My truck has started burning a lot of oil and I have enough blow-by out of the blow-down tube that the underside of the truck is showing oil residue about 1/2 way back.I have parked the truck because I fear the worst that I may have a crack ring or something.BTW, the oil consuption went way up, like a gallon every 1,500 - 2,000 miles.I don't abuse the truck but did have a programmer on it that I have since removed.Also this is my 3rd Cummins Ram and the only one that has ever had an engine problem (130,000 miles). Anyone seen or heard of this before?Thanks!

3rd gens are known for injectors going bad and burning holes in pistons or washing down the cylinder walls. Sounds like it is time to pull the head and see what is hurt.

Yeah, i will probably start tearing it apart next weekend. Too much going on this weekend. The truck still runs like a champ. The only reason I stopped driving it was I read somewhere that if it is a broken ring or bad piston that you could do big damage to the cylinder wall and could ruin the block. Once I get into it if the bottom end needs built I would look to improve what I can while staying within a reasonable budget.

If you could do a compression test it would tell you a bit more of which holes are damaged.

I know my way around a gas engine fairly well but honestly never had to wrench on my diesels much other than changing oil and fuel filters. Without a sparkplug or glow plug to remove how does one perform a compression test on a Cummins?

I know my way around a gas engine fairly well but honestly never had to wrench on my diesels much other than changing oil and fuel filters. Without a sparkplug or glow plug to remove how does one perform a compression test on a Cummins?

Here you go... http://articles.mopar1973man.com/general-cummins/34-engine-system/144-compression-testing

I love it when I learn something new.Thank you!

3rd gens are known for injectors going bad and burning holes in pistons or washing down the cylinder walls. Sounds like it is time to pull the head and see what is hurt.

Man! All this is making me think that CR injectors should simply be replaced on some kind of interval instead of waiting for catastrophic engine damage:think: For any of the guys who have experienced..Are there any symtoms the injectors are going south?

Now as for a average from what I see I would say most CR's make 200-250K and then fail. Don't get me wrong there are people that are up on the game and replace parts when they become damaged and do it promptly and get well up in the higher numbers for mileage.

My 03 would give a little extra "tick" when letting out on the clutch pedal to take off or it would just start dumping white smoke.

I have not started pulling it apart yet, haven't had the time. If it appears it was caused by an injector I will let you all know.A "friend of a friend" I know works at a GM dealer and his opinion is the injector failure is random and usually past 100k miles. I miss my old 95 12v but had to give it up when we started having kids because it was a standard cab.It had 230k trouble free miles when I sold it and I still see the kid driving it around town.He even repainted it!

Now as for a average from what I see I would say most CR's make 200-250K and then fail. Don't get me wrong there are people that are up on the game and replace parts when they become damaged and do it promptly and get well up in the higher numbers for mileage.

I have not started pulling it apart yet, haven't had the time.

If it appears it was caused by an injector I will let you all know.

A "friend of a friend" I know works at a GM dealer and his opinion is the injector failure is random and usually past 100k miles. QUOTE]

I can tell you that it is most definately not only a factor on high mileage units, I have seen and know of many folks locally who have melted down pistons due to injector failures while still under warranty and under 100K miles. Most who have had this happen are always pulling heavy and most all say they ran perfect up until it went into failure mode.

Just because what we see on forums which is at best a fraction of a percent of total rigs on the road happen at higher mileages doesn't mean that is the norm. It probably happens to the 50+% of forum members who lurk and never post too.

I am not saying this is what happened to your rig as you will not know until it is torn down and inspected but just don't want folks walking away with false beliefs. There are probably more injector failures thathappen while under warranty or shortly thereafter than there are in the long term.

My 03 is getting ready to roll over 150k, and still running perfect. I am paying closer attention to filtration, and experimenting with lubrication additives.

With the cases like this I read about, I am going to start budgeting towards doing a complete injector change in the not too distant future.

There seems to be a wide array of suppliers out there.. everything from stock OEM to mild performance upgrades, and on to the serious hot rod stuff.

Besides the injectors, there are also nozzles to consider, and I have not even seen a price on the injector tubes yet:ahhh:

Anybody have any thoughts on the best options "vendors" for mild performance upgrade.. With quality and durability being the highest concern??

Good to know info Ive had similar symptoms

ZZ - I have talked with several diesel mechanics around town and they say when a turbo diesel (in general, not speaking common-rail specific) starts consuming oil it is most likely due to a turbo seal leaking.So if you are having similar symptoms it would probably be a good idea to check it first.

In my case I would welcome a turbo seal over something more serious however with the amount of blow-by that I am seeing coming from the crankcase vent tube under the truck I fear it is something internal.

Good Luck and let us know if you find the cause with yours.

A quick update for those that are following.

We had a break in the weather Sunday so I started tearing the engine down.

I did not get as far as I would have liked but managed to get the exhaust manifold / turbo, intake / heater and valve cover removed.

I expected to see some obvious sign looking into the intake and exhaust ports but found nothing alarming.

So I will be removing the head next and will post what I find.

I am traveling to SFO for work this next week so it may be some time before I get back on the truck but I will update when I do.

Here are some pictures of what the engine looked like once the head was removed.

Now I'm curious what those 2 sets of rings look like? Kind of looks like a debris issue...

Sorry for the multiple posts but I was unclear whether all the pics would upload at once.I will be taking the engine to the machine shop my next day off. Every Cylinder except for #3 is scratched and or gouged mostly on the drivers side.I hope the block has enough material in it to bore the damage out.At this point I think either: A) the previous owner neglected / abused the truck before I bought it? (It had around 60k when I purchased it)B) maybe the ring gap was tight from the factory and when I put the programmer on the truck the extra heat caused the rings to expand enough to dig into the cylinder wall?If anyone notices anything from these pictures please let me know what you think.Thanks!

To be able to give better troubleshooting advice I need to see what the pistons and the main and rod bearings look like. Namely on the pistons I need to see what it looks like between the ring glands and coloring of the bottom of the piston to see if it was run hot.

Wild and Free,I haven't knocked the pistons out yet but when I do I will snap so more pictures.If you think of anything else just let me know.Also to anyone who has not yet had the pleasure of pulling a Cummins "B" engine from a Dodge Truck it is a ton of work. It took two days to get the engine out of the truck and a third day to strip the engine down once it was on the stand.