while the cab and front clip is off I started to give the engine a little tlc. I have owned the truck since new and noticed the past couple of years it would smoke blue pretty good when it was first started cold and then stop once it was warm. It never lost any substantial amounts of oil and the only leaks were the valve cover gaskets (fixing that). Anyway, since the truck has 300k miles and it was so easy to do with no body panels in the way, I pulled the injectors to get them cleaned and tested. They all came out nice, as I took off a line and used that and a wrench against the exhaust manifold to pry them out (worked like a charm). Injectors one through four "looked" good and I could see the holes clearly on the tip. On injector number 6 I couldn't see the holes due to carbon, and injector number 5 was completely covered in black oil. Not diesel fuel either. It was all over the tip and around the body. So what would this indicate? Could this be my blue smoke issue? FWIW I haven't started the truck in 2 months prior to pulling the injectors. Sorry for the big post.
Thanks for all the help!

 

i hear in cold weather blue smoke is normal at start-up due to poor atomization.

oil on the injctors to me would indicate bad rings

 

My first gen started putting out bluish smoke shortly before the VE pump went. Prior to that it would only put out white smoke in very cold weather, or black smoke when I got on the throttle.

I don't know about the oil on the injectors. In addition to what Lucas1 mentioned, could it maybe be bad valve seals? That's a total WAG though.

 

Walk into the cloud and inhale. Oil burning smells like oil. Cold diesel smoke burns your eyes.

 

okay thanks guys. faith i will try that when i start it soon.

 

would testing the compression identify the problem?

 

The big retaining nuts that hold the injectors in the head...they have little square 'o-rings' in them. When they dry out, shrink, crack etc. a leaky valve cover can easily deposit some oil/crud down in the hole in the head, making the injector look like a mess when it comes out. That could be part culprit in your issues. As Faith said, do the sniff test on the smoke first to see what you're dealing with on that end. Compression test is never a bad idea, but these engines are pretty easy on rings/cylinder walls in my experience. Good luck in your search for the issue