1994 3.0 heavy smoker

[Matt86]

I've been trying to chase some driviability issues with my 1994 Caravan, but I've been more concered with the amount of smoke that's been pouring out of the tail pipe. Not the usual standard blue 3.0 oil smoke but a nasty mix of white/grey with the traditional blue. I checked the coolant overflow bottle and it was bone dry....crap.

Now back in December I had pulled the heads off and did my own valve seals....which may have lead to this issue....or my ebay head gasket set. It dosn't overheat, runs good when warm but when cold runs rough. When warm, it stalls at stops and jerks/bucks on the highway.

I love this van, but I just don't have the time to keep digging in to it.

I'm considering just replacing the engine, for reliablity sake another 3.0.

[RoadWarrior222]

Probably too late but you could try a retorque of your head bolts.

[dodgeshadowchik]

Well, you can usually pick up a used 3.0L for dirt cheap... that would probably be the quickest route to take. But then you are getting something that you don't know the history on. Good thing 3.0L's tend to be pretty reliable minus the oil leaks.

Sounds like you might have a head gasket issue or head issue; something to that effect. Maybe to a compression test on it or a leak down?

[Matt86]

I had some time and energy after work to start digging in to it. I pulled the plugs and they look pretty good, a little dry. I took the upper plenum off and noticed this on the injector harness


If anyone here has worked on a mid 1990s Mercedes Benz or a Ford Countour/Mercury Mistake...thats a fimilar sight. The insulation has broken off in several spots....which I believe is responsible for my intermittent running rough, stalling at stops, and jerking at highway speeds.

I talked to a few of the junkyards we deal with at work...most said "We crushed those cars YEARS ago"...one had a 1994 Voyager 3.0 for $300, but it has 267K on it.....eeeep.

I'm thinking about just getting a parts car.....cragislist is full of dead transmission 3.0 minivans and cars for under $500.

[dodgeshadowchik]

Yea, the A-slip-04's tend to send most of those 3.0L cars to the junkyard. Remember that they sis use the 3.0L in the Daytona, Spirit, Shadow, ect... so you could look into finding one of those, as well.

The injector harness on my old red shadow looked similar too...

[RoadWarrior222]

Personally, I'd probably take the time to pull all the connectors out one by one, decrimp them, clean them, re-tin them, snip the harness back an inch, solder the terminals back on, then heatshrink over the top (remembering to slide the heatsink on first, if you're using the stuff narrower than the terminals fit through.) I'd be done in an hour with materials on hand, as opposed to taking an hour to mooch round a junkyard trying to find something better.

[Spr-T-23]

atleast try fixing the wires before you throw a motor in it, you could be having your inj. firing at al kinds of random times with a plug like that. what do you have to loose, right?

[Ondonti]

I just used liquid tape to clean that up. That happens to all the injector harnesses I have seen.

My Spirit had a bad headgasket for 5 years and it never overheated, even when towing another vehicle 1000 miles through quite a few mountain passes. It finally failed when it filled the cylinder with water during my last towing trip and broke the starter gear loose from the flywheel on restart! F those rods are strong. It slowly ate coolant and ruined the coolant almost instantly.

This really belongs in the 3.0 section, all these threads!

[Matt86]

Okie dokie....been very busy but I did manage to repair the harness so it can be used again. I just need to sum up enough energy to put the damn thing back together and see if it improves any. I don't think it will help the smoke but at least the driveability.

[RoadWarrior222]

Castrol or Pennzoil high mileage oil will help any oil smoking after about a week of driving, but it sounds like coolant is escaping too, so if you wanna bandaid that, some waterglass based rad sealant should work.

[Ondonti]

Just don't drive it for 4 years then wonder why you got stuck in the middle of nowhere like me :P

[Matt86]

So I got it all back together today. Fired it up and she ran pretty good. I ran some Lucas oil stabilizer in it and it really helped to slow the smoking. I took it around the block a few times, did good. So I drove out in to town, ran a few errands. Well, the damn thing started acting up again. Stalling at stops and the bucking/jerking while driving. I've replaced the TPS, IAC, Distributor, repaired the wiring harness and checked all connections and grounds. The only other thing I haven't done was swap the original PCM in to the van. I'm currently running a 1992 3.0 A543 Lebaron PCM as my van is a 3.0 A543 (was originally an auto). I really don't have a lot of time to mess with this van, I love it but I have to park the thing out back as I feel like I can't really trust it anymore.

[Big_P]

no codes?

[RoadWarrior222]

Almost sounds like an SDS (VSS) problem but I'd have thought you'd have noticed the speedo going apesh!t.

[Matt86]

I swapped a good known speed sensor in today after work. Same problem. Runs good for about 15 minutes, then acts up. So I dug out the original PCM and installed it. I noticed it idled a lot smoother, so I drove the heck out of it, about 25 miles. Not a single stall or hiccup. I'll drive it more tomorow, but looks like I may have found the issue.......I sure hope so.

[Dodge Aries K]

Matt, I'll keep my eyes open for a 94 V6 5 speed PCM. I do see them occasionally in the junkyard up here.