PICS!! - My turbo is dusted, how bad is it????

[EArp]

#@$%!#@$%! I am so angry right now! I was taking my AFE super stock drop-in out to clean it today, when much to my dismay there was a nice thin layer of dust on the top of the air filter. Alarmed, I took the air intake piping off and found a nice layer of dirt on my turbo and coating the inside of the air intake piping. I'm sort of at a loss. I put the filter on at 18,300 and the truck is at 43,600 right now. I'm just worried about how much damage it did to the motor?? I know the turbo did not appreciate all that dust for sure! So, a question to the guys who would know best. 1-10 how much damage do you guys think it did? I documented everything, recorded mileage, wrapped the AFE filter in a plastic bag to preserve the condition, and changed the oil immediately this afternoon and got a sample of it incase I have to go to war with AFE if my motor or turbo craters. You know, I bought this truck to last until the wheels fall off and maintain it meticulously, and now i'm just thinking about how many thousands of miles this fiasco might have taken off of my engine life. Needless to say, i'm going back to paper filters from now on. Any of you guys running AFE's use caution! Any replies is greatly appreciated.



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[ASchwartz]

Looks normal to me and I have been monitoring my oil since inception with no silica issues.

 

[DCreed]

Ditto. SNAFU. Filters are just that and only stop particles down to a specific size in microns. the dust is prolly too fine to be a problem.

 

[brods]

https://www.turbodieselregister.com...-2007/206288-turbo-dirt-questions-w-pict.html



Supposed to be normal.

 

[rbattelle]

While I'm not sure that's completely normal, I don't think you should panic yet.

The only reason I say it may not be quite normal is that my truck, which has always used Mopar paper filters as specified by Dodge, is absolutely spotless inside the intake piping (at least it was up until the last time I checked during a filter change).

My turbo, however, does have a bit of dust on the inducer blades somewhat similar to what you've pictured.

Ryan

 

[EArp]

Maybe I am worrying too much, but I just didn't think there should be that much dust in the intake. The air intake piping shows the dust a lot more due to the darker color, but that should give you guys a better idea of how much dirt had coated everything. Thanks for the replies. I'm definitely relieved to hear that it's not too bad, but I'm with Ryan though, I don't think there should be that much dust buildup. I'm going with the fleetguard paper filters from here on out though.

 

[JWadford]

its fine but not healthy, i run afe filters on my twins, but wrap pantyhose around it and oil it fairly heavy, i dont like the afe filters. you can shine a flashlight right through it and like you said the intake is filled with dust, i would go back to a factory filter. at one time i was at around 460 rwhp with stock modified air box and factory filters, its good you changed and sampled the oil, i would send the sample out, it will probably come back with a higher than normal silicon content and elevated iron and aluminum, clean out the tubes and intake, hopefully its not using any oil, good thing the 5. 9 was designed for harsh environments...

 

[Yo Hoot]

High flow filters are just that. They flow high amounts of dirt.

 

[HBarlow]

A young mechanic friend of mine was a tech at a local Dodge dealer when I met him when he replaced a map sensor on my '01 Ram. He has done work for me for about six or seven years now. He has told me several times of Dodge-Cummins trucks coming in with complaints of excess oil consumption.

He says the first thing he or his fellow engine tech did was pull the air filter box cover and find an AFE or other aftermarket air cleaner and dirt/dust downstream of the filter. He told me that they didn't do anything else, simply told the service writer who called the owner and told him "tough luck, you need a new engine and it's on you. "

The air boxes and filters in our trucks were designed and tested by Cummins and Dodge to allow all the airflow needed for full power up to redline rpm and to keep the air clean for the warranty period of our engines and beyond.

I simply cannot comprehend the fascination that drives some members to buy all that aftermarket crap that puts their engine's service life at risk. It's none of my business, of course. Each to his own.

 

[rbattelle]

High flow filters are just that. They flow high amounts of dirt.

:-laf Whether or not that's true, it's funny.

This is why I've always said, if I ever decide to "improve" my air filter from the stock version I'll go with a BHAF. Same filtration as the stock filter; higher flow rate.

That's all immaterial to this thread. EArp, don't panic. Clean the inlet piping as best you can and switch to a paper filter.

