My 1989 Case dozer has a Cummins 8.3 turbo charged engine. One day it started smoking really bad. I saw oil coming out of the turbo, so figured it was bad. The repair shop confirmed this and put a new cartridge in it. I ran good for an hour, than started smoking again. They rebuilt it again and said it was fine. This time it smoked instantly.

I checked to make sure the oil line was open to drain the turbo, it is.

I checked the vent line on the valve cover. It's clear.

I checked the cylinder head to make sure the oil is draining properly. It's amazingly clean in there and the drains are open.

I put in new air filters.

I checked the oil preasure and have 40 pounds at idle and 60 at full throttle.

There is oil in the tube from the turbo to the intake manifold.

There is allot of oil in the exhuast pipe and muffler.

There is no oil in the exhaust manifold. Its dry soot.

I'm at a desperate point here. Why is there oil all over the place? How is it getting into the turbo and spraying all over the engine?

Any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

Got to be coming out of the turbo. Either buy a new one or find somewhere else to get it rebuilt.

 

Sorry, I see that I forgot that part.

I bought a new turbo from Case today put it on. Same results. It's like I didn't change anything.

Thank you,
Eddie

 

Did you check the oil return line from the turbo with compressed air? I had an QSC that did the same and I assumed that the return line was open- but in the position it has with the turbo mounted it had a kink and just enough sludge in it so the turbo could not drain properly.
The other possibility is crankcase pressure getting too high- this can force oil out of the turbo even though other gaskets are more likely to get blown out before the turbo oil seals start leaking.
Since you seem to have a lot of oil on the outside of hte engine too it would be beneficial to check where it's coming from- depending on the location of the leak it is possible that the engine sucks oil saturated air through the filter and deposits droplets inside the turbo and IC piping. (Quite dangerous because this can cause a runaway)
Some C series engines have a vent tube on the valve cover and an additional crankcase vent that may cause the symptoms you describe when it's plugged.

HTH

AlpineRAM

 

Thanks for the idea of using air. I put a piece of Romex wire through it and didn't have anything stop it and I can pour a quart of oil down it without any backup, so I have my doubts about it being blocked, but it's the only thing that really explains what's happening.

The mechanics at Case said this engine only has the one vent and it's the one on the valve cover.

The oil seems to be coming out of the turbo. I keep coming back to the turbo being bad, but can't figure out how two rebuilds and a new one would all have the same problem.

Thank you,
Eddie

 

Is it possible the smoke is from the oil in the exhaust from the first blowout?

 

No, the turbo goes to a quick 90 that goes right into the muffler. The muffler sits right on top of the turbo. The muffler is also open at to and I can see into it. It's all dry and sooty, but that's because the oil getting blowin into it is burned almost instantly.

I was reading throught every post for the last year that mentions blow by and wonder if this makes sense.

Could blowby from the bottom of the block stop the oil from draining out of the turbo, which would cause it to leak out the seals? This realy does't make any sense to me, but right now, nothing else does either.

I'm thinking about disconnecting the line and letting the oil drain into a bucket just to see if the oil leaks continue. I'm also curious if there is preasure on that side of the engine when there isn't much on the dipstick side.

Is it possible to have more preasure on one side of the block than the other??

Thank you,
Eddie

 

If you don't have pressure on the dipstick side there should be no pressure on the other side of the block.
Is the oil coming out of the turbo on the outside too? Could you take pics and put them in your gallery?
Maybe you should call Cummins and ask whether this engine has a calibrated orifice to keep the oil flow to the turbo in check... (I don't know for the Cumminses but some Steyr Diesels had an orifice and if removed or washed out the turbos would puke oil)

Puzzling...

AlpineRAM

 

You might have something. The original supply line was kinked pretty good, so I bought a new one. Could I have lost something or did something wrong when I put on the hose???

Engine oil preasure is 40lbs at idle and 60 a full throttle, but what can the turbo handle?

The oil seems to be coming out of every seam in the turbo. It's been that way since I first rebuilt it. Then rebuilt it again and now wiht the brand new turbo. Holset X35.

When I first started having trouble, the oil was just coming out of the exhaust tube and dripping onto the exhaust manifold. No other leaks or oil. In fact, it was hard to tell there even was an oil leak because most of it was going right into the muffler and burning up there.

Now it's all over the place.

Thank you, something new to investigate!!!!
Eddie

PS, I'll take some pics after it stops raining.

 

I used the HX30-HX40 repair manual as a source...



You can download the service manual for each holset turbo at www.holset.co.uk

HTH

AlpineRAM