mcolectd

Got a few questions. The wife has an 07 5.9 Megacab Dually. At about 20k we did a bunch of stuff to it: smarty tnt,twins,injectors,cp3,tranny,etc. Has been running awesome, pull horse trailers with it almost every weekend, never had a problem with it getting hot and smoke is very manageable. I was changing the oil with delo 400 every 5k. Truck has 96,000 on it now. About 25k miles ago, I switched to royal purple and have been changing around 12k miles. Well her recently the truck started just running crappy. Hits 1400 on the pyro over nothing, smokes like crazy, super boggy etc. Just running like crap. Changed all filters on the fass, air filter clean etc(do it every 5k miles). Tuned the smarty way down, still gets way hot and smokes like crazy but now even boggier. So take it to Texas Diesel Power who did all the work, told em what was goin on, and after takin it back 4 times(they kept saying it was fine) they finally tore into the engine and found this:
The whole top of the engine was just caked in sludge. No wonder it was running bad. My question is, what caused this? Royal Purple?? I wouldn't think so but I did notice that on the first change after I switched, the oil didn't flow like normal oil does. It was really slow to drain, and honestly just kinda nasty. And on the second change it was even worse. Almost like a thick soupy goop. They're flushing the engine, checking all the injectors, and changing the oil and hopefully she'll be running good again. But this really amazed me to see that under there. Any input yall have would be appreciated. Thanks

elirandolph

Wow! I've never seen anything like that on such a new truck. Definitely looks like something is wrong. Let us know how it works out.

johnh

years ago i had an old ford that was worse than that, my solution ; i changed oil and included a quart of type A atf ,about 500 miles changed oil again using atf again......after about 1500 miles the engine stopped using oil and started to perform properly...........i'm not saying it will work on a diesel, but if it was mine i would try it

Lil Dog

Eeew.. Thats not good. I don't know what was in that oil, but its made a mess of that engine. With the other factors you are talking about, I wonder if the piston cooling jets for the engine are plugged off too.

Seems like the oil has broken down, you sure it was diesel rated?

What kind of filter were you using? Why did you switch from good old Delo?

HOHN

Never EVER but ATF in a diesel engine crankcase unless it's the difference between running with no oil at all.


Which Royal Purple oil was used in this engine? Was it the 15W-40 that claims to be CES20081 certified?

If you noted the thicker oil immediately after switching to Royal Purple, it's hard to argue against the Royal Purple being the cause, even if it doesn't seem to make sense.

That said, you *have* radically modified the engine from the oil's perspective. Common rail engines can add a lot of soot to the oil, and EGR engines add a LOT more soot to the oil. When you cranked up the fueling and swapped to bigger injectors that atomize worse, you'll end up with even HIGHER soot levels than before.

What I suspect is happening is that the sooty sludge has been building up a long time, but because your previous oil wasn't able to suspend this oil, it let deposits build up.

Then, you switched to the Royal Purple and got an oil with much higher detergency. The Royal Purple then went to work dissolving all that junk that had built up in the engine, making the RP you drained out thick and nasty.

It's VERY unlikely that this kind of build up occurs in 25K miles of using RP. Far more likely that you have 96K miles worth of sludge in there that previous oils couldn't manage.



I'd recommend that you switch back to a petroleum oil like Rotella briefly and do some short drain intervals to try and clean things out a little. In conjunction with this, I highly recommend a product I've had excellent results with (which I discovered over on bobistheoilguy). Lube Control LC20. http://www.lcdinc.com/products_lube_control.php I noticed that this stuff really turns new oil dark fast as is clean out all the crud. Fortunately, it doesn't flush it out all at once, but rather it seems to "melt" all the junk out.

So I'd do a couple short intervals of dino oil + LC20 until the engine looks cleaner inside, then switch to whatever oil you want to use.

EGR engines are very hard on oil. Make sure you use a CJ-4 rated oil as they do a much better job managing soot and avoiding deposits. Ignore the myth-- CJ-4 oils are better in every way that matters.

