LOTS of oil puddled in valley cover; Turbo oil drain?

[antiqueford]

All of the sudden, my truck is leaking a lot of oil on top of the engine. as near as I can track it, its coming from the turbo oil drain, leaking upwards of a quart every 100 miles. The only thing I can think of is the sudden cold snap has screwed up the turbo oil drain somehow. That's about the only thing I can see it could be. IP/cover has only the normal amount of grime on it, the turbo oil feed looks normal, but there's a 1/4" deep puddle of at the back of the valley cover. I would think that's too much oil to come from a valve cover or CDR...

I don't even know what's involved in the turbo oil drain plumbing. Is it that cast aluminum chunk that's bolted to the back of the intake plenum, with the tube that drops down through a grommet in the valley pan? What parts do I need to order to make sure I only have to make one order? Are the grommet and any other gaskets/seals still available?

 

[f-two-fiddy]

Prolly the Turbo Drain Grommet. NLA, iirc. Do some searching, there is an alternative.

 

[antiqueford]

Did some searching, and contacted typ4. Still not sure what all there is to the turbo drain.

Also might not be the biggest problem.... Oil pressure drops to nothing when you let off the throttle with the engine warm, and the engine stalls. Also my brother screwed up my belt tensioner somehow after removing the belt to wipe all the oil he spilled on it while filling it up. Also somehow he managed to bend the living **** out of my hood latch.

So basically I have no oil pressure, no power brakes, no power steering, the truck overheats, and I can't even open my hood even if I had the motivation to go out and do it in -10 weather. Borrow my truck to my brother for two days and this is the thanks I get... I'm so fkin pissed right now.

 

[typ4]

The only thing worse than loaning your truck to a non diesel owner, is loaning it to a family member.

 

[icanfixall]

Wow.. Sounds like someone owes you money for repairs.. As for the stalling just add 2 qts of atf to a tank of fuel the next time you fill up. As for the oil pooling in the valley pan.. Bad thing to happen. Tells me the rear drain is plugged up. Thats way back there behind the turbo oil drain back tube. This drain hole in in the middle of the pan hold down bolt. It has a 3/8 inch drive hex in the middle of it. This hex doubles as the drain thru the tunnel made in the back of the block. It can only run down the passenger side of the block and it drips off the starter. Makes a horrible mess when its working.. The turbo will have to be removed to install a drain grommet if thats whats leaking. Caution.. If oil can leak out water and dirt can get into the engine.. time to fix and never loan the rig out again.

 

[antiqueford]

Gary, have you seen the oil pressure gauge go straight down to 0 at idle? I think the gauge is still reading correctly, since as soon as I goose the throttle it pops back up instantly. Then I was reading something about the sensor actually being a switch (even though it drives the gauge), so its either off (reading 0) or on (reading in the normal range). Not sure it this was for our trucks, or powerstrokes though...

I'll be pulling the turbo as soon as it gets a little warmer or I make some room in my garage. Of course this would happen the only weekend in the past month I've needed my truck...

What really ****** me off is my brother added 2.5 gallons of oil in the past week and didn't bother to tell me something was up until I took the truck for a drive and noticed it acting funny. Needless to say he's burned that bridge, he's gonna have to get his own backup vehicle. As far as him paying for it, fat chance, I can barely get him to pay his $300 rent...

 

[Wyreth]

IIRC there is a baffle under the drain hole (as it was originally the hole for the CDR) When installing a new one or first time install of a turbo, you're supposed to punch holes into the baffle so oil can drain through faster. If the drain grommet died, chunks of it could have fallen into the valley pan baffle and plugged some of the holes so the oil cannot drain back fast enough.

From the Parts Bin: MTM 6042344 OR DOR 42344 drainback pedestal grommet for ATS 088 & 093 turbos

As for the pressure problem, FIRST get a real oil pressure gauge & sender. Hell even a little cheep electric one will at least give you a ballpark of what is actually going on.

Just a WAG, but could what you are seeing be a symptom of a sticky regulator valve in the oil cooler?

 

[OLDBULL8]

2.5 gallons of oil, thats almost a complete oil change, sure there isn't way too much in there since you can't open the hood. He bent the hood latch so you can't open it and see the damage the brother done underneath. Oh crap, guess you did, since you can see the oil puddle in the intake valley.

 

[79jasper]

The oil switch engages the gauge at 7 psi.

Definitely get a real gauge.

Sent from my USCC-C6721 using Tapatalk

 

[antiqueford]

Thanks for the input guys. Its -15 out there today, so I'm not doing anything on it today.

I'll get my mechanical gauge on it as soon as its at least in the teens for temperature. My brother is the one without a vehicle to drive, so I don't really give a crap if it runs or not right now.

He told me he's been dumping oil in every time the oil pressure drops, without even looking at the dipstick. He could have filled it to the point where it couldn't drain through that baffle...

 

[icanfixall]

Sounds like dummy overfilled the engine with oil. Time to get the hood open and check the level. My guess is your way over filled if dummy was adding instead of checking. Its so simple to check before adding. Why would he do this anyway. At any rate. check the oil level. Also as posted, If your reading oil pressure off the factory dash gauge its nothing more than an idiot lite with a pointer. It will only tell you the oil pressure is at least 7 lbs at any rpm. nothing more than that. Once you get the hood open my suggestion is to first fix the latch. then check oil level. Sorry for the extreme cold but its got to be down.

 

[antiqueford]

Ehh, its supposed to get up to 11 degrees tomorrow. I'll work on it then.


Regardless, until I did some reading on that oil pressure switch, I still thought it was an actual gauge (albeit very prone to electrical fluctuations and loose connetions). I'll be ordering an Isspro oil pressure gauge on monday.

 

[riotwarrior]

I"m going to tell you that you can indeed get in the hood without the cable but that guard on the front...may cause problems.

I can open my OBS hood with one finger...albeit with great difficulty but I can get my hand in there and find the cable..slide my finger along find the latch and work it and POP hood comes up. It seems impossible but with some effort and luck it's not that bad to do...

Learned it and now practice it now n then but I don't have a chrome guard in the way..not sure if with bent latch can do it...

As for the rest...I'll reserve comment till you open hood and get a good look and so forth..

 

[typ4]

In my opinion a mechanical gauge is the only way to go. And as for the oil in the cab BS, plumb it with a hydraulic hose or stainless braid and it will likely never give up, and if that worries some a small ball valve could be in line to shut it off if that crappy plastic tubing leaks.

Just sayin.
Good luck with discoveries.

 

[icanfixall]

I ran a mechanical oil pressure gauge in the cab for many hundred thousand miles and never had a leak. Nothing special either Just a i/16 inch copper tube and fittings.