38r might be toast, looking at KC center section

[Big Bore]

Any reports on this? Pretty sure turbo bearing seals are leaking. Just made cross country trip and went through a LOT of oil (1qt/100miles roughly).

New injector o-rings.
Injectors pass buzz and contribution tests.
Startup is quick, even in -0 (zero) deg/-11 w/windchill on just GP's it fires right up, lopes a couple times, dies maybe once but restarts after another GP's cycle.
No smoke except under heavy throttle except right at startup.
No haze except when cold, and none at all at sea level.
Engine idles and runs like butter.
No external leaks.

Noticed a lot of oil in intake when I did the orings but just chalked it up to normal CCV suction (I have a Racor CCV filter but some oil eventually gets past it). Going to pull boots (have a small boost leak) and check turbo end play and look for signs of leakage other than what I already see. The boost leak is at engine intake boot (after IC) and it is pushing a lot of oil out onto IC pipes. The o-rings I replaced only had about 10k on them and looked fine. I thought maybe I had made a mistake when I did them previously because within a few hundred miles I started having oil consumption problems so after the truck being deadlined for a few years I went ahead and replaced them again hoping that was the issue.

 

[lincolnlocker]

Holy crap! Thats a lot of oil. I assume there are zero oil leaks else where? Pull down pipe off and see how oily it is on the inside there! 38rs are very sensitive to crank case vents and if any pressure at all builds up then it will push oil out the seals. Scrap the filter and putnit back in the factory position and see if that changes anything. Might be to late though...

live life full throttle

 

[Big Bore]

38rs are very sensitive to crank case vents and if any pressure at all builds up then it will push oil out the seals. Scrap the filter and putnit back in the factory position and see if that changes anything. Might be to late though...

Awesome. Wish I had known that a long time ago.

 

[Dmstrucks02]

My 38r eventually started leaking but on the compressor side behind the wheel. I was pushing the same coupling off fairly often and figured there was a problem. Found this stream of oil in the spider.

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[Dmstrucks02]

I had a video but I guess it won't let me upload here anymore

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[Big Bore]

My 38r eventually started leaking but on the compressor side behind the wheel. I was pushing the same coupling off fairly often and figured there was a problem. Found this stream of oil in the spider.

I suspect I have the same issue. I'll be pulling things apart this afternoon or tomorrow.

 

[Dmstrucks02]

Pull that first boot off of the spider/ discharge of the turbo and run the truck. I had a steady stream of oil.

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[tomlin]

I recently went through a similar situation. I have a 38R with very low mileage. My findings were, unusual, to say the least. I also have the Motorcraft Severe Duty air filter kit. Well, mice decided to enter the filer box through the intake in the grille. They proceeded in pissing and ****ting around the base of the filter until it basically started plugging it up. I found this by noticing the filter minder being tripped. Basically oil was being pulled from the crankcase due to the filter being blocked. At least that is my hypothesis. I changed the filter, changed the oil and reset the minder and life has been good every since. Oil level has not moved on the stick.

 

[psduser1]

I have a ccv piped back into the intake, not sure where yours goes, to the intake, or atmosphere?
Mine is home-built, and I've tried different amounts of material in the separator housing, doesn't seem to make any difference. I've always had oil in the intake, but it gets worse with age, lol. Blow by, loose valves, whatever.
A quart every 100 miles is an oring, all day long.

 

[Big Bore]

Read my first post. It's not the orings. They are brand new and it starts right up in -0 degree weather on GP's. I have (had) a racor CCV filter (it's an actual filter not a seperator) that apparently creates back pressure on the crank case, and the 38r bearing seals apparently leak easily. I'm also blowing huge amounts of oil out of the intercooler boot that has a leak.

For reference https://www.parker.com/literature/Racor/55021_Rev_C_CCV_Series.pdf

 

[Petro]

If you find out its not the turbo, I would suspect the injectors themselves. In the last couple years, I've ran into this problem a handful of times on perfect running 7.3s. Everyone one was over 200k on original injectors, passed every test ( cylinder contribution and Buzz Test), but was taking huge amounts of oil. I found it impossible to believe that they could need an overhaul with little to no blow-by and I had read that injectors could cause big oil consumption so they were always replaced with a new set. And just like that, they were back to normal. Now obviously if you have more oil than normal in the intercooler the turbo is a solid diagnosis but its food for thought.

 

[Big Bore]

Except it fires right up in -0 deg weather on GP's only.