Feel free to PM me for more details.

routerguy99

I have seen that before, I took oil sample and it came back that Anti-Freeze mixed with the oil. some how anti-freeze and oil make it really thick.

Sur5er

Several things come to mind:

Engine not getting to operating temp (thermostat), regardless of Pyrometer
Short trips
Clogged crankcase breather(s)
Oil contamination
Incorrect lubricant

If this just happened, I'd send out and oil sample for analysis. I mechanically ok, replace filter, run some light weight oil to flush out the system. Drop the filter and use what you were using before.

HOHN

Coolant mixed with oil tend to make it thick, but also milky. I can't tell from the pic if it appears milky.

If it is milky, and it is caused by coolant contamination, then your engine is very, very sick. Mostly like a major casting like head or bloc (read: $$$).

torquefan

My biggest fear would be the oil pickup screen becoming restricted and starving the engine of oil before this mess is all cleaned up. It may be worth adding a live oil pressure gauge, at least temporarily.

HOHN

Good advice^^^

Rednax

I've used LUBE CONTROL LC-20 for nearly 40-years (when it was known as Micro-Lube). Was originally sold in the oilfield for big Detroits burning lots of oil, and to the airlines and Government on big radial engines. Does what it says it will do.

Use as directed. Don't ever use Seafoam or other crap like that.

On a motor that dirty I'd double or triple the usual dosage, let it idle a good while and then change oil. Use normal dosing amounts on one or two short OCI. Then, use regularly.

FUEL POWER FP-60 is also a good product for gas or diesel. Anything sold by the current owners of the product line is "good to go" (better than Lucas, certainly). Sales are to fleet and commercial users for the most part. Sort of like Schaeffers: either you know about it or not. OTC products don't measure up the same way.

FYI, ATF is essentially 5w-20 oil without combustion control products. No special cleaning power. Not worth it in any engine (even if you're old enough to remember the "kerosene cure" for that amount of sludge).

Stick with BALDWIN filters, at least (DONALDSON best).

.

mcolectd

Wow lots of info to answer back to here so not even gonna try. A couple things though. I don't think its antifreeze in the oil. Its not milky or anything like that. As far as operating temps, my wife drives this truck 99% of the time, but 90% of the time the truck is allowed to sit and warm up. My wife is kinda bad about jumping in, starting it and going, but I've worked on her about it, and shes gotten pretty good about letting it warm up at least a little while, and then driving it easy until its all the way warm. I don't really know why I switched to royal purple. I've always run dello and never had a single problem, but I've just heard a lot of good stuff about RP, and figured I'd give it a shot, and put it in both her's and my trucks. I'm not really one for going 10-15k on an oil change though, so I went back to dello on mine, and am gonna do the same on hers now, and go back to 5k mile change intervals. Always use cummins fleetguard stratapore filters. Havn't heard back from Texas Diesel Power yet, but last I heard they said it was an overfueling problem, which makes sense to me cause this would mean much more soot, which would mix and make the sludge. But last I heard, they were flushing the engine, changing oil/filter, and cleaning and pop testing all the injectors. I'll let yall know when I hear something back. Should be monday, but I may hollar at John this weekend and see if he's found anything out.

doug60

I had a cam put in at about 15000 miles & my mechanic showed me parts that were stained black . He said he never saw such a dirty looking engine with so little miles.
I think these engines are harder on the oil than we a led to believe.

I want you to look into a product its called AUTO RX .
Do the research yourself .

I don't want to start a pissing match here.

mcolectd

Thank yall for the advice. I'll look into those additives

mcolectd

Both of those sound really good. The auto rx sounds like it should work good. I know since I was a little kid I always remember my dad putting quart of risolone in with every oil change. He's always had good luck with it and swears by it. I need to do something to keep it cleaned up for sure. I'm gonna run something through mine too