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!

I was just going to ask how it was to get the motor out of a 3rd gen. It was a serious pain in my '97 - and when reinstalling I did the oil pan and pickup after it was halfway in the truck, I don't think the taller head of the 24v would have let it fit in the hole at all otherwise. I definitely did some sheetmetal adjustment on the front edge of the cowl.

Two things-1. You can always just swap a 12v into there...just saying! :tongue:2. Not sure off the top of my head, as it's been a while since I owned a CommonRail, but one thing you might consider doing with the motor out, is if the 3rd gens had the engine mount underneath the motor, running from frame rail to frame rail, cutting the mount out, and modifying it so you can bolt and unbolt it with the engine still in...I've seen it done a couple of times, where they cut it out, welded plates to both the bar and the frame, and then used 8 or so grade 8 bolts to hold it all together. That way they can pull the bar out, and get to the oil pan and bottom of the motor, without having to pull the entire motor up and out.

I didn't knock out the pistons before I took the engine to the machine shop. Between when he was available / dodging rain / borrowing a truck I didnt have time.However once at the shop they found the top ring was broken on every cylinder but #3.He said by the looks of the ring land on the pistons they have been broken for a while.I am going to assume it is my own fault for choosing to buy the programmer before I invested in an EGT gauge and then towing with the tune installed.If anyone is interested I had the Diablo sport with Power Puck combo.I assumed it would be safe on the "Tow Tune" but will not leave anything to chance in the future (EGT gauge installed now).Also all of the bearings (rod and main) looked brand new and the crank is fine.The shop is going to call after they bore it to let me know how far they had to go. I am looking at this as a chance to build it back the way I want. So I will start a new thread to cover the build.

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!

Cuda, Do you think this was purely the result of high EGTs, or something else? I have seen some gas engines look similar to this that were exposed to severe detonation.. of coarse a diesel basically runs on detonation... but I`m wondering if it could be a combination of high EGT, and an overboost condition?? I have a friend who runs a Pro Mod door slammer and he found out the hard way pushing the envelope on boost pressure made his JE pistons look like they had a ball peen tune up.