 

[Petro]

Except it fires right up in -0 deg weather on GP's only.

The last one I did was exactly the same. Never had trouble starting, ran perfect. Just was consuming huge amounts of oil.

 

[lincolnlocker]

Except it fires right up in -0 deg weather on GP's only.

Thick oil isnt going to bleed/leak out as fast remember.

live life full throttle

 

[psduser1]

Read my first post. It's not the orings. They are brand new and it starts right up in -0 degree weather on GP's. I have (had) a racor CCV filter (it's an actual filter not a seperator) that apparently creates back pressure on the crank case, and the 38r bearing seals apparently leak easily. I'm also blowing huge amounts of oil out of the intercooler boot that has a leak.

For reference https://www.parker.com/literature/Racor/55021_Rev_C_CCV_Series.pdf

I read your OP, and again.
A quart every 100 miles is ALOT of oil.
If it was the turbo, you'd have a solid blue haze behind you, unless your egts stayed at 1200+, continually., lol.
Not saying the racor isnt a problem, but it's not "the problem".
Petro may have a point, I dont remember what size injector you are running, stock or whatever.:shrug:
How many miles on your truck?

 

[Big Bore]

Thick oil isnt going to bleed/leak out as fast remember.

live life full throttle

Sure, but wouldn't it bleed down at shutdown? It also starts immediately in 70 deg in the morning. (yes, I went from dead winter in CO mtns to palm trees and sunshine in FL last week ) Also, my experience has been that all the seals and orings shrink when its cold, hence the cold start issues with bad o-rings. I'm actually hoping it was just that stupid CCV and now that it's gone my problem is too.

But I see you guys haven't caught on to my plan to get both a new turbo AND injectors. By determining its most likely the turbo, only to find out its the injectors after. And how was I supposed to know? It totally acted like it was the turbo, the injectors seemed fine. And since the new injectors have 100% nozzles instead of 30%, and the guy who tuned my truck is no longer doing it and he was the only one who got it right, well then I HAVE TO get a PHP tuner setup. I call this the win/win and more win plan.

Work with me men.

 

[Big Bore]

I read your OP, and again.
A quart every 100 miles is ALOT of oil.
If it was the turbo, you'd have a solid blue haze behind you, unless your egts stayed at 1200+, continually., lol.
Not saying the racor isnt a problem, but it's not "the problem".
Petro may have a point, I dont remember what size injector you are running, stock or whatever.:shrug:
How many miles on your truck?

Yea, theres no haze at all, even at startup now that I'm at sea level and warm climate. I have Swamps 170/30's with about 100k on them, I think, I left the service records in CO so cant check. Truck is at 187k currently. I just don't see any indicators that there's an injector problem.

Here's a question, can/does the computer compensate for the extra "fuel" from all that oil? By that I mean would it adjust how much fuel is being injected thus preventing a haze from the extra oil coming in the intake?

 

[Petro]

Yea, theres no haze at all, even at startup now that I'm at sea level and warm climate. I have Swamps 170/30's with about 100k on them, I think, I left the service records in CO so cant check. Truck is at 187k currently. I just don't see any indicators that there's an injector problem.

Here's a question, can/does the computer compensate for the extra "fuel" from all that oil? By that I mean would it adjust how much fuel is being injected thus preventing a haze from the extra oil coming in the intake?

Not that I've noticed. In 10 years of working on these engines, I've only ran into it a handful of times. Like was mentioned previously, I would think it would be leaving a nice blue trail of smoke if it was the turbo. The thing about the injectors issue that I find the most strange, is they act almost perfectly normal. No weird smoke, start fine and look good on a scanner. Its very strange, and if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes on several different occasions, I wouldn't believe it myself. I wish I had a better understanding of the inner workings of the injectors to help understand how this can happen. Better just be safe and swap in some 250/200s and an S468 T4 kit to be safe, its the only way to really know for sure.

 

[Big Bore]

Better just be safe and swap in some 250/200s and an S468 T4 kit to be safe, its the only way to really know for sure.

My wife hates that idea. So I won't show her.

Did you try new o rings first on those injectors you mention before replacing them? I just don't see how they could pass that much oil internally and it not show a symptom other than oil consumption. I would think it would definitely show in duty cycle.

 

[fastersteve]

Your 7.3 doesn't have an O2 sensor like a gas engine, so no way to monitor mixture much less a way to compensate it. Diesels are not as mixture sensitive as gas engines, so the PCM injects (this much) fuel following (these) parameters.