6.5l no power, dark thick tacky oil

[reward_1000]

I am working on this truck for a customer and am in need of some guidance. It is a 2000 3500 2 wd, 6.5l with an auto behind it. He uses this truck for his tent company so it knows nothing of an easy life. He bought the truck 4 years ago and shortly threw a rod through the side of the block. So we put in a Jasper engine all remanufactured with pump and turbo assemblies. Within 6 months the bearings in the turbo went bad so they sent me a new turbo that I installed and worked great. 6 months after that the engine developed a rod knock. Just within the warranty period so they sent me another engine that I installed for him. This one has been good up until now. We have noticed a lot of black smoke and the power is way down. It does not have any ses codes. I checked the waste gate with the engine off and the arm moves freely. I then put a hand operated vacuum pump on it and actuated the waste gate with the engine running and I can not here it spool up. I did not put a boost gauge on it to see what it was producing. When I pulled the truck in I noticed that the oil pressure gauge would sit at zero unless the rpm's were pulled up some. So I ran a pressure test at the oil filter and found that it has 20-40 lbs at idle. I noticed that the oil was very very dark. I know diesel oil is dark but this is the darkest oil that I have seen. So I decided to run some flush through it and change the oil. Oil was very black and very sticky, even after running for an hour at idle the oil was slow to run out of the drain plug. I put new Rotella straight 30 weight oil in it along with a new filter. I started it to check the oil level and found the oil is immediately very very black and tacky already. I also am 2 quarts over full after only putting in 8 quarts of oil. But after the oil change and flush the oil gauge does not drop to zero at idle. So this tells me a couple of things: I believe the engine is sludging up somehow, I do not know how as he gets his oil changed every 6000 miles. The other thing that I suspect is that the turbo is shot due to a lack of oil getting to it. Any thoughts on how this engine is getting sludge this easy? I have ordered an analysis kit and will get the oil sample sent out soon to help give me some idea. They run nothing but road fuel in it. It does have a cracked driver side exhaust manifold that needs changed but that is not leaking that much to cause the turbo to not spool up. THanks for any thoughts and ideas!

 

[lindstromjd]

Engine should only take 7 quarts, unless something changed from the earlier 6.5's. You probably got a bunch of the old crap still in the engine with the new oil in there. Tacky oil is never a good thing; it probably starved the turbo like you pointed out and ruined it. And 6,000 miles is WAY too long to go on an oil change on ANY engine in my opinion. I change my Powerstroke at 4,000 and everything else I own at 3,000 (GM 350 and GM 6.2) or 5,000 (06 Magnum w/ synthetic oil).

Also, ANY leaks in the exhaust system will make the turbo perform like crap. It needs to be 100% buttoned up if you don't want to keep chasing problems with it. I want to say that with the lack of boost, his engine is running super rich and hot, and that's where the tacky oil comes from. Working a diesel hard isn't a bad thing, but neglecting it is.

 

[Dieselcrawler]

sounds like it got hot to me. only way I have seen oil get tacky....

 

[tanman_2006]

Hard working idi engines need the oil changed at more like 2k. I go longer on dd trucks but any trucks that work hard and idle alot needs more frequent oil changes.

Plug your tech 2 or other 6.5 specific reader into the obd2 port, these only set a light for emissions. I can run 0 boost and not code.

Otherwise an att turbo is only, ~7-800 iirc, runs cooler and works stock. I'd swap the double wall crossover pipe for a single wall 2.5" off eBay and also at least do a downpipe (kits on eBay w/ crossover and downpipe)

Keep flushing the sludge out

source unknown

 

[reward_1000]

I am going to flush it out some more and then drop the pan and clean it all the way out. I have got another turbo located for it and then I will replace the oil supply line and the drain back to the block. This one has given me boost codes before but not this time. I will get it figured out. I will also move his oil change intervals up.