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Stumped. Engine started dumping a LOT of oil, white smoke, pulled over and turned engine off
02 F250 7.3L diesel. Driving back home on a errand, I noticed that while accelerating onto an on-ramp, white smoke began pouring out from the rear of the truck. I immediately pull over and turn engine off. Witness actual quarts of oil spilling out the rear of the engine. Open the hood, the front of the engine, top, and rear of engine are coated in engine oil. The entire underside of the truck is covered in a thin layer of oil.
I've never seen or heard of anything like this happening. Took it to a (hopefully) trusted powerstroke diesel shop who has done good work for me before. On initial look, they think the oil may be coming from the turbo pedestal, but aren't 100% sure yet (they have to get a wrecker to move the car into their garage for disassembly)
What on earth could have happened? I first thought maybe a fitting on the HPOP, but those look in-tact without any visible damage or residual leak.
If your high pressure lines are ok you could be losing oil from the plug in the rear of the high pressure oil rails in the head.
Do you have oil in the valley?
Yep, lots. When they pulled it up on the rollback even more oil spilled out of the rear of the valley. Whatever failed, failed spectacularly. Couldn't believe how much oil loss there was. Thankfully, the truck was turned off almost immediately upon noticing the blue-white smoke. When I got out I saw oil just gushing from out of the back of the engine.
That much oil that well distributed is almost guaranteed to be a high pressure hose. It may be on the underside of one of the hoses making it less noticeable. I don't see pedestal o-rings slinging oil over the entire engine bay, and don't worry about engine damage from the oil loss. The injectors will quit firing from no hpo before lack of lubrication has a chance to hurt anything.
My massive oil leak ended up being a rear HPOP plug. That volume of oil in that location almost has to be HPOP related…either the hoses or HPOP itself. I’ve never heard of turbo pedestal o-rings to fail that spectacularly. Maybe time to find another shop?
With an oil leak like that, I'd clean up the bulk of the mess but wouldn't go too hog wild as you'll need to make a mess again to find out what's leaking. Then, I'd pull a fuse or something so the engine wouldn't start and try cranking it and see if you can't see that leak already. If that doesn't work, then start it up but make it quick because you'll find that leak quickly.
Shop called this morning, they said they'd never seen one like this in 16 years. Part of the o-ring collar on the pedestal appears to have broken off. There isn't high pressure through this orifice but a LOT of volume. When A1 did my transmission and up-pipes a couple years ago, we think they didn't properly torque (if at all) the turbo bolts, and the 7.3 vibes caused the assembly to very slightly shift (thousands of inch) causing the collar to weaken and eventually fail. We have a new deleted pedestal on the way.
I'm concerned about chunks of metal potentially passing around in the lines, but, they are going to carefully wash out the turbo side intake orifice (the hole with broken collar) to see if those pieces are hanging out inside. He said the turbo spins freely with no noise, and it's tight with zero signs of wear or issues. I hope they recover the broken collar pieces, or that they are in the oil filter right now.
I’m not positive but believe the large hole is the return side. The drain backs are normally larger. If this is true then the piece should not have went into your turbo. I assume it drains back into the oil pan from there. Can someone confirm?
Found this diagram in the Ford Service Manual under the following volume. Based on the diagram and chart below, the oil return is the LARGE hole and the oil supply is the SMALL hole. Well done RJWV!
If it's in the pan right now, how many would spend the big bucks to having the motor raised, and then pan dropped to fish out? Feel like a dummy asking the question, but, it's a spendy bill to drop pan just to see. Maybe the pieces were already ground up and in the filter, maybe not.
A1 confirmed they didn't pull turbo when they did up-pipes (they had my transmission out for a full rebuild, so no need). Will never know when it cracked or how.
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