Archived I don't screw-up too often

[MikeBeggy]

To make a long story short, I lengthed and rerouted the oil breather hose to help eliminate oil smell in the cab. Well, I was working under the truck and the hose was dangling in my face so I bent it up out of my way and forgot to undo it when I was finished. The hose was folded so that it was pinched off and no crankcase venting was possible. I drove for about 15 minutes and came to a stop. The exhaust started to blow clouds of white smoke (I would guess oil forced past the valve stem seals) and it puked about 8 or 10 ozs of oil on the left side of engine near the injection pump. I quickly corrected the pinched hose, exhuast cleared up and no more oil came out of the left side. I drove another 220 miles with one eye on the guages one watching the exhaust and the other looking for oil on the road. My concern is that I am leaving Labor day for a 8000 mile trip and I want to rpair any damage I may have done. Any help from you experienced Cummins engine builders as to what could have leaked on the left side of engine would be greatly appreciated. I hate to think about a long trip not knowing if I folded over an engine seal or dislodged something serious. Please share your wisdom if you've ever been there done that. Thanx.....

 

[A Johnson]

Sounds to me like you blew the tappet cover gasket. I have never heard of these healing themselves. However if it blew out the top side of the cover, its possible that with normal crankcase pressures it wont push the oil out the top of the cover. I would look into having it inspected/fixed.

Don't feel too bad, I did this on purpose one time, bad application and I was checking to see if there were any other leaks after replacing the tappet cover gasket. Sometimes I will momentarily block off the blowby tube to try force oil out marginal seals/gaskets. You guessed it, blew out the tappet cover gasket that I had just spent 5 hours replacing. Did the job faster the second time.

:{ :{

You can also blow oil out the turbo and valve guide seals but these usally reseal just fine. A Johnson

 

[MikeBeggy]

I was under the truck last night with a halogen flashlight and I could see that the tappet covers were suspect since all oil evidence pointed to that part of the engine. I have a Bull Dog hood with associated air ducting so I can barely see the side of the engine. I would agree with you that it's possible to have blown the top side of these gaskets since I can see the bottom is still OK. Thanx for verifying what I have odserved.