John,

You were right, it was a frozen vent tube. Here's the story in a nut shell. After I bought the truck, I had a strong diesel smell in the cab.....a bit more than the normal from what I smelled on my previous diesel truck and judging by other CTD's I have ridden in. When I took my truck in for servicing, I told the service technician about it. They ended up extending the vent tube back beyond the cab, in a horizontal position. (I should have known better.) Anyway, all has been well for the past 1 1/2 years until I took my recent job in Montana. The weather has been quite cold to the point of 20 degrees plus below zero. Guess what? The vent tube froze up and blew oil everywhere.

The dealer up here said Chrysler is not responsible for modifications done like that and I would have to pay for it. I called Chrysler Customer Service and they suggested taking it up with the dealer that performed the modification. They are only 1300 miles away from me in Washington. So, I called up and they ended up paying for the work. The dealer I brought it too removed the extended breather tube, put dye in the oil and checked for leaks on the engine including the rear main seal. They assured me all is well now.

I'm hoping I didn't weaken any seals that will come back to haunt me later.

I asked where the oil leaked out from and they said the exhaust??? Thought that was strange.......

With the built up crankcase pressure, I'm suprised I didn't blow out engine seals everywhere.

Lesson learned here is don't mess with your breather tube.....if you do, keep it in the vertical position and check it now and then when you go plowing through snow, mud, etc.

Ending thought: I'm wondering if any oil blew out through the vent tube filter if in fact I have one. Some say on the forum that we have what seems to be a sealed plastic box located under the plastic valve cover.......breather tube attaches to that......any confirmation on this? I may remove my plastic valve cover to see for myself what's under there.