well, I am pretty bummed out tonight. After having the oil filter leak and the oil pressure sending unit leak and the oil cooler bolts loosen up and leak, I'm surprised I don't have dead sea otters floating down my driveway...it really is a mess, to spill oil in a gravel driveway while it's raining for days.

I got a new filter, and today picked up and installed the new pressure sending unit from Dodge. Neither of those things leak anymore. But the cooler bracket itself... well, that is another story

A few days ago I noticed that there was oil dribbling out around the top forward corner of the cooler bracket and I found that the bolts, even though tightened to factory specs plus a smidge, were loose. So, I tightened them up and voila! no leaks. For about 3 or 4 miles...

So today, I pulled the filter off again and slighty loosened all of the bolts and did a complete retightening by the numbers, following the factory tightening pattern, but going tighter than the factory recommended. You'd think that would help, huh? Well, I've got one of those bolts now that just dribbles a steady stream of oil out around the bolt head. Not out between the gaskets, but around the bolt head. All I can think is that the gasket is somehow damaged or something, or worse, that the filter bracket with all of its oil passages, is damaged. Because it makes no sense that pressurized oil would be behind that bolt. So, now, I get to do the whole edited by admin job over again, at least minus the sludge in the cooling system, but possibly needing a new filter bracket now, as well as another set of $40 special-order-from-Dodge-50-miles-away gaskets.

{self edit}

grrrr.....

 

yep. Torn and soft gaskets. I assume that my tightening the first loose ones I found rather than re torquing the whole thing at that point were at least part of the cause. When it goes back together, I will clean all the bolt holes and loctite everything.

gah!

 

Looks like silly-cone time

 

maybe the little extra torque split the gasket. i have many automatic trans pan gaskets that i have replaced from me overtighting. just a thought .

 

I think that was it. I am going to Cummins in the city tomorrow for new gaskets and then will clean the bejeezus out of everything, red loctite it this time and torque to spec..

And I will probably check it again at a couple hundred miles just to be sure.

Just a bad bad luck month for me. For 80k miles I've had not a lick of trouble with this engine. Never an oil leak either and now my place looks like the dang exxon valdez....!

 

I put spray ultra copper on the gaskets and ultra copper on the bolt treads make sure that every thing is very clean and go just a bit over torque specks but not much. Had no probs with mine. I love ultra copper.

 

get out the dawn dish soap straight and it will kill the rainbow effect from the oil. works well on diesel spills to.

 

what is exactly ultra copper? like anti sieze? You put that on the threads rather than loctite?

the first time I went just a little bit over torque. When I found it loose, I went more over spec, and it was obviously too much. I just want to have it not loosen up on its own.

 

my diesel buddy mech had some spray copper stuff we used on the head gasket of my jd tractor we just got together. i would use loctite. it fills the threads with plastic.

 

the ultra copper is RTV silicone with copper to deal with the heat. The spray works for every kind of gasket I have done and helps to not over do it or have small gaps. Also the squeeze kind seals threads and helps hold them tight. You can find it at any parts store, its a permetex product. Loctite works real good to.

 

I have an assembly process for anything with a large surface area, whether it is a pan cover-type thing or something like this. I alway use a very light coating of the correct type RTV on each sealing surface. "Correct type" being the operative word here because there may be issues with heat, oil compatibility or whatever. I assemble it finger-tight only and wait at least 24 hours for the seal to cure before torquing. Then re-torque after another couple days. Haven't had this type experience in many years doing it this way. You just have to schedule things so you can wait for a good seal to form and tighten down before running it and exposing the assembly to vibration and fluid.

 

i agree ace the last transfer case i had split i used that order of bolt together then torque it to fac. specs the next day and it worked fine.

 

Woodrat were did you find the tightening sequence? I just washed the oil filter area because of so much crud and oil seemed to be leaking from the area. I have both shop manuals for the truck and the engine and I didn't find any bolt tightening sequence just torque specs.

 

Black RTV can take a decent amount of heat and seals well. The copper i only use on exhaust stuff and it works nice.

 

my cummins manual had it.