With the mention of a "bad" turbo, could this engine be dusted due to debris? The talk of blow by makes me wonder that.

When you talked of the exhaust smell, was it sort of sweet smelling. Diesel trucks will burn of antifreeze reddily. That could also be the cause of your blowby, actually it is steam from the antifreeze boiling. Does the engine oil look white? Out of the road draft tube is it leaving white junk?

Lots of questions, but only a few answers.

 

OK. But how could a stuck injector cause so much white smoke (which clearly smells like oil) and so much oil consumption (a quart every 300 miles)??

And no, there is no vacuum pump at all.

Exhaust does not smell sweet, but rather smells like burning oil. Engine oil looks like dark, "clean" engine oil; not white or milky at all. No junk from crankcase breather tube, just smoke.

Turbine blade breaking off and going into engine?

I really gotta pull the turbo.

Christian

 

The term "dusted" is usually from a bad air filter letting dust into the engine. Usually it is not a bad air filter, but fitment or broken air filter box. The dust gets into the engine and dusts the rings. Usually just by looking at the turbo inlet wheel you will see it looks sandblasted and the sharp edges of the wheel at dull and chunks missing off of it. Still doesn't account for the white smoke unless your engine never warms up and the crowns of the pistons never reach operating temperature. You have a cold engine that constantly gives off white smoke. The consumption of oil would give off a black smoke if the turbo was just dumping down exhaust. If it was dumping it into the engine then you have a possibilty of a run away engine(been there done that not fun).

Just reread the original complaint. It sounds like you have maybe some major issues. I think what you have to do is a compression test on this engine and see what you have going on internally. Low compression would give you low cylinder temps and cold pistons. Since diesel relies on compression to make heat, it could be the source of your problem. Guess it is time to dig deeper into the problem.

 

I tend to doubt it's low compression on all cylinders. He'd have severe starting difficulties.

 

I also think that low compression on all cylinders is super unlikely, due at least in part to the facts that the engine still starts well, and runs well, albeit cold.

But the more I think about it, the more I can't help but think that the significant amount of blow-by gases in the crankcase, and less conclusively the "missing" sound, indicate that there IS a problem inside one of the cylinders.

Does this seem like sound reasoning?

I will dive into this problem with wrenches on Wednesday.

Christian

 

Yes true low compression on all cylinders is unlikely, but one cylinder can cause a lot of issues. Have you hooked up another temp gauge to see what the temp actually is?

With the engine running you could always crack open your injector lines one at a time and see if it runs differently. Sort of a way to induce your own miss. If you have one bad jug then it will not make a difference if that injector line is cracked open. I know it makes a mess, but sometimes easier than pulling all the injectors to do a compression test (and still getting diesel all over the place).

 

after reading all this.... again. I think there may be more than one problem going on here.
May be overdue for a radiator flush... and would probably benefit from a large cardboard air dam. Considering it is a 4bt your cooling system may not be configured right. The amount of liquid the engine can heat vs. the amount of liquid the radiator/ran can cool may be working against you. Also an improperly pressured system won't work as it should and will either overheat or not heat up at all, depending you the radiator cap. They sell different #(pound) radiator caps.

About the smoky breather and dipstick could be water burning off the cold engine as it warms up. Much like due you find on grass or your windows. But doesn't explain the oil burning.

If this was my truck i would first drain the oil and inspect it. Then i would check the filter to make sure oil isn't leaking from the gasket. After the oil change i would drain the coolant looking for particles that werent there before(pieces of gasket or peanutbutter-like chunks from oil mixing in). Sometimes you will never know oil is getting in because it pushes the antifreeze right out the overflow...although your engine would overheat and smoke like crazy from the breather and any other escapable route. Although 1 qt isn't very much to cause all that.
If i came up empty handed i would then proceed to unbolt the turbo and swipe my finger in the manifold to feel for a slick surface. If its just black sulfur i'd check the turbo for oil on the intake/exhaust housing. The squeeling you mentioned leads me to believe you may have a leak in the intermediate part of the turbo into the exhaust side, this would cause the smoky exhaust and loss of oil from the crank and be a best case scenario.

Also i like the new slogan wannadiesel!