Are '93 diesels inherently leaky?

[billyO]

Hello all. I've got a '93 Ram 250 with 397K miles on the 5.9L diesel that has a mild oil leak coming from the back part of the engine for years. I had it into the mechanic a couple of weeks ago to fix this, and he said that these trucks are inherently leaky and nobody will ever fix the leaks. I told him that a mechanic who replaced the front 5 valve cover gaskets a couple of years ago mentioned that he thought my rear main seal was leaking. My current mechanic disagreed, but did replace the last valve cover gasket, thinking that this was where the leak was coming from. After driving it a week, the truck still drips a little oil on the ground when I park it. I called the mechanic and he repeated his statement that this truck will always drip a little oil and to just live with it.
Is this true?

Thank you
~billyO

 

[BigPapa]

It's not leaking oil, it's sweating horse power!

 

[MMeier]

Put 1400 miles on mine last week and not a drop... besides a few drops ff the breather tube, everything is bone dry underneath. Sounds like you need a new 'mechanic' !!!

 

[Bob4x4]

If you have excessive crankcase pressure he is correct.If not reseal away,it's only money.

 

[Bluebird]

1. Seek a mechanic who has experience with Cummins Turbo Diesel.
2. Get a large rectangle drip pan, park truck in the same place over pan, daily.
3. Observe pattern(s), color, amount of drips.
4. What brand/type of oil and filter are used? Oil change intervals?
5. Check oil level after 3 to 5-minutes after shut-down. 12(13) quarts of oil take time to settle
Mine leave the same Breather tube oil spot, consistently. When I park in others driveway, I place a folded newspaper with a rock, to keep it in place.

Please post research in 11st Gen forum:-{}
Godspeed, Patrick

 

[MLee]

Attach a receptacle on the breather to catch the drips. I used to have a picture of mine on "my rig" on the forums but it disapered with all my pictures.

 

[RGuzzo]

just the front covers

 

[Capt. Methane]

I second Bluebird's thought-find someone that knows what they are doing!

I don't believe that they are inherently leaky (you ever see one of the Cat engines that runs a pressurized crankcase? EEK!) though there seem to have been some issues with the rear main seals-my dad's '93 started leaking at about 50K miles, the dealer he bought it from denied that it was leaking so about 60K miles he took it to another dealership which replaced the seal under warranty (like the dealer he bought it from should have in the first place!) and in the following 130K miles as far as I know it never leaked another drop.

It isn't hard to change the seal, I just did one (don't know yet if I did a good job!) in the course of upgrading a '92 W-250 from the automatic transmission to a NV-4500 but getting to the seal involves some heavy lifting...

24 years and 400K miles, if it's a slow drip and not making you add oil between scheduled changes I'd let it go-you're going to be up for overhaul in another 300K miles anyway!

 

[RSchwarzli]

If the rear main is original, it is time to replace it. 25 years on a seal is good.

And no. These engines are not leaky. They are actually very good. But maintenance on a old engine to replace things like old seals is a give. Once all looked after, you will have no leaks.

I would also say get a new mechanic. He sounds lazy and not very knowledgable.

Robert

 

[Prairie Dog]

I put 100K on mine and the eng never leaked anything.
The rest of the truck was another story.

 

[jhenderson]

I 2nd a catch can on the breather to test before doing a rear main.

 

[Wayne M.]

Ok so now I have to tell my first gen story- though it may not help matters here.
So I get my '92 in 1997 from a friend's dad who bought it new. In this time it was kept cherry and pampered- too much. It had 21,000 miles on it when I got it. It was new, except for the roof was peeling. Remember the peeling paint?!
Anyway I had realized a dream came true as I always wanted one and it was great. The ONLY issue beside the paint was the rear seal was weeping. Not even much, a bit more than a sweat. The engine was bone dry except that seal and the expected road draft tube.
Later that year, for my first wedding anniversary, we drove down to Disney and back. I pushed it hard and I swear it ran better and better before the trip was done. Know what else happened? The seal quit leaking. I then declared the '92 W250 officially broken in. I kept it till my present truck came in 08/04.

No. These trucks shouldn't leak at all.

 

[Capt. Methane]

Wayne, you're story reminds me of when my dad's '93 was relatively new. He took off with my mom across country towing the trailer. Some months later he got home and I borrowed the truck and after driving it I asked if he'd had any of the mods he had talked about done (a larger diameter exhaust system, bigger turbo or whatever) and he said no...

They're truck engines and puttering around empty isn't what they like-they want and need to work and within reason the harder the better!

 

[Capt. Methane]

sorry, double post...