My friend recently told me that he had oil in his drive way from my truck, and tonight I got under it and holy crap - not only was it low on oil but something has "blown". I haven't noticed any power loss - the injectors are loud but that is fairly normal in these trucks. I took a video of it below to see if anyone can help. It has splashed on the exhaust and even pooled up on the front end brace arm, it is pooled all around where the housing is where the starter goes in - I think it's the flex plate? I always plug it in (except in summer) and it doesn't get that cold in Oregon but it's nice jumping in a warm rig. I was very low on oil - very low. Any ideas is appreciated. I think they call it the "bell housing" or something like that - looks like it has come down both sides

Hopefully the video works.

[ame="https://youtu.be/FS-E3kxL6ow"] [/URL]

 

Look in the valley of the engine and see if there is oil there. If there is, the leak could be from your high pressure oil pump which is in the front of the galley; look around the base of the turbocharger , etc. Any oil leaks or fuel leaks that leak into the engine valley drain out the back of the engine showing up on bell housing, starter, and inspection plate on the bottom of the bell housing. If the leak is primarily on the drivers side, look at the oil cooler on the passenger side of the engine. This is where your oil filter is located.

 

Pop your head in the engine bay and clean everything. Unfortunately, oil drips off the back of this motor no matter where it leaks from.

Clean the valley, soak up all of the oil, and lay down some papertowels. Where every is soaking first is your culprit. The back of the motor is an uncommon place to leak from.

 

My guess is its coming from the turbo. How much low was it on oil? Mine was leaking a little amount just a drip here and there then the seal finally gave loose on the pedestal and it was a big puddle. Could be HPOP also It's most likely not a HPOP line because you lose a lot of oil in a hurry think I lost 5qts in 30 sec when mine blew.

 

Your three Jeopardy choices are the HPOP and Lines, Turbo, and Oil Cooler in that order.

The Video gave me Verdugo..... Almost fell from the Kitchen Stool.

As stated, Purple Power or similar and clean it all off. Get all the water from the valley. There are holes on either side in the rear which may be blocked. Just a good washing will open these up for fast draining.

Most times, using a mirror or similar (I wouldn't imagine you'd need it) start the engine and allow it to heat to 140*F. Often, they won't leak until cool down when O-Rings shrink.

Any of these can be repaired in a matter of an hour to three or four depending on what is found.

Oil leaks are exacerbated this time of year. Especially in colder climates.

 

pirschwagon - yep, I was thinking the same thing when I watched it - it almost made me sea sick.

Thank you everyone for your quick responses - I didn't drive it today. When I checked the dip stick just the tip of the cone at the bottom of the stick was covered. I put an additional 3 Qrts back in and then it was up about a 1/3. I did see a lot of oil or fuel (I didn't have much time) in the valley.

I have a picture but the valley is pretty deep - seems like an Abyss of no mans land down there. The picture shows it - almost looks like a mirror. Tonight when I get home I will do more research based on your suggestions - thank you so much for all the quick ideas and the video is horrible but my fear this time of year is unplanned expenses....

 

I fought a intermittent oil leak in the valley for over 2 years. I finally swapped out my HPOP for a new one (Adrenaline) and it was immediately apparent what was leaking : Non-serviceable plug, left outlet fitting, front gasket and rear plate in that order. 99% of all valley leaks will be HPOP or the lines. By the time I got around to replacing the HPOP I was leaking so much oil I had it dripping off rear differential!

 

That makes me want to crack a leak to solve my rust problems.

 

I wouldn't think it would be the oil cooler of its all over the downpipe and transmission lines at least it looks like your filming from the passenger side. Kinda why I was thinking turbo if it's running down the downpipe or you could have multiple leaks.

 

My money is on the HPOP or lines...

I have fittings for the pump and heads and new lines for the HPOP waiting to go on right now. I am hopeful that is where my small oil leak is coming from.

Keep us up to date on what you find.

 

OK, thank you all for lending a helping hand - let me know if you want to turn a wrench (just kidding). I took off the black super duty cover which I am proud to say is in tact - not broken. I assume the HPOP is directly in front of fuel bowl?

When you reference oil lines in the HPOP - I must be missing the lines because I am not seeing anything that looks like tubes/lines going into the pump.

The trough (aka valley of no where) had oil pooling pretty significantly, and has been for a while because there was a lot of old dust now oil mud in the pit of it. I didn't see any obvious oil leaks but rather a lot of oil residue on the backside of the HPOP and then I noticed one of the tubes from under the turbo on the driver side that goes into the top of the motor (with a red rubber connector) was pretty oily.

This is the backside of the hpop I think? It seems like it might be a source but I didn't see anything obvious coming from the pump.







This is the back of the HPOP sitting directly below was the pool of oil, but i am not ruling out the turbo yet.



This is actually red connector but there is a lot of oil baked on it, I was able to clean this off.


I decided to very carefully clean the motor with hot water/pressure - covered the alternator and very very carefully cleaned the trough and other turbo lines/tubes, etc... - everything looks clean. Filled it full with oil and then will try to drive it tomorrow. I didn't see anything truly obvious other than I am still surprised how much oil was released but you guys give me confidence, at first I thought the motor was blowing up . The turbo didn't appear oily but I did see some oil type substance on the firewall side of the turbo - but I am not able to determine if it is being blown on or the source.

Thank you all for your help so I will continue to keep you updated and thank you.



Here is another video - be aware it may make you sea sick. This is before I washed it and it is just a look see video.

 

Your hpop lines go into the side of the HPOP and go to each side of the head they have a black wire loom over them but when looking down look just to the left side of the hpop right below the lines going into the fuel bowl and you will see the lines. But yes it looks like your HPOP is actually leaking.

 

Normal oil grunge on the valley boots, no problemo. Wet HPOP is not normal. Clean it and see if seepage returns there.

Here's a pic to help orient you to the underhood cornucopia of acronyms. Shows everything except the HPOP, sorry. 6 and 7 are the HPOP hoses.

 

12/22 Update. I cleaned it with a pressure washer and very carefully, and then after driving it idle for a period of time (enough to get really warm), no oil showed. Then under load while driving both pools in the front of the trough were full of oil. So then I sucked out the trough, cleaned the back side of what I think is the HPOP (sits under the fuel bowl) and drove it again. And again oil was pooling.

I don't think any of you mentioned valve cover gaskets and I thought it could be but didn't see any definitive proof.

I looked at the HPOP lines (thank you for the diagram) and they didn't indicate any leaking. Darn it.

I didn't see anything obvious from the turbo (I used a mirror and could really see definitive proof).

So this leaves the HPOP itself - which the picture of the plug with the c clip looked suspect but when I cleaned it and went for 2nd drive, oil pooled in the trough and no oil around that c clip.

There seemed to be a small indicator of an oil flow into the middle of the trough from the red boots, they are very short and to into some sort of manifold (not sure what these are or if oil flows through them - thoughts? It looked like either oil was dripping from just the end of this orange boot or maybe from the manifold that it connects to. This seems far fetched. Picture is attached below.

Is there any value in removing the fuel bowl to see if the HPOP is leaking elsewhere I can't see it. I only have oil pooling in both the front and middle pool areas in the trough, and it appears to be under load only. I had it idle for 20 minutes and rev'd it up to 2200 rpms and no oil showed. Then when under load it feels a little weird between 1900-2300 RPM's.

Again, thank you all for your help. I did pay close attention to the HPOP lines and although they a black sheath over them neither of them appeared to leak.

What I didn't check very confidently is the oil cooler lines - is this still an option?

I will keep you posted because my wife and I planned to go skiing (maybe not now). Are HPOP's expensive? Could this be an injector going out? I has 175k miles, not any real heavy towing.

is there an easy way to see if I am losing turbo boost? Would this help eliminate the turbo? I almost want to put a go pro camera in there and see .

 

The orange boots are your air intake to the engine heads, if you follow the air intake from the turbo, down the drivers side of the engine to the intercooler, then back out of the intercooler on the passenger side, to the spider (where your intake air is split to go to both heads) you will see what I am talking about.. They don't carry oil (except maybe a tiny bit from the CCV, but that oil usually goes no further than the intercooler).

I would look around the HPOP again (located in front (towards the front end of the truck) of the fuel bowl) this is really the only place where oil is in the front of the engine, except the valve covers, but you shouldn't really have a huge leak from them, the engine can actually run with these removed (not driven down the road though!) without making a mess.

If you are showing no oil at all in the rear of the valley, I would assume your turbo pedestal and your EBPV aren't leaking.

Maybe you could put some UV tracer in the oil and see where the leak may be coming from using a black light?

The black staining you mention on the firewall, behind the turbo will probably be soot. This means your up-pipes are leaking (common issue) which in turn means you are not making full boost, but this is a separate issue and shouldn't relate to you oil loss....