Engine/Transmission (1994 - 1998) Road Trip woes.....and Blowby Questions

[PUMPERDUDE]

I noticed a few drips of arround the left front end before we left the motel room yesterday morning. I was curious ,but didn't think it was serious. Looked like it was coming from the dipstick tube. Well ,about a hundred miles later while cruising arround 70 mph I notice the oil pressure gauge wavering a bit. Pulled over popped the hood and ... Its always a shock to see an engine covered in oil ,but this was My Cummins. And I'm near Knoxville about 650 miles or so from home. :{ ... I added about a gallon of oil to it and idled to the next interchange. Once there ,I filled it back to the safe mark and limped home at 60 mph,1750 rpm. Truck runs fine. 45# oil p. ,175* coolant temp. Firing on all cylinders. Didn't loose any oil coming home. Oil is clean. Hardly any blowby at idle. . At 2000 rpm it will build up a bit holding a finger on the tube. Good news is we're home. Bad news is what the hail happened to my engine... ... The engine has been loosing a little coolant arround the themostat area. Oil test showed zero coolant in oil. Oil test were always good,very little wear metals. I just sampled it before the trip,haven't got the results yet. What do you guys think happened.

 

[bmoeller]

The only things that come to mind so far, would be bad turbo seals (boost or exhaust gas getting past and going into the pan via the drain tube from the turbo) or need to do a compression check (headgasket or something up with the head or rings.

 

[PUMPERDUDE]

I'm hope you're right about the turbo seals. That would make sense because the truck is running fine other than puking oil when loaded up. . It starts fine. It idles fine. Its hitting on all 6. No oil in water/water in oil. . Haven't lost any oil in 700 miles. (running easy)No smoking at start up. Havn't lost any coolant. It doesn't seem as if I lost any power. Its crazy man... . Is there anyway to check the turbo seals other than bringing the turbo to a shop?I checked the turbo for play and it is very snug. Thanks for the input.

 

[BV]

By Puking oil - Do you mean oil is coming out the blow by tube?



I think if your turbo seals went out that you would be loosing oil into the exhaust piping or the intake side which would cause a run away condition.

 

[DMC]

Could it be that the crankcase vent tube on the left side of the motor is clogged up. I've never heard of this happening before. But I guess its possible that it could get plugged if the truck sits for long periods of time. I would check or change the oil filter, And the oil fill tube on the front of the motor. Have you looked at the bottom of your timing cover?

 

[PUMPERDUDE]

Under a load the crankase builds pressure and forces the oil up the dipstick tube running down the injector pump and blowing everywhere from there... . The blowby tube is venting. Very little at idle. More if I rev it to 2000 rpm. I'm not sure if oil actually blew out the blowby tube. When it happened the engine compartment was soaked and blowing back from there.

 

[DMC]

How many miles are on this truck/motor. The reason I ask is because i once drove a truck with a 444Xt in it and at around 600,000 miles the dipstick would blow out of the tube when I used the jake brake on long grades. At about 689,000 I told the owner that the motor did not sound right on cold mornings. Took it in to the shop and theyy determined that #6 piston was cracked at the wrist pin. But the crack hadn't made it up to the top of the piston. They gave me the piston when I went back in to pick up the 444xt upgraded to 500xt



Good Luck



Don

 

[PUMPERDUDE]

211 k miles

 

[JohnE]

Remote possibility is your oil pressure sending unit is puking the oil. My unit failed and dumped 2 quarts in as many days with short trip driving. Luckily it all went down and only caused minimal mess.

 

[PUMPERDUDE]

Just an update... ... ..... Truck is running fine,not blowing oil anywhere... ... . I'm thinking the blowby tube got plugged somehow. I'll run a blowby test soon and post the results.

 

[Hammer]

Pumperdude...

Make sure first your blow by tube is clean and free of debris. I have seen instances where it has been plugged by foreign objects and may cause this. I will tell you to expect the worse case scenario though as usually once this starts its more than just a blocked tube. Our M-11's in our work trucks once they start this have even been known to launch the dipstick tube out of the motor completely. They have had a wide variety of causes,cracked rings,broken or melted pistons,scarred cylinder walls,various forms of head gasket problems.



I'd be willing to bet when push comes to shove yours is the beginning of a head gasket problem with the amount of miles on your ride and the mods. I'd bet under a hard roll its allowing boost to slip into one of the oil jackets and doing this,but,time will tell. Let us know what you find... ... . Andy

 

[PUMPERDUDE]

Got blowby?

For what its worth..... no load. . in nuetral



RPMs - boost - H2O" - ltrs/min/blowby

800 - 0 - 0 - o

1000 - 0 - 1 - 27

1500 - 0 - 2. 5 - 45

2000 - 2 - 8 - 81

2500 - 4 - 11 - 94

3000 - 6 - 12 - 96



with load (pulling 9000# TT)

1750 = 4 - 6 - 71 4rd gear/flat groud

2000 - 7 - 11 - 94

2250 - 12 - 12 - 96



2000 - 10 - 4 - 66 5th gear/flat ground

2250 - 12 - 3,5 - 53

2350 - 20 - 4 - 66

2000 - 20 - 9 - 86 5th gear/up hill



Observations... If I goosed it at low speeds, it would peg the monameter... All through the test ,It did not push oil out the dipstick tube even with the tube restricted to down to 7/32 of an inch.

Question... Why less blowby with a load?...



Thanks to Keith (Rammin On/Forest City Diesel)For the Blowby testing info.

 

[Keith1]

could it be the front crank shaft seal.