Losing oil and going out the tailpipe

[mweiman]

Went to look at a 2003 last night that I normally work on because it ran low on oil. Took two gallons to get it back in range. No sign of any leaks anywhere nor is there any mess around the blowby tube. We drove it 3-4 miles and it started to smell of burning oil like it was pushing it into the manifold. After being warmed up it has noticeable noise, not really a knock but a tick. You may only hear it if you rev it up a bit. After it is warmed up there is a lot of blowby if you pull the oil cap.
Truck has about 170,000 on it and I have worked on it for the last 30,000 miles. It never had any misfire or signs of a bad injector. I am thinking there must be a broken ring or some abnormal wear, just trying to figure out why. It never was low on oil or having to add between changes before.
Anyone have any other thoughts on what it could be? The fact that it seems to be pushing all the oil out the exhaust and not some out the blowby tube seems a little odd to me.
Thanks for any ideas,
Matt

 

[NIsaacs]

Check the turbo.



Nick

 

[Mikey-KE7LBB]

Turbo is toast!! Sounds like a bad ring too from the loss of oil out the pipe.

 

[mweiman]

If it is a turbo problem then why would it cause the ticking noise and also the excess blowby?
Matt

 

[Hoefler]

2 gallons of oil low, that is 2/3 its capacity. I would say the turbo went and started blowing oil out the tailpipe and the operator did not catch it in time and ran the engine low on oil and starving it for lubrication.

 

[CKelley1]

if it has a K&N on it like your 01 it ruined the turbo and dusted the engine, the noise you hear is the turbine wheel hitting the housing.

 

[BLNRAY]

turbo will also push oil into the intake,charge air cooler will hold a lot of oil

 

[mweiman]

I just went up and checked the turbo is tight, fins and housing show no signs of dusting and intake piping is clean. Running a paper air filter in the factory box and it is in good shape. No sign of oil in the turbo to CAC outlet. I was unable to get the vee clamp loose on the exhaust pipe to look in there but no signs of oil at the tail pipe outlet. It doesn't seem to smoke anything abnormal. I was assuming oil is going out the exhaust only since everything is clean and no sign of a leak underneath. To me the manifold looks like it has been hot at the head across all 6 cylinders like maybe oil is burning in the manifold. It could be normal though. I have my doubts about excessive egt's, the truck does have a small programmer(I believe less than 60 hp gain) and it is a stock automatic trans. Not really that long of hills to pull anywhere around here either.

I just hate the idea of a motor going down early like this and would like to figure out the true cause.

Thanks for all the replies,

Matt

 

[Wingate]

are you sure the engine oil is right. By that, I mean, some quickie lube tech didnt put 5W20 out of a hose reel into it? This can cause excessive oil consumption, will also cause tapping/ticking. I would sample the engine oil, service the engine, and wait for the lab results.

 

[hcole]

I agree with Wingate. Sounds like an incompatible oil. Also, I run a couple gallons of waste oil per tank full and you would never know it looking at the exhaust. Doesn't smoke at all. So, the blue smoke won't necessarily be there. I used to have a small block chevy that had a LOT of blowby out the pcv valve with certain brands of thin oil.

 

[mweiman]

Truck has premium blue valvoline in it, I am the only one who has serviced it since he bought it. Topped it off with the same before test driving it the other night.
Matt

 

[Hoefler]

Does it have a catalytic convertor on it?? If it does and is functioning properly, it will remove any sign of oil consumption from the exhaust.

 

[mweiman]

Got motor torn down this week, found 1 and 2 pistons had broken top rings and the other cylinder's top rings were all very worn. Turbo and intake show no signs of dirt ingested, and never acted like injectors were bad. No white smoke or misfiring. Cylinder walls that did not have broken rings still showed some crosshatch pattern. Anyone seen this before?
Matt

 

[DonFitzwater]

Just guessing but are the piston oil nozzles in place? I can't help but think the programmer is to blame.

 

[cerberusiam]

Got motor torn down this week, found 1 and 2 pistons had broken top rings and the other cylinder's top rings were all very worn.

That is a typical problem with certain programmers and\or bad injectors. Too much fuel and too much timing spiking the cylinder pressure high and hot all the time, heat takes the temper out of the rings and pressures break them.

Better check the injectors with those miles on them, they are suspect also even though there are no obvious issues.

What programmer? Is it an HO or SO engine?

 

[Wingate]

Broken top compression rings with no piston galling/scuffing is often times a product of particulate intrusion into the combustion chamber. That can be from a faulty filtration system, or from excessive combustion deposits building up in between the ring and ring land. One other thing that can and will break a top ring is the excessive use of ether starting fluid.
If you have galling associated with the failure, you need to inspect the cooling system.

 

[mweiman]

Pistons look perfect with no scuffing except for the top groove being worn. To me all the intake piping and turbo are very clean so dirt ingestion doesn't seem likely. I know this truck hasn't seen ether in 30,000 miles but who knows about the previous owner, who knows if or what kind of programmer may have been on it. We are going to put injectors in while it is apart. I asked on another thread but can you typically see the injector spray pattern on top of the piston with a hpcr motor? What are the most cost effective options for injectors? 03 automatic so I believe it is an SO motor.
Matt

 

[JJPage]

03 Injectors same whether an HO or SO. Auto could be either 47 or 48, kinda depends on manufacture date. Call TC Diesel, a member on this site, he can get you brand new Bosch, stay away from remans.
I have not noticed a spray pattern with the reentrant design pistons of the 03/04's, but have only seen the head off a couple and wasn't really looking for that.

 

[cerberusiam]

SO motor doesn't have gallery cooling and the better pistons so they are a bit more temperamental about EGT's. Broken rings are not from ingesting solids, worn rings and wearing the cylinder will be the result of too much dust or dirty fuel. Broken and wron rings are just too much fuel and cylinder pressures at the wrong time, the SO motors did NOT like that. The Edge EZ and EJ were good examples when you pushed them too hard. A 60 HP programmer was likely an EZ and that is a typical result of too much for too long.

You shgould be able to see a solid spray pattern on the pistons if the truck was not dogged around. Grocery getters that carnoned up and di not get warm enough sometimes will not show a solid pattern.

 

[mweiman]

Here is a picture of one of the pistons that had broken rings. Still have to find out what kind of programmer is on the truck. No EGT guage so not sure what kind of temps it sees. Worn injectors would run cylinder temps up even more I suppose.