Engine/Transmission (1998.5 - 2002) 2001 Dripping Oil

[WM-300]

My son has a 2001 CTD. He has a oil drip problem. here is a cut/paste of the description of his problem. Any thoughts most appreciated



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Dad, I am experiencing a oil leak on the front of the engine. Today I degreased the engine so that I could try to figure out where it is coming from. It looks like the road draft tube is the source of the oil. It looks like there is some type of filter/valve/?? that the hose attaches to. Can these be defective? I am loosing a considerable amount of oil, not just the standard drip

 

[NWhitney]

I was having the same problem with my 01 CTD. The "road draft tube" is called the Crankcase Breather Hose. This lets the positive pressure out of the crankcase from the normal engine "blowby" the piston rings. On the 01 trucks DC got the bright idea that they would install a "catch can" of sorts on to the Breather hose. This Catch can is really just a large pill bottle (read advil bottle) with holes punched in the top to hold the oil that would drip out of the bottle, and still let out the positive pressure. This bottle was not present on any other truck up too this year. The idea was that it would be dumped after each oil change and it would never fill up. Problem is someone forgot to tell anyone to dump it!! It is just full and needs to be pulled off the hose and dumped out. What most members do it take it off and never put it back . I took mine off and added a extra piece of hose to the breather hose with a 3/4 hose barb and some extra heater hose. Hope this solves his problem.

 

[Sojourner]

I used to have the exact same problem on my 01, and I kept thinking it was the puke bottle. Way too much oil blowing out I thought. Took off the puke bottle and ran the breather hose along frame (avoiding oil trapping dips) and dumped it in front of fuel tank. It still dripped from the left front side of the engine, in fact the volume of oil seemed to steadily increase despite extending the breather hose. Service manager at local dealer gave me some dye and we traced it to the vacuum pump. New vacuum pump and no more drips, not even noticeably out of the extended crankcase breather hose.



It certainly sounds like the vacuum pump oil seal to me. You can get a 'new' pump for several hundred or this guy can help you with a much cheaper solution. HTH

 

[WM-300]

Turbo Dawg;

My son sent the following follow up. Does this still sound like the vacuum pump ?

"Thanks for the info. My son says that he is loosing considerably more oil than that would explain. Somewhere around 3 to 4 quarts between oil changes! After cleaning the engine, this was the only location where any oil was visible. It has already (in about 10 miles of driving) coated the steering gear, the sway bar and several other under carriage pieces. Any other ideas?"



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[Turbo Tim 1]

Sounds like it could be a severe leak under the vacuum pump. Oil loss wasn't noticable in mine but it was coating the front of the truck pretty good. If the vacuum pump is leaking that bad it may not be repairable "OUCH". If the vacuum pump is leaking he should be able to see some sort of puddling or pooling in the mount between the vacuum and power steering pump. How about the thought of the KDP even though it's not really suppose to be a 2001 problem? He could feel around the timing cover and see if he can find any sharp edges or broken spots. To loose that much oil between changes it's got to be pretty bad and the vacuum pump is usually pretty evident, with that said the timing case would be where I would concentrate. Other than that a broken ring could cause enough blow-by to blow it out the breather bottle but that should be semi evident also. Keep us informed WM.

 

[WM-300]

Thanks Guys;

I am passing this all along to my son. Now its a wait and see what he finds. This long distance, second hand trouble shooting is hard.



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[SnoKing]

Is he 4 wheeling down steep hills? There is a service bulletin about dumping oil going down steep hills. Moves the breath to the side of the block. Check the TSB section. SNOKING

 

[WM-300]

No off road 4 wheeling. I have not yet heard back from my son on the other recomendations.



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