I am looking at a 2004 Dodge 4 door auto. This will be my first ever Diesel and frankly I know very little about them.

The truck is at a used car lot but I was able to track down the previous owner. He tells me that he was getting some blow-by and some steam coming from the lower part of the engine?????? He tells me that the smell was so bad he could not run with the windows down.

He further tells me that the dealer tried to fix it twice but was not successful. I am sure that they will have it fixed now but I am curious about what this would indicate.

I would love to give you more information but we were on a bad cell phone connection and that is all I have at this point. Any suggestions, what to look for??????

 

are on the truck?
If it is an 04 and it already has blowby, sheesh.
The "steam" comes from a rubber hose that is connected to the engine, and comes out by the oil pan. If this is true steer clear.

 

Ramrod, I appreciate the reply but please inform me, what could be causing it? Educate me.

 

If the truck has blowby, this means the truck has had alot of use ie.. pulling ect.
What primarily causes this is wear of the rings or cylinder allowing compression to leak by and "blowby". If you let the truck warm up and pull the oil dipstick and see it puffing smoke out of it then yes it has blowby.

Also if you see smoke puffing from the blowby tube beneath the engine.
This is cause from one thing. Wear.... The only way to get wear is to heavily use the truck. I am not talking 100,000 miles either.

We have dodge trucks at out trucking company hotshoting and your looking at 200k+ before you really start getting alot of noticeable blowby.

Sounds to me the truck had had a hard life for an 04, if it has blow by.
Your going to be in for alot of repair costs eventually. I would look for another truck.

 

I appreciate it. The truck has 30K on it. Like I said, I am new to the world of Diesel engines and trying to learn before I jump in.

 

Na, I hardly doubt that, probably got a different odometer in it.....lol
Did you ask the previous owner what kind of miles he put on it?