Ryan

 

[Yo Hoot]

I have a link here to some test data that was compiled using a pretty good test rig. You will notice that the stock filters seemed to come out doing the best job.

http://getdieselpower.com/my04dodge_files1/Spicer Filter Testing/Spicer_Filter_Testing.html

 

[WCounts]

You have gotten more than just dust in your turbo intake. The blades look to be rounded and not sharp like they should be.

Billy

 

[EArp]

You have gotten more than just dust in your turbo intake. The blades look to be rounded and not sharp like they should be.

Billy

Billy, the dust accumulation is from 25,000 miles, what else are you suggesting I got in there? If particles were big enough to round off the blades, wouldn't there have been quite alot more buildup in the air flow elbow that I showed in the last couple pics?

 

[HBarlow]

Have you experienced increased oil consumption or smoke discharge?

 

[macdaddy]

Did You Oil It Before installation?

ARP



I have had the AFE proguard 7 since my 05 was new. Are you sure it's not coming in another way?



My jaw dropped to the ground when I saw your pics.

I travel off road and have never had any problems like that.



Did you add any oil before installing it?Or did you unwrap it and put it in?. I oiled mine before i installed it.



I use a generous amount of oil on mine.



Dam mine has been in there 75K miles with no dust making it past yet. I clean it once a year.



Mac

 

[EArp]

Have you experienced increased oil consumption or smoke discharge?

I haven't noticed any major oil consumption or an abundance of smoke. But to be honest, I haven't really been worried about keeping a diligent eye on the oil level to see if it's even decreasing in the slightest because I wasn't aware that the filter wasn't doing its job until yesterday. Since I just changed my oil yesterday, I will definitely be taking note of the oil level and making sure it's not using any.

 

[EArp]

ARP



I have had the AFE proguard 7 since my 05 was new. Are you sure it's not coming in another way?



My jaw dropped to the ground when I saw your pics.

I travel off road and have never had any problems like that.



Did you add any oil before installing it?Or did you unwrap it and put it in?. I oiled mine before i installed it.



I use a generous amount of oil on mine.



Dam mine has been in there 75K miles with no dust making it past yet. I clean it once a year.



Mac

Mac, I didn't oil it before I put it in because the packaging led me to believe that it had already been oiled and was ready for use. I think the problem is two-fold. The filter didn't do it's job and the airbox doesn't seal as tightly as i'd really like it to against the filter element. From here on out, i'm going back to the paper filters and using a little bit of vasoline on the filterbox upper lid to make sure it makes a better seal against the filter element.

 

[wlowe]

The AFE filters come pre-oiled when new.



If you look at the last picture in your post you can see a film of dust where the intake tube clamps on, (lower left side). If the clamp was tight that dust would not be there. Not trying to say the filter is not the cause, but loose clamps may be part of the problem. Remember, there's a lot of vacuum created by the turbo on the intake side, especially if the filter is restricted, even decently tight clamps may leak.



I have the AFE super stock proguard in my truck. I've checked it a few times and haven't found any dirt/dust yet but it's only been in for about four thousand miles. Will be keeping a close eye on it.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

EArp I had a similar bad experience with a K&N filter back in the day. I also tried an AFE Proguard 7 awhile but after about 20,000 miles it seemed to let a small about of fine dirt through too. I've shied away from the gauze layer type air filters altogether. I've had good luck with the Amsoil oiled foam stock element replacement but it requires frequent (and fairly laborious) recleaning and reoiling, it needs it at least every 10k miles around here.

I've since gotten to love the BHAF approach since it holds lots of dirt (first one went 30+K miles) and has great filtration ratings (from everything I've seen paper stops dirt better than other types of media). The Fleetguard version is the best one out of the BHAF family.

Vaughn

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

YUP - even the OEM paper filters will often bypass dirt past poorly fitting seals - here's the low-mileage one off my '02 back when I pulled it to switch to a K&N oiled type:



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BUT, lots of guys seem willing to ignore or overlook leakage as seen above in the tan-looking material deposited upon the seal - but will scream bloody murder if a K&N type does it! I got the absolute best oil analysis ever, on a number of oil analysis reports, while using my own K&N drop-in filter - but WAS careful to also use the K&N sealing grease along with it...



Eventually, power add-ons required better airflow than I felt the K&N could efficiently deliver, so went to this:



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Just be sure to use the properly rated filters for the job at hand - and install and maintain them properly, they are the life of your engine!