Hello guys and good morning to you,

Well, I've been battling an oil/smoke issue for awhile and now I'm asking for your guys valued opinions again.

I won't bore you with the story that led up to this, because pretty much it's a long one. I'm showing 164,351 mile on the OD. I've owned the truck since 2003 and when I bought it, it only had 31,000 on the OD at the time. I've for the most part changed the oil every 3K. However, at times it's gone over but probably never more than 5K. I've always used Chevron DOLO 15w-40 LE except for a brief time a couple of months ago when it was cold out and I thought I would try something new. Then, I tried Rotella T6, but I'm back on Chevron now.

Issue is: TRUCK IS SMOKING AND USING OIL. I used almost 1 gallon( 3 and 3/4 of a quart) of oil in 250 miles. When I say smoking, I'm saying you can see it but it's not like it is some super haze and as best we can tell the smoke is a blue-ish haze.

When all this started, I decided to do some upgrades and maintenance. Here is the list:

Injector o-rings and washer, (replaced with Alliant packs from RR).

Injector cups- (Replaced from RR). At the time, I thought I was starting to see fuel in the de-gas bottle and thought I had a cracked injector cup. (Not so sure now).

Oil cooler o-rings changed also.

Coolant changed to Preston LE as indicated on FTE and new de-gas bottle and cap.

Water pump and thermostat were also changed.

New-OEM- ICP sensor.

New-OEM- Exhaust back pressure sensor.

IPR reg. rebuilt with an International OEM kit.

Regulated Return from RR added. Verified fuel pressure is holding 50-55 psi at WOT.

New OEM fuel filter.

4" Turbo back MBRP exhaust added.

S and B air intake added.

New turbo center cartridge.


I used the install procedures from RR while doing all work and everything was torqued to the specified amounts.

So after doing all that work, I'm still having the same issue after we made a trip to the lake. I finally got a half a day to do some more checking and ran a compression test. I'm using the set up that BigAl posted with the connections and an HF gauge. (Don't really care for the gauge but it works for now).

Here are my numbers. This test is on a COLD Engine. Truck sat parked in the garage for a day and half before I ran this test.

(Note: COLD Engine with two shots of oil added to each cylinder. All injectors hold down bolts where verified at 130 inch lbs. of torque before the testing was started.)

Cylinders
#1-340 psi. #2- 310 psi.
#3-315 psi. #4- 245 psi.
#5-310 psi. #6- 245 psi.
#7-300 psi. #8- 280- psi.

(Not the best numbers out there but not the worse I've see either.)

After comp. testing was completed, all GP were reinstalled and the engine was brought up to operating temp with the valve covers off. While the engine was running, we noticed a couple of things that seemed a bit off.

#7 Injector seemed to not be flowing oil out the oil jets as much as the rest. I will re-verify this later when I warm the engine back up for a warm compression test.

There is NO visible sign of wet oil leaking anywhere. Not in the exhaust pipe, not in the headers, not in the engine valley next to the turbo pedestal, not anywhere underneath the truck, not on the garage floor. NO WHERE!

Also, on the drivers side, we keep hearing what we believe to be a pop or a ting from what sounds like metal on metal. We have not been able identify it or where it is actually coming from at this point.

I have a couple of short videos of the engine running where if you listen very carefully you can barely hear it. I will add them also.

My next thought after the warm engine compression test is if I get the same numbers, I will pull injectors #4,#6,#8 and check the o-rings and washers on them and replace with a new set of o-rings and then recheck the compression.

What are your guys opinions? All ideas welcome.

Thanks in advanced,
Brice

 

WOW, thats alot of oil I have a 99 with over 250,000 on her, and changed my oil every 4-5k with rotella 15w-40, I use about 2 quarts between changes. did you check your crankcase vent? the box on the left valve cover for excess blow by, or maybe plugged? is the turbo using the oil? intercooler wet with it or the charge pipes soaked? If oil was bypassing an injector you would have a miss and thats hard to not notice.
Keep me posted that is a good one David7.3

 

Videos, while warming up the truck

 

Jason (HKusp) has a long thread on his truck doing something similar. As far as I know, he's still tracking it down, but there are a lot of great ideas and theories posted on there to check out. Think it's called, 'where could all my oil be going?' Good luck

 

Thanks for the replays guys,

MM- yes I've been watching Jason's thread and following it until it went DOA.

