Engine cut out to idle and would not power up. Cat converter was found to be red hot and tips of exhaust white hot. when attempting to restart it was shooting flames out of exhaust. Ford sited problem with two heat sensors. After replacing engine would run but is sucking oil into the exhaust system indicating that this was the initial problem that caused the flame etc. They have attempted various things and problem still exists therefore picked truck up and will attempt to isolate problem without there expense. Please provide any feedback that might help solve the problem.

 

You are gowing oil?

Fuel dillution issues?

Eating coolant?

Any warranty left..you need a new dealer with a certified diesel tech for the 6.4.

 

Wow, yeah you need a new tech I think. The DPF technology will cause diesel fuel to enter the crank case and make the truck "grow" oil. If that's what's happening it's an easy fix. First, drain the oil and measure how much comes out. Anything over 15 quarts is "growth". I hope you change oil at 5000 miles, if not you should. I don't know how much "extra" would start pushing it into the exhaust but somebody on the forum will tell us. You want this to be the problem cause it's a cheap and easy fix but I can't believe a tech of any kind would miss that. I'd say just check the oil but it's almost impossible with the mickey mouse dip stick we have. You might try the short stick method. put the dip stick into the tube only until the yellow part sits on the top of the tube. If oil is still showing above the full line you probably are over filled. senix usually knows what he's talking about. I'm thinking he's thinking that the flames mean there is a lot of diesel in there burning and what you see at the end of the tail pipe is oil and diesel fuel mixed. Anyway, try the oil thing and come back and let us know if that helps. Good luck.

 

Turbocharger seal maybe went bad, and dumping oil into the exhaust.

You are 100% sure it's engine oil, and not diesel fuel?

 

Growing oil sounds like a great posibility as a short time back when I changed oil I drained much more than the 15 qts and it was much thinner than normal oil. You say a easy fix, sure hope so.

 

Growing oil sounds like a distinct possibility as a short time back when I changed the oil it appeared like much more than the 15 qts and was thinner than normal oil indicating that diesel was mixed with it. You mentioned easy fix, sure hope that is the case.

 

My truck used to grow oil. To combat it I adopted this oil program: Change at 5000 mile intervals. At each 1000 miles in between, drain to 1 quart low (forgot to tell you to add a fumoto valve where the oil drain plug is)and add a quart of fresh oil. I had it down to about a ten minute job. i would usually get a quart plus mabey an extra half quart out to get it to 1 quart low. The hardest part is finding out where the oil is on that dip stick. Cost is one gallon of oil each change cycle, or about 18 bucks, plus the fumoto valve which I think was like 25 dollars or so. I have my oil tested by blackstone labs and that oil program improved the reports. Of course the real way to stop the DPF related growth is to tune and delete the truck. But that's against the law.

 

I am helping the OP work on his truck. Here are some more details.

He says the truck is growing oil in between changes.

Truck is also eating some coolant

I talked to the tech and they said that the reason it shot flames out of the exhaust is because the cat was full of oil when it went into regen. That sounds pretty plausable to me.

There is A LOT of oil going straight to the exhaust. I mean you can watch it drip out of the down pipe (guessing down pipe haven't been under truck but it leaves a puddle at back of engine) and LOTS of white/grey smoke at rear of truck from the tailpipe.

NO engine lights

 

So you are running your oil after it is watered down with fuel?

 

The DPF technology causes some level of oil dilution in all DPF equiped diesels. Some more than others. I used the mini oil changes to combat it. By design the truck would just grow oil until the next change and that was working Ok for me. I mean nothing was going into the exhaust. But, having messed with cars and trucks since about 1957 I was unable to accept the premise that I had to keep running on the diluted oil, so I began my little oil program. many folks stop the oil dilution by deleting the DPF completely. That requires a bypass pipe and a tuner.

However, what you are describing seems extream to me. How long has it been since his oil was changed? A normal truck should not grow oil to that level if oil is changed at the 5000 mile mark or even 10,000 unless it's being used extremely hard.

What I was trying to suggest was that he change the oil and monitor the level closely to learn what the extent of the growth is. Now, if he has changed the oil within the past 5000 miles it sounds to me like something else is going on. Also, the coolant in the oil would not occur just because of DPF technology. That sounds like maybe a head gasket or some other failure. My first suggestion since it sounds like cost is a concern would be to pull an oil sample and send it to blackstone lab. (blackstone.com) Cost is $25 and they will tell him exactly what is in the oil. Once he know's that the rest may be easier for someone on the forum to figure out. I realize that takes a couple days but so does changing the oil and filter and tracking the oil growth. Either way, before he can solve the problem it is gonna have to be defined. Then start a new post with more info, IE: what blackstone found and/or what the oil growth rate was. Hope this helps, it's all I have to offer right now. I don't think that removing the DPF and putting a tuner on the truck would be a good decision right now because you may still have a major problem after you did it. Good luck and keep us posted.

on edit. i went back and reread what you said. The coolant may not be going into the exhaust with the oil, it's just going somewhere. That could be a hose leak. Most everyone has to replace the upper and lower radiator hoses sooner or later and until they start leaking a lot the coolant just gets eaten without a puddle under the truck. or it could be an internal EGR cooler leak which would put it into the exhaust with the oil. Also, you say white/gray smoke, that usually means water/coolant, oil smoke is darker like bluish. Of course it's not a real well defined color chart so what I call blue you may see as gray. might not mean much.

 

OK, I've had some sleep and some time to gt my thoughts organized. I guess it is possible to "grow" enough oil to do what you say the truck is doing, but it seems to me that he would have to be going a long time between oil changes and probably using biodiesel which increases the growth. Some regular diesel that seeps into the crank case will be removed by the heat of the oil "boiling" it out, like water in a boat engine. However bio diesel will not do so nearly as well. I know in the mid west the states have laws requiring B20 bio. Our trucks are only rated for B5.

I think it also possible that he has a seal failure somewhere, someone above mentioned a turbo seal might be pouring oil into the exhaust. Here's the first question I would answer if it were my truck, how much oil is in the pan right now. Drain it and measure it. If there is 15 quarts or more then he is "growing" it. If there is a seal pouring oil into the exhaust then the oil level should be low. If it's low you might be able to tell by pulling that mickey mouse dip stick the first thing in the morning. If it checks low on the dip stick then it would suggest a bad seal.

If it is growing oil a fresh oil change should put the truck back to normal. Or at least it will after the first exhaust cleaning. if there are no codes and it's not going into "safety" mode then the truck ECM thinks everything is normal. And, once he has a fresh oil change it may be.

I think that and an oil sample to Blackstone should be the first move unless you want to take it to a good diesel tech.

If with a fresh change he finds it is growing the oil he can monitor it for quicker oil changes, my mini change oil program or a delete and tune. Information about the delete and tune can be found on about half the posts on this forum. It's against federal law, it cost around 1000 bucks in the cheapest version unless you can find a use tuner somewhere, but if should cure the oil growth problem.

Good luck and let us know what you find as we all learn from each other on this forum.