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Bruno
Dodge Dakota
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11/01/2003
05:59:03

Subject: Egine Problems!
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I have a '99 3.9L Dakota. It has about 37,000 miles on it. Recently, I've been having problems with the engine. It won't rev above 3,000 rpms, it backfires and the exhaust is spewing out thick white smoke with a strong gas smell. After it warms up, it stalls bad. I don't know what the problem is. I replaced the O2 sensor and the spark plugs. Any ideas what this could be?



Just Looking
Dodge Dakota
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11/01/2003
12:22:36

RE: Egine Problems!
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did u mess with the distributer timing in anyway?
if u did this could be a problem cause it sets fuel sync usually it backfires in the engine area through ur tb
or
u have some bad injectors pull em out and take a look at em
maybe some disconnected or bad spark plug wires
Do u have a check engine light?
If so heres how to check for codes
starting with the key off check the code by on-off-on-off-on (on does not mean start)look at ur trucks mileage meter it will show a number/s then after u have the code/s go to...
http://www.ptcruizer.com/computer-codes.html

or post it here if u dont know what they are saying

btw white smoke means ur spewing raw gas sometimes meaning its not being ignited or way to much is being put through



Bruno
Dodge Dakota
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11/01/2003
23:20:09

RE: Egine Problems!
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I haven't messed with the timing at all. I do have the check engine light on, but I tried the on-off-on-off-on with no results. I'll check the injectors. If gas is not being ignited or too much is being put through, what would cause this?

Thanks!



Just Looking
Dodge Dakota
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11/02/2003
02:40:04

RE: Egine Problems!
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hmmm the on-off trick should have showed the trouble codes hmmm.
well take a look at this site it shows u how also
http://www.ptcruizer.com/computer-codes.html
and they probable explain it better

well on to the things that would cause ur white smoke... bad injectors, bad spark, even a valve not closing the codes would really help btw some places scan ur codes for free that may be a helpful option
something else came to mind it could be wires going to the wrong cylinders

has this problem just showed up for no reason or has it happened after some work was done to the vehicle?



woohoo
Dodge Dakota
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11/02/2003
02:54:51

RE: Egine Problems!
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I tried that code on my turck out of curiosity and I got the code "P done" what does that mean?



answer
Dodge Dakota
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11/02/2003
05:30:46

RE: Egine Problems!
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"P DONE" means that your truck is about to explode.

Bruno, if your truck is "spewing out thick white smoke", it sounds like you're burning coolant. Is the coolant level going down? If so you could have blown a head gasket or cracked a head. Also, don't rule out the dreaded "BELLY PAN GASKET".

Pull your plugs and see if one is radically more cagged up than the others. That will tell you which, if any, particular cylinder is giving you grief.

As for the code thing, you're going too slow. It's ON-OFF-ON-OFF-ON very rapidly, make sure it hits the "RUN" position but not the start.



Bruno
Dodge Dakota
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11/02/2003
09:12:28

RE: Egine Problems!
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There hasn't been any work done to the car. Just started to happen one day. At first, I thought it was just bad gas. A little hesitation on accelaration, but then it seemed to blow itself out. Then it just got worse and worse. Longer periods of hesitation, back-firing, and now won't rev over 2000rpms. And the white smoke. Coolant is a little low. I'm overseas, so I can't just take it to an Autozone to run a diagnostics check. I took out all the spark plugs. None seems worse than the others, but they are all blackened and a little oily. I had replaced the spark plugs in April. I checked all the wires and they are where they are supposed to be.



jstdume
Dodge Dakota
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11/02/2003
11:28:37

RE: Egine Problems!
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the thick white smoke is definetely coolant entering the combustion chamber somehow...blown head gasket, blown intake manifold gasket, cracked head..etc. The reason that you can't rev it up is either that it is spewing so much coolant into the cylinder that it can't overcome it or time has taken it's toll and plugged up the exhaust. Get your hands on a compression tester adn do a compression test. This should give you a good indication if you have a blown head gasket or not.



Just Looking
Dodge Dakota
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11/02/2003
13:13:55

RE: Egine Problems!
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ok... "p done" means the scan is done This test shows u ur trouble codes and the site tells u what they mean

If ur spark plugs are dirty i highly doubt ur getting coolant in ur combustion process if u where the spark plugs would be clean cause it turns into steam and cleans stuff up
An old carbon cleaning trick is to pour a little water down the intake while the engine is running

since the plugs are oily it could be a bad pcv valve or head gasket but the head gasket usually makes u ping also look down ur tb is there any oil puddles down there if so then this may be it

Do u have any noticable drop in oil?



jstdume
Dodge Dakota
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11/02/2003
13:31:26

RE: Egine Problems!
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Water turns to steam however the actual coolant does not, after a short period of time it begins to wash the light coat of oil film off of the cylinders which in turn causes the cylinder to not seal properly, when this happens excessive oil will begin to enter the cylinder, being that the cylinder will not be able to fire due to the lack of compression(steam will not form because there is no heat) oily residue will build up on the plugs, when is the last time that you saw plain water clean oil...it don't happen. Find the cause of the coolant entering the cylinder and fix it and quit trying to mess around with reading trouble codes, there isn't a mfg in the world who has a trouble code for a blown head gasket. And just because you may not have coolant in the oil doesn't mean that you don't have a bad gasket, it just means that it isn't getting into the oil



J and J Auto
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11/02/2003
20:11:25

RE: Egine Problems!
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Take a compresion check and see if you have a leak
in one of the head gaskits it will show up.

Larry
J&J Auto

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