Fixed my 2000 7.3 F350 4x4 pedestal 0 ring leaks a month or 2 ago. Nothing on ground.
Ck'd my oil last couple days. Seems now 2 qts. low.
What might cause "oil use/burning"? Probably over about 1K miles or so.

Thanks once again to ALL the Great input from this great teaching site.

 

Turbo leaking or injector orings.

 

So, turbo seals themselves, even though pedestal 0 rings done top and bottom?
Maybe that's why when I did my pedestal 0 rings and took off intercooler tubes, saw some oil in the tubes?
Is that right?
So, if I get it, I either rebuild my stock turbo with 145K on it or buy a new one?

 

The oil inside your intercooler boots are coming from the crankcase vent. There is a dog house on the driver side valve cover near the back with a small 90* elbow that goes into the air intake which goes into the turbo. The oil in there is normal.

With the engine running take a white piece of paper and hold it up to the tail pipe. If you have oil splattering onto the white paper than it's your turbo.

 

Scottahoe is right. Some oil in the intake tubes is normal. Just check your turbo shaft for play. If it is okay, it is not likely leaking. Oil in the exhaust is not normal and does indicate a leaking turbo.

The most likely cause of your oil consumption (with no other leaks) is injector orings.

 

There are a few possibilities here. When you did the pedestal, you had a fresh O-ring kit and double-stacked O-rings? We can't rule out a coincidental new development of leaking injector O-rings - is the fuel filter black?

 

Yep, changed out the pedistal 0 rings top & bottom (from Riffraff). Checked turbo wheel for end play and up & down slop (by hand), all seemed OK.
Fuel filter was changed by Ford last November right after I bought the truck.
So the injectors all have 0 rings that allow leakage where? Into the cylinders? So I would have to pull all the injectors and replace the 0 rings? That sounds fun. Not.

 

I had an oil consumption issue as well. Like a qt/500-600. I did the injector o-rings when I installed the new 160/30's. I rebuilt the turbo when I swapped the one I built in. Didn't change a thing.

I had read some reviews of Hot Shot Secret Stiction Eliminator...figured I could throw $45 at it.

It worked. My last oil change after adding the Hot Shot Secret is now 4700 miles...still in the cross hatched area on the dipstick.

I spoke with a oil engineer from Amsoil when we were working dogs...explained to him the issue, what I added, and the result. He said there is likely a seal swelling agent in the Hot Shot Secret that swelled the valve stem seals.

 

Starting your engine from a cold soak (overnight), count 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc as you crank until it starts.

After running a bit, shut it off, wait 1 min, do the same thing.

Let it run about 10 mins, shut it off, wait about 10 mins or so and try it.

When trying to "guess" (empirical speculation ) if my orings needed replaced or not, the above was quite telling.

The pics of my injectors are in my build thread (link in my sig), near the end. They REALLY needed new orings.

Now she starts up in 2secs flat- warm or cold.

I figure before the high pressure oil was bleeding off through the old orings, causing a slight delay for the HPOP to build up pressure again before starting again. When warm and starting again right away, it hadn't bled off much, but with more time did.

All this on a truck that I thought was running great

Once out and inspected, there wasn't any doubt that the orings NEEDED done! The blowby of the copper washers that had started would have likely let to much bigger problems in the near future.

But it isn't a job to take lightly or by yourself. If you can get an experienced person to help you, DO IT! My buddies who helped me were invaluable! I can't express my appreciation enough

 

150K miles is kinda low for excessive blow-by - although if you are running a K&N washable filter, that could accelerate ring/cylinder wear significantly.

150K mile is also a little low for the oil seals in the turbo CHRA to be leaking... unless you are pushing high boost on a regular basis.

Do either one of these apply?

I don't think I've ever even heard of the injector o-rings leaking.


If you've got blow-by issues, you will have a small "puddle" of oil at the bottom of the air tube between the dog-house vent and the turbo. This can be seen by taking the air cleaner side of the tube off and looking down in the tube towards the turbo.
Alternately, if you take the tube off the turbo, and oil drips out - you've got a blow-by problem.
As said before, oil residue is to be expected, it just shouldn't be enough to puddle or drip.

scotttahoe's method for checking for turbo CHRA seal leaks is as good as any.

If neither one of these are the smoking gun, I guess it's injector o-rings. I've never dealt with an leak in them, so I don't know.

 

The orings keep the oil separated from the fuel and each separated from the coolant. Only the fuel section is "allowed" into the cylinder.

The oil section can easily be pressurized up to about 3000psi.

When an oring ages, is damaged, etc, it can allow oil to bleed past one of the orings and into the fuel section- to be burnt in the cylinder with the fuel. Or pushed back into the fuel system (black fuel filters).

In otherwise healthy systems, this can go unnoticed, showing up only in subtle ways- such as a leak down of HPO. Anything that leaks down must be built back up (more cranking), and a more active leak can take longer to build pressure (again, more cranking).

We're talking pretty small volumes, so it doesn't take much to affect systems.

I changed my orings at about 158k. I've seen 200k mentioned as a service interval, so 150k or so isn't unreasonable to show signs of wear

I am NOT an injector expert, nor am I pretending to be. I am sharing what I did, found that works, and seems quite logical given the design and function of the parts involved in order to help others.

Note that in removing the injectors to replace the orings, we also retightened their bolts, so one making a bigger difference vs the other, I can't say.

But my truck now starts MUCH better and faster. I have a new starter, too, but until it started to fail I would say it was the same rpms, so I don't give it credit for the change.

Make sense?

Oh- here's an interesting article about HEUI injectors for anyone interested. HEUI - How High-Pressure Oil Injection Systems Work - Diesel Power Magazine

 

I fully understand the concept.
I've never seen a service interval specified for the injector o-rings - even though I've replaced several sets in the course of replacing injector cups and seals. I usually operate on a "if I'm in there, I'm gonna replace everything" methodology.

My current truck has just turned 300K, and I've replaced neither the injector cups/seals or injector o-rings.

With regard to HPOP pressure, I make just over 3100PSI 1 second into cranking - hot or cold. My truck was also taking 3-4 seconds to fire. That issue was resolved when I replaced my recall-installed grey CPS with a Standard PC-139. I also gained back nearly 5MPG fuel economy when I made that change.

Not doubting/discrediting your experience(s), just relaying mine relating to common symptoms.

 

Wow, 300k on untouched injectors is pretty good

I also wasn't trying to discredit anyone's knowledge. I read what you wrote and looked at a low post count, figured you were new at this. Whoops! 300k is far from "new" LOL.

That's what I like about this group. Everyone freely offers their best to help one another

 

Yeah... on THIS truck. This is my 4th 7.3, and I have two 5.9 Cummins. The 90 model Cummins turned 800K a few years ago.

But to be fair, I did buy the X with 90K (hard) miles on the clock.


I do some things... differently.
I run 32ozs TC-W3 2-stroke oil + 16ozs Standyne or Diesel Kleen each (42gal) tank.
The main factor here is the TC-W3. It really quietens the injectors. I figure if it's making them quieter, it's also reducing wear.
The Standyne / Diesel Kleen is to remove deposits left by the 2-stroke oil. I hear no difference using Standyne or Diesel Kleen alone.


I've lurked this forum for well over a decade. I never saw a need to join until now.

 

So you're really a die-hard veteran disguised as a (Had to use that new smilie!)

Well, I'm glad you joined up. I'm sure you have lots of knowledge to share At the least, it can be relaxing to read about trucks that other people are working on