Thnx for reading my thread fellas. I'm sure this will put your mind to work alittle...

So I bought this truck 2002 4x4 built Auto AFe cold air, Edge comp, stock turbo & inj.... with bad no. 6 cylinder. Local shop pulled the motor and replaced piston, rings, rod, bearings.. etc only on the 6 cylinder all others looked real good.... Now truck smokes alot at idle.. and I have weird sound coming from the intake. I put 1200 miles on it and truck runs real well. Changed oil and filters yesterday and found out it consumed over 1.5 gallons of oil since only about a gallon drained out. Is that normal for a break in of one cylinder ( the hone did need a course hone from what in was told).?? I do check oil frequently but it obviously snook up onme. We have gone over valve clearances few times and they are good. I dsconnected the Edge comp box and still smokes. I'm co concerned about the oil consumption and the sucking air sound thru intake.

Things I noticed :

17mpg at 65mph w/ edge maxed

No. 1 injector leaves wet spot ontop of head under injector line near cover

No smoke while going down the road.

Drove from LA, Ca to Wyoming with no issues today ... runs real well idles smooth

I know I'm missing some Info but I will stop running my mouth for a bit. Hope I get some good feedback .... Thx fellas

sent from my cell...

Rancherman...... I will gladly rebuild the engine if I knew for sure that is what it needs.... The whole point of my thread was to try narrow down where my problem is. If ccompression is too low then I rebuild the motor that simple. Since my compression is consistent somewhat low.... Or not low ... I'm still confused whether 250 is low normal or just plain shitty .... I will not rebuild until I make sense of this... I rebuilt the bad cylinder and every other cylinder looked great with hone marks still present. Already have $3k into this doing the #6. sent from my cell...

I've been looking, and looking.......I have yet to see the spec for a VP truck. The service manual in the downloads section here explicitly omits the spec. I can go on cummins quickserve and my factory service manual is public for my 12 valve and it says 350psi for a new engine and 300psi for a used one with none being more than 100psi variance. But 12 valves run 17.5-18 compression (never can get a straight answer which one). So where is the spec for the 24v's? Then here we have this article http://articles.mopar1973man.com/general-cummins/34-engine-system/144-compression-testing and he says the stuff isn't listed. But he says 375 across the board for a good running engine which all 24 valve engines have less compression than a 12V which I already found has a new engine spec of 350. Sooo left with throwing your hands in the air again. Theoretically you could calculate the pressure and then compare it to the pressure you measure and if its within a certain percentage then you would be able to call it good. I think.

Rancherman...... I will gladly rebuild the engine if I knew for sure that is what it needs.... The whole point of my thread was to try narrow down where my problem is. If ccompression is too low then I rebuild the motor that simple. Since my compression is consistent somewhat low.... Or not low ... I'm still confused whether 250 is low normal or just plain shitty .... I will not rebuild until I make sense of this... I rebuilt the bad cylinder and every other cylinder looked great with hone marks still present. Already have $3k into this doing the #6. sent from my cell...

Sorry about that! I got a little sideways, off track, so to speak! Sometimes the who-what-where-why-when gets in the way of a simple problem. calculating 'ultimate' pressure doesn't get your truck out of the shop any faster! my bad. Do a leak down test to see where it's all going.. and go from there. your bottom end might not be as bad as you think. (you said blow by is minimal) so I'd suspect valves, cracks in head next.

You might check the valve guides. I was missing half of my valve seals because some nimby didn't adjust his spring compressor before putting it all back together. Just with 11 seals missing, I was going through a quart every 300-400 miles. Smoked a lot too. Got those replaced and now don't go through hardly any oil.

Sorry about that! I got a little sideways, off track, so to speak! Sometimes the who-what-where-why-when gets in the way of a simple problem. calculating 'ultimate' pressure doesn't get your truck out of the shop any faster! my bad. Do a leak down test to see where it's all going.. and go from there. your bottom end might not be as bad as you think. (you said blow by is minimal) so I'd suspect valves, cracks in head next.

No worries man. Yeah.... Now the leak down test I haven't done , I need to put that on the list. Bad part is the shop I use is extremely busy so anything need to be done it will be in shop atleast few weeks. But I will def get that done asap.. sent from my cell...

You might check the valve guides. I was missing half of my valve seals because some nimby didn't adjust his spring compressor before putting it all back together. Just with 11 seals missing, I was going through a quart every 300-400 miles. Smoked a lot too. Got those replaced and now don't go through hardly any oil.

Valve guides...... Hmmmm that is interesting. I really don't know that deep into the motor so maybe I will get more input on that... But I will do some research. sent from my cell...

OK... Its been a while but I'm back with some info, I haven't done anything to motor such as valve guides or anything major. I have noticed that I have been using a hell of a lot less oil. After the motor was refurbished with new no. 6, I used royal purple synthetic. Which I was told I wasn't supposed to for that break in. Well that said and done just all of a sudden stopped burning so much. I figure the synthetic oil wasn't allowing proper break in?? Next thing, after getting on the throttle under load, I noticed oil in valley area below injectors. It would burn away then show up again after getting on the throttle again. It wasn't coming from the valve cover but somewhere close. I grabbed a 10mm socket and found the intake plate ( below grid heater) bolts were a little loose.. Truck sounds a little better and doesn't seem to smoke as much. Still has a whomp whomp sound thru intake but doesn't seem as bad. Any thoughts

Alright gentlmen.. I got my results for compression test. Injectors were pop tested and all checked out to be working normal. Cylinder 1 - 245 psi 2 - 250 3 - 250 4 - 250 5 - 250 6 - 255. I still have that whomp whomp sound thru intake. and as far as I know still burning oil.. I just figured out the edge has settings within each setting. Going to mess with that to see if it gets rid of some idle haze. I'm going to top off the oil and run it some more to ensure it still burning oil. Thnx for any more suggestions u have... And appreciate you guys that following up. sent from my cell...

Another good test you can do to check the health of the motor is a blow by test. You hook a blowby meter to your crank case vent tube and it measures precisely how much blowby you have. I will tell you if the rings or cylinders are worn versus the head. Most diesel engine shops have one of these tools. I was able to borrow it from the local cummins shop for the day.

I never thought of that.... I actually have a radiator pressure test pump kit I bought at a yard sale once. Had no use for it just thought I would someday. I can rig something up for that and also boost leak test.. good idea man Thnx. I extended the blow by hose so it should be piece of can tapping in to itsent from my cell...

You don't want to block off the blow by hose completely to test, it will be very inaccurate. Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk