I've got an '86 F250 with a 6.9L and a Banks turbo kit installed on it. It's always been a bit heavy on oil, going through about a quart every 400 miles. But, I don't really drive it unless I'm hauling things, so I could never really be bothered to fix the leak, even though I knew where it was, because it was coming out the front of the housing that covers the injector pump gear, and I didn't want to futz with the timing.

But, this weekend, oil loss went through the roof. I dropped 4 quarts in 200 miles o_o So... now it's time to address the issue...

I know the gear cover was the main leak before, the hole front of the engine is just caked with oil, and the sides are relatively clean, though the entire undercarriage from the front of the engine back is black with oil ^^; With the new rate of loss, even the under side of my bumper is dripping with oil, lol.

But, I'm not sure if that's where the new increased loss is coming from... I'm reasonably sure it's still on the top of the engine. The little V-pan beneath the intake manifold has a lake of oil in it. And the sides of the engine are still relatively clean. I guess the other likely culprit would be the oil drain for the turbo, as it definitely isn't the oil supply for the turbo...

Oh, I guess it could be the.... I forget what it's called on diesels, like the PCV on a gasser... Crankcase Depression... something? Anywho, that would only be the culprit under a catastrophic failure I'd think, and the engine runs perfectly fine otherwise. I bypassed the intake, and just made it an atmospheric vent back when for reasons I don't entirely recall...

Opinions? Also, how far do I have to tear in to address these points? I'm nervous about removing that timing cap, though I've read the sticky about getting the gears realigned, and it doesn't sound so bad... I'm also not super excited to remove my intake manifold to get to the turbo drain, which is what I'd have to do, right? Doesn't look as bad as a gasser intake though... Coolant doesn't seem to flow through it, right?

I tried to take some pictures, but it's really hard to get good views on things...

 

I'm 99% sure that you cannot lose that much oil from your CDR Banks hosing. So that's likely not the culprit.

• Could be the gear housing seal.
• Could just be your gear housing cover plate.
• Could be the seal on the front of your valley pan.
• Could be your turbo return drain tube.

The big problem you have is all that oil everywhere. You need to pressure wash it or at the very least, use some brake clean and wipe it DOWN. Then run the engine for a few minutes. That'll help out a lot.

If it's the gear housing seal, it's not that hard. Undo the IP, pull the housing off, clean the mating surfaces and repermatex it.

If it's the gear house cover plate, that's even easier. Just remove it, clean the surfaces and reseal.

If it's the front permatex on the valley pan, that's harder. You should probably take the intake off and redo the pan, but depending on how the permatex was seated in the previous install, you might be able to really really really clean it with brake cleaner or acetone, then try to squirt in a bunch of permatex in the hole. Depending on where the hole is, you may not even need to remove the intake or gear housing, but that's a wildcard.

If its the drain tube, then just get a new grommet (banks and mcmaster sells them) and reinstall it.

 

A PCV groument fr9m an old Dodge also works

 

But pulling the housing and the IP are going to require me to go through re-aligning the TDC marks on the gear, and the cam, right?

Do I need to drain coolant to pull the cyl head, like on a gasser? Or does this not have coolant running through it?

Thanks

 

Yeah, if you pull the IP housing, you'll have to realign the gear and time the IP again. But considering you are gushing oil like a geyser, what choice do you have. But before all of that, just find the source. No need to get all into the discussion of the hard stuff unless you absolutely have to.

There is no coolant thru the intake manifold. But there is coolant in the heads, but you shouldn't need to pull the heads for any of this. If you had an oil leak from the HG, then yes, you'll need to pull the heads. But like I said, find the source first, then worry about the process.