Ford Powerstroke Diesel Forum banner

Some oil consumption, occassional smoke... What to check?

1K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  Devil Car 
#1 ·
Since my last oil change (about 2000 miles ago), I have noticed that I am losing oil. I've added 2 quarts, so far.

I bought the truck about a year and a half ago with 104K miles on it. I now have just over 120K miles. With the exception of a 6637 filter and a high pressure crossover (HPx), the engine is stock.

Until now, I've never had a problem with using oil, except when I had a couple of oil leaks that have been fixed (oil dipstick flange on the pan and a leaking high pressure crossover).

I have been noticing lately that I occasionally get smoke out of the tailpipe when accelerating hard. It looks white or grey, but it's hard to tell, since I can't get it to do it every time. When I want it to happen (have someone in the car to watch the tailpipe), I can't seem to make it happen...

Here's what I have found so far:

  • Turbo shaft is tight. No axial (in/out) play. Very minor radial play.
  • No oil in coolant and no loss of coolant.
  • Valley is dry and no visible oil leaks around pan or out of the inspection cover drain spout.
  • The vapors coming out of the oil fill port are constant, no puffing, no pressure.
  • Using Torque my HPOP and IPR duty cycle at idle looked about normal 480 psi (maybe a little low) and about 10% duty cycle if I remember correctly. After I check the downpipe, I'll check again at idle and WOT.
  • The tailpipe appears to be darker/ more sooty than normal, but this could just be my imagination.

I plan to pull the downpipe today to inspect for oil from the turbo. If I don't find any, I guess that I'm going to replace injector O-rings.

Researching the message boards, it looks like bad injector o-rings usually have significant oil loss (at least more than what I'm seeing). How likely is it that I have an injector O-ring that is just starting to go, whereas most people don't notice (or do something about it) until the problem is more severe?

Any thoughts, suggestions, ideas that you guys have would be appreciated! This truck has low miles, so I am leaning towards a seal, but anything is possible...
 
See less See more
#3 ·
My father in law as having a similar problem, he was going through about 2-3 quarts of oil a month, pulled one of the injectors and the orings on it had huge holes in them. went through and replaced all of the injectors orings and it solved the problem.
 
#4 ·
I ordered injector o-rings last night, so I will be installing them next weekend.

Also, I checked my HPOP and IPR duty cycle with the engine hot:

At idle, HPOP is 480 psi with 9.7 to 10.1 % Duty Cycle.

At WOT, HPOP is just over 2800 psi with just under 40% duty cycle.
 
#5 ·
those numbers are good.
 
#6 ·
OK, I removed all of the injectors today. Unfortunately, I do not feel like I found a smoking gun. What I did find is the middle O-rings, the ones that block oil, were the old style square design.

I also noticed that all of the injectors had discoloration on the ends between the lowest O-ring and the copper gasket (I'm assuming this is normal), while one had discoloration between the lowest O-ring and the middle seal.

Any thoughts as to why the one had discoloration above the lowest O-ring?

Here's what most of the injectors looked like with discoloration only below the O-ring (except this one has more discoloration than most):



And here is what the injector looked like that had discoloration above the lower O-ring:

 
#7 ·
Got it all back together, and... P1316 code! Dang it!

The UVCH didn't appear to have any broke insulation, and I installed the "50 cent mod". Unfortunately, I don't have a way to run a buzz test (AE has been on my list, but now isn't a good time to buy it)... Guess I'll just have to take the covers back off and hope that I forgot to plug in an injector.
 
#8 · (Edited)
OK... I decided to use my brain and did a resistance check on the uvch. I found that the injector for cylinder #5 was open (infinite resistance). All other injectors checked good. I'll have to pull the valve cover (luckily it's the driver's side) and verify whether or not it's plugged in. If I'm lucky, I just forgot to plug it in (which is possible, since I remember unplugging this one to try to get a better grip on the glow plug connector).
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top