Cummins NTC 400 Blue Smoke

check the oil level and see if it is using any and how much for starters.

 

I had one that did the same. It had lots of miles on it. When you first started it or, after long periods of idleing it would smoke blue smoke for a short while. The truck used very little oil. One and A half gallons of oil use between 15,000 mile services.
Throttle it up to 1000rpms while idleing. It seemed to help some. Keep an eye on your oil use. Hopefully,you do not have a problem.

 

It's normal mine does it until it warms up........but monitor it....call Pete over at PP he would be able to tell ya

 

This is normal on all NTC as is a fixed timing engine. Timing of injectors is set retarded so it runs clean and plenty of power under load but the drawback is smoke at idle and cold start. Cam timing could be changed to cure this but also loose power. STC and Electronic engines fixed this problem.

 

Four of our rigs have the NTC400 in them. They all smoke on a cold startup until they get close to operating temperature.
It's funny because we actually have an old timer with the 350 in it and it doesn't show a puff of smoke during a cold startup.

 

ntc 400s were a bit smokey but it should clear up at about 120 degrees you may need a valve set intake recession is a known issue . the older ntc fired cleaner because of more advanced timing and higher compression ratio. If the truck isn't going to pull hard maybe you can find a cummins guy to tweek the timing a bit to clean it up. Don't try to make it stay on the full mark. I.e. don't add oil until the add mark and when it wants it's second gallon change it. Last of the 359s keep it. Plug it in till the block feels warm prolly 6 hrs if it's cold

 

My Detroit does the same in cold weather. Puffs the blues until engine get's to the operating range.