I need help.. This is my second diesel pickup and I'm stumped. My 6.4 has excessive blow-by (about 2 foot tall stream of blow-by out of oil cap), it's consuming oil, has white smoke but isn't consuming any antifreeze nor is it bubbling out of the degas/overflow bottle and no blow-by or pressure in the overflow tank at all.. If I pull the oil fill cap and the dipstick it slows the white colored smoke coming out of the tail pipe. My truck has the egr delete and the dpf delete but other than a 5" pipe it is stock I believe (I say 'I believe' because I have not owned this truck since new but the previous owner left it mostly stock from what I can tell). I had previously been talking to a shop that was going to do my head gaskets and have it studded at the same time but when I did a little bit of investigation I don't believe it's the head gaskets. Could a bad oil cooler cause this? I took a video of me removing the oil caps and everything and I even had a hose running from the coolant overflow tank into a bottle filled with water to see if I would get bubbles in the bottle from blown HG's but no bubbles at all.. I will post the vid up soon. The smoke doesn't smell like anti-freeze and isn't blue.. My oil from the fill spout does smell like diesel smoke but not fuel.. Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks

 

Sounds like a cracked piston with excessive blow-by.

 

But wouldn't that make the motor not run? It's got plenty of power and I don't have any odd temps but it just smokes and consumes oil.. It does have a small click but I thought it was just bc it was like most diesels and that was just the diesel knock

 

how many miles are on the motor and what weight oil are you using?

if the motor has a few hundred miles the rings will be worn

if the rings are worn and you put 5W40 in it it will drink more oil than if you put 15W40 in it.

 

Not sure how the crank case vent is on the 6.4s but it sounds like it may be stopped up causing excessive pressure.

 

You're hot on the track schlep. Crankcase vent system may have a block somewhere. If this truck has an oil separator as part of the crankcase vent system this may be the culprit. The crankcase is not ventilating and this is why the blowby is so strong. It may be consuming oil because the crankcase oil may be sucked into the intake. This is extremely common on the BMW engines, same exact symptoms. I don't know the Ford Diesels that well.

 

you guys are cold as ice....on a 6.4, the vent is located about 1 inch below the oil fill cap....its about a 1 inch diameter tube that actually goes to the intake manifold before the turbo. the first turbo will suck the back exhuast right out of the case.....unless of course you have a hot dog or something blocking that tube....highly unlikely.

 

well, how many miles on this truck? makes a difference on answering the question. if it has a few hundred thousand miles...you probally just have work piston rings.

 

Speakerfritz, you're close to zero degrees Kelvin, The truck owner says that it has plenty of power, so that does not correlate with worn piston rings, nor with a broken piston. Perhaps a compression test will clear the issue. I still think that schlep is hot on the trail, the blowby associated with oil drain is a strong telltale of a crankcase ventilation issue, especially now that you point out that the crankcase vent hoses straight into the intake manifold. It is sucking oil from the crankcase and that explains the oil consumption.

 

A 6.4 will still run surprisingly strong with worn rings or a broken piston. I have heard of one running for 20k miles with a cracked piston before it finally gave up.

It is VERY unlikely for the crankcase vent to clog on these trucks. What is a common problem for BMW is pretty much unheard of on any powerstroke. The crankcase vents are just too large to clog by normal means.

6.4s are much quiter than old diesels. If there is a diesel "knock", there is a serious problem.

OP, if you could take a video of the blowby and engine noise, including loosely putting the cap back without turning it, someone may be able to point you in the right direction. If the cap is bouncing around or flies off, it may be new engine or rebuild time.

 

everything in this response makes absolute sense.

 

I know this is an old post, but here's what happened to me that could help everyone in the future. Installed a CCV filter on my 6.4, it failed, which caused something to be sucked in to the housing of the filter and block all airflow to the intake. I was under full boost when it happened, I noticed because my truck was absolutely dumping white smoke everywhere, thought I for sure fried an injector but was relieved to find a piece of gasket sucked in and blocking the flow. EXACT same symptoms you described, if anyone else ever runs into this problem simply pull the ccv tube and put your hand over it for a few seconds and see if the amount of pressure it builds up almost blows your hand away, if it does then the problem is somewhere else, if it isn't putting much pressure out then there is a blockage.

 

glad you you figured it out

i often wondered if my stock ccv was. Logged

somrone whould make a crank case vacuumed pump for these trucks .

 

All 6.4's have a consider amount of blow by compared to other diesel engine, in part its due to the gap in the keystone ring which is larger then normal as part of the design of the engine. The ring expands a lot at the high temps the engine sees which is why there is a specific procedure to check the crank case pressure in a 6.4. The easiest way to check is with a IDS scan tool and just do a relative compression check. The tool is very accurate and if you see a cylinder down 5 percent or more i can almost guarantee the compression is down on the cylinder.

After that you know have to figure out if its cylinder issues or a valve issue. I have seen 6.4's with severely worn heads that where the root problem, the 6.4 does not have replaceable guides unless they have been remanufactured. The heads are machined and the valve moves in the casting, The valve can wear into the head to point they won't seal on the seat and they allow oil in the cylinder due to a bad stem seal. This can also result in excessive blow-by. One issue we see a lot is failed rockers where the fulcrum tip wears out and tips no longer rotates like it should which then starts wear in the bridge plate then results in additional lateral load on the valves stems causing the bores in the head to wear out prematurely.

6.4 can be costly to repair with good techs, its important to make sure you have a good shop with techs familiar with the 6.4. Our you can end up with ridiculous repair bills and a truck thats still not repaired correctly.

Im glad your fix was very reasonable.

 

Hey sanddemon08,
My 08 now has 175k, is it more or less normal to expect to replace, at a minimum, the rockers?
Whoomp, whoomp, whoomp sound an indicator? I'm starting to get concerned.