Had to trade the '03 last week due to unresolved problems with excessive fuel smoking. Last November the dealership siezed my engine during an oil change, and replaced the engin and turbo without cost to me (also gave me a 2500 as a loaner). Original reported problem was stumbling RPM at idle. Chrysler star had them replace the injectors (after the new motor change), which did not fix the problem. I suggested that the problem was a faulty fuel return valve on the injection pump due to pressure dropping just before the stumble. Chrysler had them pour a small amount of 2-cycle oil into the fuel, which solved the problem for 2 tanks full, but problem returned after that. Chrysler replaced the injection pump at that point under warranty. Dealer worked with me for the past 6 months trying to get the resulting black clouds of smoke eliminated, to no avail. Dealership owner looked at case history and made me a good trade deal to the new 2005 in my signature. Last thing Star told the dealership about the smoking was "tell the customer not to idle so much". I don't idle except in rush hour traffic, and that is minimal - it became apparent that the truck would never get back to original condition, and Chrysler wasn't a lot of help. The dealership owner made a good adjustment to assist me in trading up to a new vehicle (he paid for my Line-X and Ebrake out of his pocket).

I must say the new 6-spd tranny is much smoother than the one on my '03 was, and the 610 lb/ft motor is quieter and smoother than the other one. Will have to get guages, but will do that as I have money and time.

 

Good to hear that you had a dealer that would work with you. Since it'a a "good" report, why don't you throw out their name.

 

Smith Chrysler Dodge in Waxahachie TX.

 

You know they are reaching when they want you to put 2-cycle oil in it and don't idle so much.

Yeah, that'll fix it.

 

The 2-cycle oil at the time made sense, since we thought the return valve might be sticking, and if slicking it up cured the symptom, then we had the problem correctly diagnosed. I still believe that was the correct diagnosis and correction, since the problem went away after the injection pump was replaced. Having said that, I put over 6500 miles on the vehicle since then, and the smoking only abated some, and milage was still lower than when I bought the truck new - this told me that the 2-cycle oil diagnostic probably gummed up the injector nozzles a little and Chrysler had no idea what to look for next. My dealer tried dropping the tank and flushing it a few times to get rid of any residue of the oil, also changed the fuel filters each time they did that, ran run-time diagnostics on the daignostic machine to look at operational parameters, but the smoking only occured under acceleration or holding a hill (even running empty), so diagnostics in the shop bay at idle or no-load wouldn't have shown any parameters being off "normal".

But like you said, "too much idling" - that'll fix it. Even the dealer was rolling their eyes on that one.

 

I cant believe that a little 2 stroke oil would contaminate anything. Cummins says you can run 5% used motor oil in your fuel tank.

 

Hmmm, my 04.5 will put out a great plume of the black stuff when I step on it. Wasn't gonna worry about it but now?? Any suggestions guys? Anybody else smoking on the 04.5's?

And it doesn't matter if I have a box on or not, it smokes just as much either way. And the new in-tank lift pump doesn' make a difference either.

Ken

 

The turbocharger is what puts air to it to eliminate the smoke, The computer is suposed to hold back fuel feed untill the turbo winds up enough to get a clean burn. If your getting a big puff of smoke then the computer isnt restrickting the feed correctly.

 

600 series engines just smoke some...Don't worry about it, it's completely normal. If you really don't like the smoke, you should have got an SO.

 

I've never seen an unchipped 600 smoke

Good to hear you have a dealer that cares about its customers. I sure wish I could find one of those around here

 

They only smoke when you first gag it, taking off from a stop. You can also see it at night in other traffic's headlights at WOT. They all smoke, it's just whether or not you pay enough attention. Every 600 I've driven that's stock does it, Cat or not...

 

My new one isn't blowing any smoke clouds at all, even under acceleration, so I will presume that smoking on a stock engine is not normal. The dealership even reloaded the ECM at one point - no difference. The only thing that wasn't stock on the old truck was the Ram Air III, but I had that on before all this happened, so I know it wasn't that either. It is possible that the new injectors (one or many of them) could have been defective from the factory when first installed. It would have been interesting to know what the problem was, but I'm not going to dwell on it.