Okay guys, bear with me here as I try to remember some things as best I can. I may have more than one problem or it may all be related, so I'm putting it all in here, probably in no particular order, which may make this confusing. I will try to answer any questions as best I can.

A couple of years ago I had Cummins boar my engine and put in .40 over pistons. Within about 60 miles of getting my truck back, I hooked on to my fifth wheel (I've never weighed it but a best guess estimate on weight is 15-16k) and pulled it about 800 miles from Tx to IL, varying my speed and rpm's along the way. I drove the truck like I stole it while unloaded (my unloaded was still pretty heavy. I carried a Lincoln SA-200 welding machine which I believe weighs in at about 1200 lbs, and the bed on the truck was considerably heavier than the machine, consisting of 3/8th plate with 3/16th skirting on the sides, plus toolboxes and racks) and continued to see a LOT of blue smoke, mostly after idle, which led me to believe it was loading up and my valve seals needed replaced.

I had a Cummins shop in Tulsa Ok replace my valve seals, but the problem was never fixed. I ended up buying an 05 dodge and parked my 02 and have just recently decided to pull it out of the garage and start using it again, this time with the factory bed.

I'm still getting lots of blue smoke at startup, the truck seems to run good and has plenty of power, but I no longer get any black smoke even with my edge on level 5. If I stack my smarty on level 8 with the edge on level 5, I get some black smoke, but not as much as I remember getting at one time with the edge alone. Is it possible that I am simply seeing that much of an improvement in air with the .40 over pistons, or is my fuel going someplace else? I am running a FASS 95 and see about 18-19 psi under normal operation, which will drop to around 15-16 psi WOT with the edge/smarty stack. I also seem to be getting a fair amount of blowby and I'm seeing some light oil where the turbo bolts on, which I believe can be a result of excessive blow by if I remember reading correctly?

I guess my questions are dealing with the fueling/lack of smoke/whether or not that is a good thing, and if I should be running any type of fuel/timing boxes considering I believe my pistons have not seated. This work was done about 2 years ago, but due to just sitting, I only have about 8K on the clock after the work was performed. The truck did haul my trailer back from IL to OK, and then from OK to OH, so I did do a pretty fair amount of heavy pulling with it before parking it. I had not ran the smarty until today after the work, and have only ran the edge on lower settings like 1 or 2.

So where do I go from here? Should I run everything stock for a while, or kick up and timing and try to get these pistons good and hot? Can the lack of black smoke be attributed to the bigger pistons, or do I probably have something else going on there? I think allergies have my head in a fog right now, so this post is probably all over the place and lacking information, but if you can make sense of it or have questions to try to make sense of it, please ask. I'm not a mechanic by any means and am deferring to you guys on this one.

All the info is in my sig for the 02 as far as mods go.

 

1: How many miles since the rebuild? 2: have you checked the oil for signs of diesel fuel? 3: do you have an EGT gauge? If so, what is it registering?

 

Roughly 8,000 miles since the rebuild. The oil shows no signs of diesel fuel and I am not making any oil. EGT's are good. It's about 40* here right now and I just went out and did 2 hard WOT runs to 90mph. On the 2nd run I was able to hit 1250 briefly right about the time I hit around 80 mph. Those runs are with the edge on level 5 and the smarty on level 8. With the edge on stock and the smarty on 8, my EGT's wanted to stay right around the 1,000 mark WOT.

*Edit*

I forgot to add that my fuel mileage is way off from where I expected it too.

When I first got my truck, I saw about 19-20 mpg stock. After adding my welding bed/machine/tools, that dropped to about 15. Installation of my edge brought me back up to about 16-17, so I assume 20 mpg is not an unrealistic goal with the stock bed back on. Right now, although I have not had a chance for multiple fill ups to get a calculation, my best guess estimate is around 14 tops. While that still beats my Ford, it's way too low for my Dodge!

 

Have you checked for codes? Failing VP will retard your timing, which will hurt your mileage, reduce power and increase white or blue smoke. Was your pump wire hooked back up after the rebuild? The slight gain in displacement is nowhere near enough to clear up the smoke on tapped comp box.

What kind of oil are your running?

 

Yes I have checked for codes. As of now I have none. I did have I think 7 different codes, but they were all due to voltage sensors and they came up when I tried to start the truck but the batteries were too low to engage the starter. I opted to just clear them and see if any came back, and they haven't. So far the only code I have gotten was I believe a 0500, which was a speed sensor code and it was after sliding around on some ice/snow.

My VP and injectors was changed right before the install the block I had boared, so they have about 10k on them. Injectors were pop tested by Cummins when they did the work. I tapped the pump wire again myself, and I suppose I may have a bad connection, that is something I am planning on checking, I've just been waiting on the weather to cooperate. I am using Rotella 15w40 oil.

My main question is that with the rings seemingly not seated yet, should I be running a box or programmer at all, and at what levels? If I'm not mistaken, increased timing can reduce EGT's, but actually increases heat at the pistons. Increased heat should be beneficial in helping the rings seat, correct? Or am I off base here?

 

I would not run the box(es), nor full synthetic oil, until after 25k miles. Run it hard, but don't over do it.

 

I have a very similar situation w/my Yanmar 6cyl build. This motor is almost the same as the 24v 5.9 ctd. Built 2+ years and only run maybe 2hrs. About a tablespoon of oil out the turbo exhaust and blue/white smoke. Pulled the turbo had it checked, pulled all the injectors had them cleaned and poptested, pulled the exhaust and tried to see oil running down the valves indicating valve seal broken/leaking. W/the exhaust off all the ports seemed wet with either fuel or oil (hard to tell). All of this and still no solution. In your situation if it's only one cyl then I would guess injector or possibly cracked oil ring. In my case I think it's timing... I've had several tell me timing and to triple check it. The motor is for marine use which I've been running on a stand to finalize things and want it right before install. I'm at the point to check timing again and install and run the heck out of it. Please let me know what you find.