Made it to Colorado, almost, now I think I blew the motor

[TWeatherford]

Well I made my 1500 mile trip to Colorado all right, mostly. Truck did fine, lucky mod is still holding strong and everything went pretty well. I really didn’t slow down too much until I hit Cheyenne, before that I maybe hit fourth on just a few hills but mostly left cruise on at 70. Burned a good 150 gallons of vegetable oil. After Cheyenne and especially heading south into Colorado I really had to keep out of the throttle or I’d just roll the black smoke. Clogged a fuel filter somewhere around the Colorado line and that was no fun, talk about no power.

Well I got the horse I was hauling dropped off, and headed the 20 or so miles to the ranch I’m working and living on for the summer. Coming down a dirt road there I noticed my oil pressure gauge was going haywire. I don’t have a mechanical oil pressure gauge, lesson learned, everythings going to be mechanical from now on. Well since it was a bumpy road I wasn’t sure the gauge wasn’t just losing ground or something, and the oil was full (I had just checked it, and it never has burned or leaked any). I did notice that the pressure would go down to basically nothing with higher rpms, anything about 1500 or so. I was in the middle of literally nowhere with no cell service, so I kept going a few miles until I saw whitish maybe bluish smoke coming out the tailpipe, and pretty sure I started hearing lifters clicking. So I shut her off and managed to flag someone down to borrow a cellphone that worked, got towed the last 20 miles of my 27 hour journey.

I did not burn any oil, nor did I gain any (no coolant or diesel in it that I can tell). No oil in the coolant that I can see either. I pulled the valve covers off today. Pulled, pushed, and wiggled on all the rods and springs and I can’t see anything wrong. I figure probably a compression check is in order. I don’t know much about this particular motor, it’s a 1991 motor in my 1994 truck, and had zero SCA in it when I bought it. Its started and run pretty good for me though, but I’m not willing to dump a lot of money into parts and labor on something that could be a hairline away from a pinhole in a cylinder wall. Maybe there’s a C, or a Detroit, in my future if I can find a decent priced donor truck.

Anything special I should look for? Any idea what happened? I still love the truck, I’ll be keeping it whether I save this motor or put a used IDI or something else in, no doubt about that.

 

[RLDSL]

Before condemning the thing, did your low oil warning light light up? IF not, your pressure did not drop below 7 psi. Were you running Rotella?
You need to hookup a mechanical gauge before throwing in the towel.

 

[TWeatherford]

Yep, Rotella. No lights that I saw. I was figuring a mechanical gauge would be in order before condemnation, but blue smoke and ticking didn't seem healthy to me.

 

[RLDSL]

Blue smoke and ticking go hand and hand with Rotella and a long hard pull. That stuff has a bad habit of burning off pretty easily and getting mighty thin under load.
I'd hook up a mechanical gauge and dump that oil and fill it with Delo and see what happens.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

And just to add on to what RLDSL said, you want the regular Delo 400 oil, and not the Delo LE, as the LE is designed for modern DPF-equipped trucks. I personally run the Mobil Delvac 1300, not much fond of the new Rotella oil...

 

[redneckaggie]

yeah i paid the extra $10 a gallon for the rotella synthetic and am not impressed about to swap over to delo myself. i also seem to have more blowby with the synthetic

 

[4x4TruckinGirl]

dayum sorry to hear bout yer truck, I know you said you were hoping she would treat you right..... i hope she didn't give up on ya yet!! keep us posted!

 

[OLDBULL8]

For sure check your oil, see if it gained any amount or is real thin. Maybe just a stuck open injector and diluted the oil. Happened to me.

I really had to keep out of the throttle or I’d just roll the black smoke. Clogged a fuel filter somewhere around the Colorado line and that was no fun, talk about no power.

Just re-read your post, the above is a good indication of a stuck open injector(s).

 

[OLDBULL8]

4x4TruckinGirl ******** Not to hijack the post, but did you get your truck home today ?

 

[DeepRoots]

also burning wvo can get screwy with the lube oil.
although when I was burning it, it would get really thick and I'd change it alot more often.

 

[hesutton]

Blue smoke and ticking go hand and hand with Rotella and a long hard pull.

I know you're a big "Amsoil" fan, but could you please explain this? I've never heard that before.

TWF....please get a real oil pressure gauge. How old (miles) is the oil? Anything like this before? Was is a light haze of smoke or where you spewing a cloud of death and blocking out the sun? Did you run the engine with the vale covers off to see if anything in the valve trains appears to be abnormal?

Heath

 

[RLDSL]

I know you're a big "Amsoil" fan, but could you please explain this? I've never heard that before.



Heath

You notice , I'm not pushing amsoil in its place, I'm pushing Delo.
Rotella has a real bad habit of burning off under extended hard load. The stuff just doesn't hold up. That's not just a personal opinion, in the volitility tests, the stuff loses more volume to burning than just about any other oil on the market, although I noticed this in my old Cat a long time before I ever saw a test result

 

[BigRedWeather]

TWeatherford is in the mountains of Colorado this summer with very limited internet access. He asked me to say thanks you all for your help.


Dad and BigRedWeather

 

[sle2115]

I experienced the same with Rotella...some said I was crazy, but I saw it in my truck and REALLY bad in my tractor where it gets hot pulling a 6 foot finish mower in the hot sun for a few hours. I saw drops in oil pressure that were VERY scary. AND, you don't HAVE to have a mechanical gauge, a good electric gauge is fine also, but even paying attention to the dash gauge can get you in trouble!

I ran Castrol RTX and Delo both with good results, Delo is much easier to find so I run it in both my truck and tractor with little loss in oil pressure when it's worked.

 

[TWeatherford]

I am now on a shaky signal cell phone so forgive me if I'm hard to understand

Got a real oil press gauge, mobil delvac oil cause no one had anything but the LE delo. I have 35 psi at idle cold which climbs to around 60 when revved. When warm I have just under 20 psi at idle and around 40 at higher rpm.

Drove around the ranch to get up to temperature. Whitish bluish smoke definitely present. It varies to none at all at idle when warm to a pretty thick cloud. This motor did not burn any oil prior to this, even on a 5000 mile change interval.

Did crank it with the valve covers off and nothing looked abnormal to me. I am at around 7500 feet elevation. Oil and coolant don't appear contaminated. Motor sounds normal and seems to run fine.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I was thinking of a compression test but the tool may take me a few weeks to get. I'm kind of tempted to just drive it and see what happens.