getting a lot of oil blowby out my crankcase breather tube. Burning some, but it passes emissions really well. Is this a need to rebuild the engine and redo the rings, or is there some other problem ?

2005 Dodge Ram 3500 (150k miles)5.9 cummins, turbo with jake brake on it.
6 spd tranny, 4x4

temp is fine, oil pressure is fine, still getting about 18 - 19 mpg on the hwy, down just a little from before the problem.

thanks,
wayne

 

More than likely it is rings. I would run it until the blowby and oils usage get's bad. Not sure how much you are burning. You will get some seapage from the crankcase vent tube, this is normal.

 

What is the average cost of having this engine rebuilt ? Where should I take it ?
thanks,
Wayne

 

Wayne,

If the blowby is bad enough to coat the underside in oil, you might want to address it quickly. Reason being is that if rings are broken they can score the cylinders adding to the cost of a rebuild. See my thread "06 Blowby" for a few pics of cylinders. I am pulling it and rebuilding it myself but will have to have at least 2 cylinders overbored and sleeved. I would guess to have a machine shop rebuild it could run 2-3K.

Cole

 

Having someone else do the work will no doubt cost you considerably more money. If you are mechanically inclined you can do the job yourself.....minus the machining portion of it. I still don't understand why this engine is used in "certain heavy duty" applications as well as all light duty Dodge trucks and is not equipped with cylinder sleeves. That would make the whole rebuild process "easier" in my book. Rings break and score sleeve walls....remove sleeve, install new sleeve and rings, and you're back on the road......in a perfect world mind you!! If I knew I was going to keep truck for many years (which I am) and this problem reared it's ugly head, I would sleeve every cylinder and save myself the headache of pulling the block and having it over-bored or honed out.

Just my .02 as I've dealt with heavy equipment engines since I was old enough to turn my fathers wrenches.............hhmmmmm, no wonder he wanted me to try and learn this stuff......I'm his workhorse .

 

Make sure you rule out that you don't have a bad injector that is dumping deisel into the crankcase causing it to overflow. I had this happen and it was spraying out the back and underside of the truck.

 

I have a question.. Does the 05 and 06 5.9L have a breather or crankcase filter like the 6.7L.

 

i just changed my leaking 53 block on my 99 last fall.

during the planning stages and block shopping Cummins said to sleeve it only as a last resort. they have over sized pistons which is the way to go if you have to bore it.

they also said you can bore only 1 hole and use only 1 oversize piston. never heard of that before, but they said they do it all the time.

i did find and use a standard bore block, if i didn't i was going to go oversize on all 6 and buy 6 pistons instead of sleeves.
the piston kits were kinda pricy, $350 a hole?
you can bore it 2 times, then sleeve it.