I checked my oil again after refilling a month ago and, I'm two quarts low again. Dug around under the hood and under the truck and here's the full analysis that I came up with that needs to be done.

Drain bolt is covered in oil. We assessed in another forum that my drain bolt had an extra washer on it and that was the cause of the leak. I need to fix this. The past couple days it has been 24° and the truck has been starting just fine with the 15W40 oil in it. Although it does take forever to warm up. I left the truck idle for 10 minutes, maybe less, while I ate and I wasn't even off the bottom of the temp gauge yet. I don't usually let it idle that long because driving it easy will warm it up faster anyway but I wanted cab heat before I took off, which inevitably did not happen. I usually let the truck idle when I first crank it for just a couple of minutes too get all that oil flowing. By the time I got to work which is maybe 5 minutes away, really close, I was just coming off of the top of the first mark. Would switching to 5w40 decrease the warm up time? I have to drain my oil out to fix the drain bolt anyway.

My dipstick adapter looks dry. That being said I think it's time to do some preventative shmoo smearing (silicone) so I don't have to worry about it leaking for a couple years. It had recently come loose and I tightened it back up. It might already have expanded the o-ring and ruined it. I'm sure permatex will do the job but, which color permatex do you guys recommend? There's different ones for different uses.

Time for under the hood. oil residue on the heads next to the h-pop lines. As some of you may remember I replaced my
h-pop lines with eBay ones because I did not want to pay $100 a line for the factory ones. So I put some napkins under the fittings and waited a while with the truck running. To my surprise there was no oil. Instead the oil is coming from the spider to manifold boots. Just a little residue. I decided to check my other boots as well and sure enough, there's oil residue around all of my intercooler boots. It's probably time for a set from riff Raff. Of course this has no effect on the oil level of the truck. It is just the vapor coming through the crank vent into the intake. But I do know that the boots are leaking and it bothers me.

I would also like to at some point replace my h-pop lines with some jic lines from riff Raff and some braided stainless steel fuel delivery lines from the bowl to the heads.
Does anybody have any good experiences with the jic lines from riffraff? If there's anything anybody else can think of that I might should do when I get around to doing all of this feel free to say so.

I have also ordered new brake lines, and new steering gear seals All pertaining to the 4x4 swap!

Thanks!

I know it looks wet but that was because it was recently loose and I have not cleaned it. But if you look right at the bottom of the nut you can almost see a drop of oil coming from behind the nut. But it is not actively leaking. Hence the silicone idea.

 

I am a little different, buy once cry once. My tube adapter started leaking, and I jumped in with both feet. Got the billet adapter from strictly diesel. It has 2 orings that seal against the outside of the pan after it is cleaned up. Not even moist

around the adapter a year later.

 

I am well aware of these types of new dipstick adapters. Although I do not like the idea of throwing my old one into the pan. I know it will not hurting anything. If my internal ceiling surface was bent back from a over bulged o-ring to the point where it wouldn't seal no matter what I would do something of the sort. However at the moment it is not leaking. And I am currently doing a 4x4 swap and would rather not spend $300 on an adapter. To me it is overpriced. Although if mine starts leaking to that extent, I will probably do the same and use one of these adapters. I hope that is down the road though

 

Riff Raff has a kit I have not seen before. Cheaper than the golden nugget anyway.

Globbing RTV sounds bad, but it's worked before.

 

Only reason is because id hate to take it off if it's not leaking. But the nut was loose. And we all know that means that the o-ring has swelled and made the nut come loose. It's probably not far from leaking. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

Tristan, the title sums it up appropriately. LOL
Hang in there my friend.

 

The ultimate solution is a weld-in dipstick bung. One has to be good at welding to ensure a leak-free install though. It is also pretty hard to do with the engine still in the truck. It might be easier during the 4WD conversion with no front axle in the way. Mine was done while the engine was getting rebuilt so it benefited from getting welded on both sides.

 

TIG welding from one side would be OK but with engine out and oil pan removed, TIG on both sides would be ideal.

 

will do! LOL

 

I know it! From what I understand you have to weld it from the inside. At least the ones I've seen.

I haven't seen any that can be welded from the outside before. I might just watch what I have for the time being and in the future I will worry about bulletproofing it when I have more time and less projects going on. It would be nice to be able to take the pan off and weld one in but, I don't have the time, tools, or the funds to pull the motor out. If I was going to do it I would wait until I needed to pull the motor out for something else. I might consider one of the golden nuggets in the future if it starts leaking.

Decisions, decisions! For the time being mine's not leaking so I'm not going to worry about it. Hopefully way down the road when I end up pulling the motor out I will be able to weld one in! Thanks for the info!

 

Yeah, I would think the same. For now I will watch what I have, if it starts leaking I will either do the riff Raff kit which moves the seal to the outside or one of the gold nuggets😔

I like the idea of the riff Raff kit. It seems it would do the same thing as the Golden Nugget but much cheaper. I saw one just like the riff Raff one on a different website that came with the bore brush to hold the inside portion suspended for you as well for even cheaper. I'll figure it out!

 

Diesel o-rings sells this kit. https://www.dieselorings.com/8-011-o...vision-iv.html

 

When I am warming the truck up in the driveway with intentions of towing the 5th wheel I let the OEM high idle kick in. If the ambient or EOT is too high and OEM high idle doesn't go, I use the Hydra 1100 RPM high idle.

This is the only other tune I have on the Hydra, so the transition is quick and easy.

I will let this high idle run for 5 - 10 minutes and then feel the engine is warm enough to start working. If I am not towing the 5th wheel right away, I will let it idle for a couple of minutes to wake up and then take it easy on the throttle and shifting until it up to operating temperature.

You have to remember the cooling system is really quite efficient and has 8 gallons of fluid. The oil is just under 4 gallons and goes through a cooler too. The truck sitting at normal idle on a cold morning will take a long time to reach operating temperature and may never get there in some situations.

As for the leaks, you are on the right track with some good advice. Soon you will progress to "want to" list items instead of "need to" list items.

 

I do....and I love em!...dry as a bone and no special tool to remove them anymore. Check valves gone.
I also upgraded my fuel lines to the RiffRaff stainless kit and love those too. You also ditch the check valves at the heads when you upgrade these.
Grab some Gasoila if/when you upgrade your fuel lines.

 

Unfortunately my truck has never high idled unless I sit there and hold the throttle. Did some lower models not come equipped? Or maybe mine is just not working properly.
I usually take it easy on her till shes warmed up to temp. Maybe idle for a few mins especially on cold days. The only time I'm not as easy on her is like today. My buddy wanted to hear my new exhaust tone. Was on a time limit before he had to go. I cranked her up, Wasn't very cold out. Let her idle for 10-15 mins then proceeded to open her up on the road and squeak the tire rather aggressively for just a couple seconds😅. I don't like this nor do I make a habit of it.

I think my ebpv is malfunctioning as well. I forget who told me (maybe Jason) but I was told the ebpv should open once the throttle is touched. Mine won't do this. On a cold day I have to get moving for 15-20 secs at 1500 RPM before it'll open. Or idle for 10 min. It seems rather erratic. I usually won't shift out of first till the valve is open. Won't go over 1500 RPM either. I thought it was ran off of oil temp.