oil going somewhere...but where? stumped

[chris_wei17]

Only noticed this for the past couple months, but thats only because I actually have stacks now instead of just dumping under the cab. For probably 8 months before that it dumped under the cab so I couldnt see the exhaust on the road. It had a slow oil leak, took it to a shop and now there's no more leak over night but I'm still losing some oil so this is as far as I got in trying to find it.

had white smoke coming out at idle and while driving, but it was pretty inconsistent as to when it was happening. assumed it was oil since the stacks looked like this

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the "wet" spot spread, didnt smell like much, wouldnt wash off in the rain so I assumed it was oil.

there was what seemed like to me a good bit of oil in the turbo air inlet and in the air filter box

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this is the part of the air box that mates up to the turbo

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looked around here and resolved to change the air filter and clean the CDR. Found this

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cleaned the CDR out with some dieselkleen bc i didnt have any fuel around, didnt seem to change much.

Drivers side valve cover is pretty damn dirty, passenger side just looks like I'm assuming a 20 year old one would

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I didnt really expect cleaning the CDR to do much, so what is your guess?

 

[chris_wei17]

When I did this I wiped up the oil in the turbo and just checked on everything right now and the oil is back. air filter is dry, doesnt look like any oil got to it. does this sound like turbo rebuild time?

 

[icanfixall]

Your turbo inlet fan blades look like they have been eating sand. The enfds are not supposed to be worn back like that on th tips. sorry for the not so good news.

 

[chris_wei17]

That doesn't sound good. Since everyone talks about shaft play I tried moving it, nothing front to back, a little side to side and nothing up and down. I'm guessing that could be related? Either way, would that be a contributor or a sign of a reason for oil leaking from somewhere inside the turbo? If it is more *just* decreasing turbo performance or boost, I don't mind that as much as having to keep watching the oil level. Even though BJs has 3 gal cases of rotella at about $13/gal it will obviously start to add up.

 

[icanfixall]

More importantly you need to know why or what bypassed the filters to wear down the blades like that. Just finding another turbo and installing it wont fix the material thats causing the wear. Look closely at the intake filter seals in the filter box .

 

[chris_wei17]

I looked at the filter box this morning before I left, all three nuts were tight when I put it back on yesterday. All the edges were flush, didn't look like microwaved bacon or anything like that. I just put the new filter on maybe a week and a half ago so around 300-350 miles ago. To be fair the filter I took out was pretty damn dirty, atleast it seemed so to me. Ill be the first to admit that I haven't been the most maintenance minded since I got this truck a little over a year ago and probably overlooked one or two potentially fatal things. Now it's time to put on the big boy pants, fix up the important stuff, and pray its not too late.

How much time of poor filtration would it take to cause this kind of wear to the blades?

 

[Leeland]

Haven't seen any mention of mileage of the eng and turbo. They do wear over time and miles. You could pop the cross over and up pipe off from the manifolds and check for oil tracks and where it's coming from to help confirm or rule out the turbo leaking oil. Better then removing the turbo with out new parts in hand and disabling a running truck.

 

[oregon96psd]

How much oil does it use? Some oil usage is going to happen, its an old diesel. That looks more like fuel mixed with the soot in the exhaust on the stack, and the white smoke also sounds to be more fuel related. If it were passing enough oil to make it all the way out to the exhaust you'd have MAJOR blue smoke. How does it run, any miss, stumble? How much blowby?

 

[chris_wei17]

I think it has somewhere around 180k on it. I say I think because it sounds like this truck is supposed to have the red engine shaped check engine light but mine has the yellow words instead. So if the cluster isn't original the true mileage would be lost somewhere with the old speedo. If I had to guess, I would say I put a quart in every couple weeks so between 500-600 miles. It sounds and feels like it runs fine, the low/warm idling speed seems to be a little inconsistent. Sometimes it won't come up to cold idle speed until I get the engine to that speed and then it stays until it warms up and kicks down. But when it's running it seems to run pretty smoothly. I considered the fuel issue scenario too, but since the oil loss was a visible thing I was leaning towards that. If I wipe my fingers on the wet spots on the outside of the stacks it's pretty much clear, not dark like oil would be but also doesn't smell like much. Mostly just like plain old normal diesel exhaust. I've been running the grey bottle diesel kleen for a solid month, hasn't seemed to change much in terms of the smoke.

 

[fuzzy1626]

My 94 has the yellow words also. As for the fast idle, are you setting the fast idle by depressing the accelerator pedal and then releasing slowly after the key is on but before you crank it? The solenoid doesn't have the power to increase the idle, only hold it after it's set.

 

[chris_wei17]

I never consciously "set" it, is this something I should be doing? Sometimes if I would start the truck and not get goin right away it would stutter and idle rough. I don't remember exactly but I think it was colder morning bc it hasn't really done that recently. So I guess I was setting it without really understanding what was actually being done. Though most of the time I get to fast idle before I get out of the lot, so by the time I get to the first light I'm all set, no pun intended

 

[oregon96psd]

How many miles on the fuel system? Nothing you pour in the tank is going to fix worn out injection parts. It's possible you have a leaking injector causing the mess. Combine with a used/worn engine and you have slime in the exhaust and oil vanishing. Maybe try pulling the injectors and have them pop tested, and switching oil brands.

 

[chris_wei17]

I considered getting them pop tested, I just havent had a good chunk of time where I could have it out of commission since its my only vehicle. I definitely wasnt expecting any gypsy magic with the diesel kleen but figured it couldnt hurt. I'm the third owner so I'm not sure if the pump and the injectors are original. I haven't ruled those out as the cause but I also dont want to replace all of that and find it wasnt the problem. I've got return lines on the way because I've got that overnight air intrusion going on.
As far as oils go, seems like everyone has their own "best brand" and every truck has its own preference, but is there decent method for finding a good one given a set of circumstances? obviously theres conventional vs synthetic, but then there's brand preference, heavier or lighter weight, one with specific additives. any suggestions?

 

[Wyreth]

I looked at the filter box this morning before I left, all three nuts were tight when I put it back on yesterday. All the edges were flush, didn't look like microwaved bacon or anything like that. I just put the new filter on maybe a week and a half ago so around 300-350 miles ago. To be fair the filter I took out was pretty damn dirty, atleast it seemed so to me. Ill be the first to admit that I haven't been the most maintenance minded since I got this truck a little over a year ago and probably overlooked one or two potentially fatal things. Now it's time to put on the big boy pants, fix up the important stuff, and pray its not too late.

How much time of poor filtration would it take to cause this kind of wear to the blades?

I'm not sure how long it would take to cause the amount of wear I can see on your impeller, but that is a good bit of wear. There's ALOT of debris still in your intake as well. You really really really need to clean that out, before a large chunk of it comes free and wacks your impeller while it's spinning at 100k rpm.

Now, cleaning a bad CDR does exactly nothing. From personal experience, bad one can cause the kind of oil consumption you're seeing. Can you blow both ways through it? If so, it's done. You may also want to add an oil catch to the line between it and your intake. Take a look at how much oil you're sucking down.

Also, how much blowby are you getting?

 

[chris_wei17]

I blew through the two large holes, through one while covering the other in both directions, but did that before I read that there was a third small one. I would have to go back and see what exactly it said, but since there was oil all in that tube connecting it to the air box I was halfway to replacing it before I bothered cleaning it.

I haven't checked blowby yet, the parking lot is usually too busy to be sticking out of the spots like I do and leaning over the bumper to tinker but I'm thinking I'll have time later tonight. Better to check for that from the dipstick tube or the filler cap?