Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) Oil drops all over the back of my truck!!

[Harold_U]

Hi Guys;

In the last few months my truck has started to have very small oil drops all over the back of my truck gate, camper window and my trailer.

I can find no oil leaks on the engin at all, but I did see a clear plastic tube, crankcase vent I think, that has oil comming from it. I thought that I might have a PVC pluged, but I can't find anything in the factory manual that indicates that there is one. Anyone got an idea as to what is going on? Thanks. Harold

 

[Extreme1]

No PCV system, the clear tube is the crankcase vent.



Any oil that is comming out under the truck while driving will get whipped onto the rear of the truck. I have a leaking rear driveshaft slip yolk and on highway trips it leaves drops all over the back of my rig.



Check for leaks at the pinion seal, slip yolk and anywhere else. It could be from the "road draft" tube (crank case vent) but that would indicate another problem.

 

[Forrest]

Spanked a Powerstroke once ... looked down & was past 105mph. The next morning I noticed the same thing. Found a leak in the bottom of the front differential. Wasn't very much, but enough to swirl up on the tailgate & rear bumper.

 

[Forrest Nearing]

mine does it all the time... I wash it off and keep driving

 

[Harold_U]

I did check the rearend, but it is comming from in front of the transmission. It's all over the bottom of the truck from the flywheel back. If it is comming out of the crankcase vent, what could be causing it. Only have 50k miles on the truck. I would not think that it would be "blow by". .

 

[GrantP]

Harold - It's your vent tube. My 97 does the same with only 66k on it. Everything under the truck has a slight oil film on it. Personally I don't like it, but... .

 

[Joe G.]

There are a lot of things that can leak besides the vent tube. Anytime I have had spots on the tail gate it has been something other than the vent tube. I get a spot on my garage floor from it and some oil behind it on the bottom of my truck, but not enough to make spots on the tail gate. If I were you I would clean up the mess on the bottom of the truck and then pay close attention to where the leak is. I have had a valve cover leak that ran down the back of the engine do this.



I replaced the vent tube with a long tube that I tie wrapped to things so that it ends just in front of the rear tire. This moved the vent tube oil away from the engine and transmission so I can detect leaks in that area better. The spot from the vent tube is separate from what ever other leak is happening.



Some blow by is normal. It's the way the rings are made. Cummins experimented with rings that stopped blow by. Something about the way the metal is twisted in the article I read. The additional wear caused by rings that prevent blow by was not acceptable so they went back to the type that allows blowby. Less cylinder wear.

 

[mikel]

Also have a look at the joint between the vaccum pump and the power steering pump. A leak there could look to be coming from the road draft tube after the wind blows oil all over the place.



Mike

 

[redram]

Surprised nobody mentioned the KDP.



Checked the front timing gear housing - it should be dry. If it's not, buy some degreaser, clean the engine compartment and under the truck (those 25 cent wash bays are nice with the high pressure water) and then track the clean engine over the next several days to determine where the oil / diesel is coming from.



If you haven't replaced the rubber fuel lines coming off the block going to the hard fuel lines along the frame, this could be a problem as well.





Since you have low miles, if you recently ran the truck hard (higer than usual speed, pulling higher load, etc) this could be entirely normal.



I added the pill bottle on the end of the vent tube to stop the under the truck spray problem.

 

[CDegner]

Just one more potential spot to check is the pushrod cover gasket. On my 1st gen 12V, I recently noticed alot of oil coming from what looked like the bellhousing. With 249K miles, first thing I thought was ream main seal. Pulled he flywheel cover and nothing. Got to looking and determined it was coming down the side of the block. Checked the valve cover gaskets and nothing. With a flashlight and a little contortion, was able to see that my gasket on the cover that runs almost the full length of the block was leaking a pretty substantial amount of oil.



Carl

 

[TFrench]

Greetings,

I have a 97 3500 and I had fuel intermittently leaking from under the primer bulb accordion due to a bad o-ring. The fuel would find it's way down the vent tube and blow all over the rear of my tailgate or camper. At first it was a few drops and it was hard to detect the diesel smell. Eventually it turned into quite a mess and the pump assembly was replaced under warranty.

 

[Joe G.]

Tim,



If that happens again, you can fix it with an O-ring. That is a common leak and easy to fix. The push button is easy to remove with the lift pump on the engine.

 

[Harold_U]

Hi Guys;

Thanks for all of the information on places to look for leaks. Just tamed the KDP this weekend and did a very good check of the complete engin. It's definately the vent tube!

The engine is dry as a bone all the way to the back to the transmission behind the breather vent tube.

Just read a thread about Fleetguard's solution to this problem, the "Enviroguard". .

Anyone know where one can be obtained and what the price is?

Might be a canidate for a club "Group Purchase". Any intrest?

Harold

 

[MFranz]

Hate that Messy Blowby.

Harold,

Did you have any luck in finding that fleetguard filter for the Blowby tube.

Has any one else out there tried it. How much oil Blowby is to much.

I hate the mess that it leaves. Theres got to be a better way.

Your thoughts.

Thanks

Mike

 

[Harold_U]

Hi Mike;

I did find the information on the "Fleetguard EnviroGuard" system on the Fleetguard website, but when I found out that the price was $500 I decided I didn't need it that much. I have thought that I would try to do something on my own. Unfortunately I have had a death in my family and have had to spend a lot of my time working with the estate.

If you would like to investigate on your own you can go to their website at:

http://www.fleetguard.com/fleet/en/products/en_prod_inn_enviroguard.jsp

I think that, except for returning the recovered oil to the crankcase, a simple methode could be worked out.

If you would like to discuss this further contact me at "DodgeT97@bigvalley.net"

Harold