Common Rail 5.9 burning oil (I think)

[GaryOwen]

I wonder if you were getting a bad reading on your dipstick. Drain the oil and measure how much you get out.

 

[BDaugherty]

Since it otherwise runs fine and doesnt smoke, top the oil off very precisely and run it. Keep a close check on it. Make sure that you park the same way (level) each time you check it. Lets not jump to conclusions after just one low check. Track your miles vs oil consumption...that means write it down. What oil are you using? I personally use whatever is the best deal at the time, but I’ve had the best results using Delvac in customer trucks with high oil consumption.

I use all Fleetgaurd filters including air, but I won’t flame you for running a CAI. Lots of people run them and while theres no doubt a paper filter keeps more dust out of the engine and is much easier to service, most won’t keep a truck long enough to see the difference. If you work at a heavy truck shop or dealer, you can probably get good pricing on Fleetgaurd filters. Having quality filtration for your common rail fuel system is a must. Theres a reason the X15’s come with two stage filtration and the secondary filter is shipped with a cap to prevent pouring fuel into the directly clean side of the filter.

 

[AH64ID]

I like how the make my turbo sound lol

Easy to get with the stock intake, and still keep the best filter.

Remove the silencer ring and put a AirRaid MIT in it.

Leave the white directional flow vanes in the lower elbow. I read a Cummins article that said they improve turbo efficiency up to 30%. My guess that’s at low boost, but the article didn’t say that.

Anyhow, between a MIT, removed silencer, and a Home Depot 3” CAI you will have less than $100 into the intake and it will out preform and out filter an aftermarket CAI.

 

[seafish]

Easy to get with the stock intake, and still keep the best filter.

Remove the silencer ring and put a AirRaid MIT in it.

Leave the white directional flow vanes in the lower elbow.

Anyhow, between a MIT, removed silencer, and a Home Depot 3” CAI you will have less than $100 into the intake and it will out preform and out filter an aftermarket CAI.

^^^
All very good advice...EXACTLY what I did.
As a side note, using theAirRaid MIT in place of the silencer tube, lightly increased turbo whine, all while maintaining excellent air filtration!!!

 

[EricViviano]

CAI is fine if a paper filter (such as S&B offers) is used. The problem lies in the "oiled/washable" filters which suck to start with but over time get even worse. Then the owners neglect them and bingo your screwed.

If you where really 7 qts low something is terribly wrong assuming you had the correct oil level to start with. You either will have terrible blow by out the breather tube or horrible smoke at the tail pipe or both.

My bet is broken rings, very common at the mileage you stated. Not sure the exact root cause but it seems to be the poor cooling design of the common rail combined with high temps usually from the use of aftermarket tuners. Very common, have one in my shop now. Usually it's #5 and 6 that go, but I'm starting to see #1 a lot as well. Below is an example of the new high performance multi-piece piston rings available for the 5.9.

#ad

 

[BigPapa]

I also forgot to mention that my dip sticks kinda of messed up and a small bit of oil comes out but hardly anything. It’s like a small film 3inch down the dipstick tube

I wonder if you were getting a bad reading on your dipstick. Drain the oil and measure how much you get out.

This is exactly what I was thinking. I don’t have time to look it up right now but I think your dipstick tube is two-piece and if it’s come apart or has come out of the block it could easily give you a bad reading. Check your oil, make sure it’s where it’s supposed to be on your dipstick, then drain it and see how much is actually in it.

-Scott

 

[BigPapa]

Looked it up. Your dipstick tube is one piece steel tubing so IF that’s the problem, about the only thing that could go wrong is the tube has somehow pulled out of the side of the block. It should be in the block all the way to the rib in the pic above. The red you see in the pic is the o-ring.

-Scott

 

[cerberusiam]

I also forgot to mention that my dip sticks kinda of messed up and a small bit of oil comes out but hardly anything. It’s like a small film 3inch down the dipstick tube

The dip stick tube will sludge up and read incorrectly. Best to drain the oil and fill with correct amount minus 1 quart. Replace that last quart with one of MMO to clean up deposits and monitor oil level to see if it will come back correct.

 

[Tuesdak]

The dip stick tube will sludge up and read incorrectly. Best to drain the oil and fill with correct amount minus 1 quart. Replace that last quart with one of MMO to clean up deposits and monitor oil level to see if it will come back correct.

MMO is a fuel solvent designed to clean the gum out of early 1900's gasoline fuel systems in the early 1900's. One would be better off putting a quart of beach sand in the engine because the oil filter can maybe stop that. 6.5TD forums have some examples of MMO use shining up the turbo bearings and shortly the wheels wearing on the housing with new performance towing turbos. Said new turbo owner ran a quart (of 8) of MMO. Took two turbo bearing sets out before they figured out MMO was being used. Warranty only covers "solvent contaminated bad oil" at the vendor's discretion.

I wouldn't use any engine clean out product including diesel fuel under any sort of load. Idle, warm it up, dump the thin oil mix, new filter, and then another short interval oil change.

 

[cerberusiam]

MMO has 30% or less Stoddard solvent in it, mix with the other 11 quarts of oil there isn't enough there to hurt good parts just clean it up and break the sludge if any is there. You go ahead and test the beach sand and MMO side by side and get on that.

65.TD's were junk to begin with and these stellar towing turbos were likely just as cheap if they really could prove MMO did anything like that in the minimal mixture it was. More likely and excuse to void bad parts replacement than anything quantifiable. Over 300k on multiple engines with no observed issue running a period mix in fuel and oil. I guess Holeset turbos use better parts and it is a given the Cummins parts are better than anything in a 6.5. BTW, I think th eOP has a Cummins not a GM boat anchor.

 

[Crank]

What oil are you putting in your 5.9? Some 20 weight?

 

[EricViviano]

A pint of SeaFoam also works great for cleaning up internal engine parts.