David, I agree, it is a lot of oil. I suspected turbo seals on the cold side after a rebuild. I was going to rebuild the turbo again but then to emulate any question I purchased a brand new center cartridge and installed it. I'm still going through the oil like no tomorrow even after the new center cartridge.

 

yeah, that's a ***** ton of oil man to not see anywhere. Since it's no where to be seen I (am certainly not an expert) can only assume your losing it from the smoke your seeing.

What I find interesting is all the low cylinders are on the same bank. I was thinking it could be a problem with the valve cover gaskets or injectors causing them to not fire properly but that wouldn't explain your low compression numbers.

Would a couple oil samples shed some light on the condition of the engine internals?

 

While running the truck to get it warmed up for the hot compression test today, I noticed what seems to me to be excessive oil in the out let side of the turbo piping. Here is a video of the oil coming out of the turbo and into the piping. I had cleaned out the piping four or five times before I shot the video. I know that there will be some oil built up in the turbo because I do not have the CCV mod. But, I'm thinking this is probably where all my oil is going? Keep in mind, this is on a brand new center cartridge with approximately 600 miles or less on it.

Brice

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vG2yCXKL-n0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

Here is my compression numbers after I warmed up the engine to 190F. Verified 190F engine temp by AE.

Hot Engine with two shots of oil.

#1- 315 psi. #2-320 psi.
#3- 340 psi #4-245 psi.
#5- 330 psi. #6- 275 psi.
#7- 300 psi. #8- 300 psi.

Just to recap cold #'s

Cylinders

#1-340 psi. #2- 310 psi.
#3-315 psi. #4- 245 psi.
#5-310 psi. #6- 245 psi.
#7-300 psi. #8- 280- psi.

So, what do you guys think?

 

Cool turbo video!

Just blundering* out loud here: I wonder if in fact you have poor piston ring to cylinder sealing if your engine could be compressing exhaust gases into the crank case which would pressurize the oil system including at the valve covers which would force oil out the CCV into your turbo?

Could you also post a video of any blow-by at the oil filler tube (i.e., oil cap/oil filler tube)?

Could you disconnect the CCV hose and post a video of the blow-by out that tube too?

Finally, also curious what your turbo vanes look like.

* I don't have any experience to back up the foregoing query, just wondering out loud. If what I have said is wrong don't worry about correcting me. I would like to know.

 

Was your intake and CCV hooked up? I can't tell in the video. I imagine under a real load it would be pulling in more oil then that.
I'm thinking excessive blow-by and the turbo is pulling it in or the Turbo back plate is shot where the oil ring (seal) is supposed to seal. Is there any play in the comp wheel?

 

Nope, no intake piping. Both valve covers and air piping removed. Everything is open.

I can tell you the oil in the piping is worse than in the vid. I didn't run it that long while shooting the video.

 

Hey Tim,

I could post vids when ever I get everything put back together. I've done the "flip the cap" on the filler tube thing. The cap doesn't blow off at all and there really isn't much ( in my opinion) blowing out of the oil filler . It just moves around a bit from vibrations of the engine.

All I can say is that the turbo back plate better not be shot. It is a brand new center cartridge with only 600 miles on it, if that!!!

Brice.

 

Got it. Well it seems that the oil would be introduced by either crankcase pressure or turbo vacuum or one of the two oil pumps. I don't know how the turbo is oiled. But if you have no blow-by to speak of, wouldn't that leave the last two? Again, I apologize for not being able to help you, just trying to learn by asking questions.

 

No apology needed.

We all learn here by asking quests and by the trail and error of others. With all of our experiences put together and the kindness of everyone posting quests and answers hopefully in the end we can actually get these trucks back to 100%.

 

I think I remember being told that 400 psi is ok but much below that is not good on a compression test. But I think I also recall that a compression test is affected by altitude. Assuming you are in Brighton, CO you are about 4,984 ft. Wouldn't that affect your compression test results?

Finally, there are some gurus on this forum which I hope will chime in to help you (and from whom we all can learn).