Oil on top end

[bigwooly]

I am new to owning a Cummins or any diesel for that matter. I purchased my 2004.5 Ram 3500 back in September of 2018. It had 199k on it when I purchased it. The truck came with a hefty stack of service records for all the work on truck going back to the beginning. It was crazy clean not like they had polished it to try and sell it clean but more of a well maintained clean.

It has served my Family well since I bought it we've put over 10k miles on it since we bought it with very minimal issues.

When we were pulling into Denver the 2nd time around on our adventure I noticed the smell of oil. I popped the hood to investigate and was greeted with oil on the plastic valve cover and all down the passenger side of the head. It's not like gushing out and there's not any making it all the way to the bottom of the motor that i can see. I haven't been under it in about 3 weeks due to not having my own driveway to work in.

I've not noticed any loss of power when driving. I have noticed that on cold starts however it seems to take a couple more seconds than usual to start up.

My family and I are currently living in our 33 ft travel trailer and we are working on starting over in Colorado Springs, CO. I am working on finding somewhere to work on my truck myself. Any help or advice on where to start would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ozymandias]

Pop the plastic cover, you'll probably find the issue at the first sight.
Underneath is the breather box, it has some rubber grommets on it that go hard over the years and start leaking, or the breather itself splitt in half, its plastic too.

 

[bigwooly]

Thanks I will pop the cover and take a look. I was just trying to avoid doing anything to anger the management at the RV park we are at.

There aren't really any other ones in the area where I will be able to stay long term. So any work will have to be quick and can't require the truck to be up on jack stands.

I did find out that there is a DIY shop I'm the area where I can rent a bay by the hour. So I will be headed there soon to do an oil change, brakes, and anything else that gets added to the list in the next week or so.

 

[Ozymandias]

Its just the 4 screws you see, done in 2 minute for a check.
And below the plastic cover is just the breather assembly, that is also pnp.

Really no need for a shop or jack stands to do that.

 

[sag2]

I see an aftermarket air filter in the photo. Pull the oil fill cap and watch for excessive blow by when it's idling.

Instead of checking at the park, drive down to a parking lot with your tools.

 

[bigwooly]

I have pulled the oil cap and checked for blowby there is some but it isn't enough to move the oil cap or anything like any of the videos I have watched of excessive blowby.

The truck came to me like you see it in the photos. I pulled the cover and it's honestly Hard to tell where the oil is coming from it does seem to be the oil fill cap.

Do I need to remove this aftermarket cold air box and try to take it back stock?

The o ring on the oil fill cap is flat on the sides. I tried to capture it in the photos.

 

[sag2]

Get rid of the aftermarket air intake and filter if you still have the stock box. There is NO advantage over the stock box, even with moderate performance upgrades.

 

[cerberusiam]

Did you test for blow by at 1200-1500 rpms or just idle? How does the gasket on the cap look?

At the age it is replace the oil filter, both upper and lower VC gaskets, and the oil cap. Clean it all up and monitor.

Nothing wrong with the air intake you have now as long as you use a good dry filter and a pre-filter. If you do not have the stock box that is a lot easier than replacing it. Even a stock box will require mods to keep from pulling a vacuum in the TQ tube where the bigger open filter will flow better.

 

[GrantP]

Replace the oil cap, clean it up and drive on...

I would agree with going back to the stock airbox, I'm sure you can get one cheap if not for free from others who have "upgraded".

 

[EricViviano]

Get rid of the aftermarket air intake and filter if you still have the stock box. There is NO advantage over the stock box, even with moderate performance upgrades.

Agreed. But if you must run a "cold air intake" please use a paper filter. I have lost track of the amount of trucks I have seen with dusted engines from "K&N" style oiled filters.

 

[sfpcservice]

That breather box on top of the valve cover is supposed to separate oil from the vapors coming out of the crank case. In a perfect world vapors are sent on down the larger tube and exhausted under the engine. The oil that accumulates is then drained back down the smaller tube and returns to the engine. Too much blowby and the box can't keep up, or as stated above you have cracked rubber fittings.

 

[Ozymandias]

And it can sum up some oil sludge over time.