2001 excursion limited with 6.8L V-10.
On cold mornings or when the truck sits for while on a cold day, It puts out one large cloud of grey smoke just at start up. The colder and more humid the temp., the bigger the cloud. I keep this truck in a garage, in the morning it fills the garage with smoke that lingers in the air for hours. Other than that, the truck runs like a bear, it uses about 1 quart of oil every 750 to 1000 miles. Ford says that is normal till about 8000 miles and tells me that all of the V-10's do the smoke thing on cold start ups. One thing that I have noticed, after shutting the truck down at night, if I wait about 15 minutes and start it up to move it, then shut it down again, it doesn't smoke at all in the morning. Anybody have anything like this going on?

 

Are you sure its grey and not white? Grey is oil. White is water. White would indicate condensed water in the exhaust system evaporating. Grey would not be a good thing.

Ken Payne
Ford Truck Enthusiasts Admin

 

There is something wrong with your vehicle. No modern car smokes like that on startup. And your rig is a LEV! (low emission vehicle)

I would take it back to the Ford dealer, and don't pick it up until they have fixed it. If they won't help you out, find another dealer or call Ford's 800 number to escalate the issue.

You can also go to Ford's owner site (www.ownerconnection.com) and register there with your VIN. Then you can use that site to escalate the problem with Ford.

fyi//Reno

 

Problem solved
The dealer started an oil consumption test on the engine, 1st. 250 miles, no oil consumption, next 140 miles 3.5 quarts gone. They took the truck into the shop and contacted ford. they found that there were no oil return ports in the right cylinder head. During operation, oil was pumped up into the right valve cover and had no way to return to the oil pan. While driving up hill the oil level in the valve cover would get high enough to be sucked into the PCV system, when driving on flat roadways the oil would return to the pan through a small slot in one of the cam bearing caps. The pinging was caused by the O2 sensor seeing the smoke from the oil and trying to lean out the fuel mixture. The symptoms were as follows, 1. large puff of blue smoke on start up. 2. pinging while climbing hills. 3. excessive oil consumption.
I was told the engine needed to be replaced. at first I told the dealer that I wanted the truck replaced but to make a long story short, Ford would not discuss that as an option at this point so I told them to replace the engine and I would accept the repair pending the quality of the installation. They Installed a new engine in the truck, the installation was flawless. The new engine does not smoke on start up at all and has not consumed any lube oil in the 1st. 3000 miles. now that is what I consider normal, the engine doesn't ping at all under any conditions. If anyone is being told by their dealer or by the ford insider hot line that is is normal for the V-10 to consume oil or ping under load, you are being told incorrect information. Through the entire ordeal, the dealer has been great, they did everything possible to make thing right, they did a great job replacing the engine, there is no evidence that it was ever done. Ford on the other hand was NO help to me, the insider hot line was a waste of time and the ford rep is not there for you, he is there for ford. I feel the ford has let me down as a company. If it weren't for the dealer, this baby would have turned into a suburban.

 

You mentioned that the dealer was helpful but that Ford and its local representative were not helpful in your ordeal.

I would think they'd be falling all over themselves to help you, after letting such a monstrous casting defect slip thru their engine assembly line and testing.

I just found out that my steering box has a crooked splined output shaft. That is probably why my truck has never steered well since new, despite three attempts by Ford to align it. I hope the Ford rep does not give me grief about fixing the steering under warrantee. I might invoke the lemon law.

fyi//Reno

 

Good luck with your steering problem. Like I said earlier, the ford dealer I worked with was most helpful, they did everything in their power to help me and did an excellent job repairing my truck. Again, Ford as a company showed no effort at all in making me happy. they just said fix it. All info lines just told me what I wanted to hear and not what I needed to know.
I have always been a ford owner, this time ford has let me down, I feel that I have purchased a product that has been produce in a factory with extremely poor quality control, they won't hold themselves responsible for this. I have spent my hard earned money on nothing other than a used car with a replacement engine.
I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER FORD PRODUCT AND WILL NEVER RECOMEND ONE TO ANYONE ELSE.
Find a good dealer with quality techs and good luck.

One more thing, the engine oil returns has not been my only problem, Originally I took delivery on the truck with obvious trim pieces missing and at least a million rattles which I repaired myself. It seems they laid off the quatlity control department just before they built my truck.

Again, good luck