Being new to the deisel world I have heard the term dusting and wondered what it meant.

 

Dust entering the air intake system, either through or around the filter, or any intake side leaks, which can chew up the inside of the engine in relatively short order, usually shows up as scored cylinder walls, pistons etc.

 

Thanks,Why is this more common in deisel engines than gas. How can I check my y2k 7.3.

 

The ones I have seen dusted were from lack of filter maintenance, poor filter sealing in airbox, or torn boots to intake. As far as why it is more common on diesel engines, trucks I've seen are used in horrible environments, dusty construction sites, quarries, mills etc. and the drivers of such may not check oil levels and filters as the owner would. Rarely see a Town Car in the local gravel pit!
The check for yours would be a crankcase blowby test.

 

I have a 94.5 PSD. Can I perform the test on it? What does it entail to do the test? Thanks

 

I'm far from an expert but I think where the biggest problem comes in is when you have particles of dirt/dust etc. being pulled across the blades of the turbo charger. The blades are turning at very high speeds and a small amount of grit can cause a lot of erosion in the metal.

 

You can do a visual on your turbo blades, remove the intake boots to the turbo and visually inspect the edges of the blades for nicks, cracks, wear, etc.

Also. take an oil sample and have it analyzed, check the silicon level in the analysis. If the silicon levels are high, high probability that your getting some pass through from your air box, intake, intake boots, clamps, etc.

 

The crankcase blowby test involves removing the intake tube to the turbo, blocking off the vent tube to the valve cover, removing the oil fill cap, installing a fixed orifice tube and a magnahelic guage, and running the engine and reading the amount of pressure built in the crankcase venting through the orifice tube.

 

In my opinion, on a gas engine, even with fuel injected, when at idle or low RPM, the air entering the engine is minimal. The throttle butterfly is nearly closed, and is only open fully at wide open throttle. However on a diesel, the air is wide open all the time, even at idle. So consequently, more air is going through the diesel, than typically with a gas engine, especially at low RPM's. So the same tiny leak around the air filter on a gas engine will not let in as much dust on the gas engine as the same tiny leak will on the diesel will.

Secondly, most if not all new diesels are turbocharged, and any dust entering the turbo, hits the blades, which are spinning at extreme RPM, and further pulverized into even smaller particles, before being ingested through the intake valves and accomodate the fuel to its rightful position on top of the piston, and then past the rings, and into the oil. Then the little sandpaper grit beasties work there way all through th oil system, bypassing certain oil filters ability to filter particles that small, and promptly start polishing the bearing surfaces. Unfortunately, they don't know when to stop polishing, and just keep on polishing away metal.

Plus, on its journey, the dust particles chew up the turbo blades on the intake side of the turbo, damage the valve seats and valves, damage the pistons, cylinder walls, and especially the piston rings.

And also gives your engine a bad name when the Blackstone report comes back with high silicon content. Kind of there goes the neighborhood, thing.