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Head Gasket? Blown Turbo? Cylinder washed out? Need help....

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FeedJake

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I have a 2020 Ram 2500 6.7 Cummins. Truck has 187K on it and has been deleted for 87k of that. Truck has used coolant daily since delete was completed but only got low enough for light to come on and never went any lower. Was pulling camper (14,000k+) at highway speeds and truck started to shake and blow full pipe of white smoke out the exhaust. Pulled off immediately to investigate and the whole driver's side of the engine bay is covered in oil. Passenger side dry as a bone. Oil level was low of course but 3 quarts got it back up to normal and coolant tank almost empty. Truck will start and run but run rough, not able to drive on the highway. White smoke when you give it fuel, crazy amount of blow by at the oil fill. Will flip oil cap up and off motor as soon as you let it go. I think the oil came out thru the dipstick tube due to its location on the motor. If you let the truck idle for couple minutes, it will smoke from the dipstick tube and oil fill both. NO codes or check engine light. No coolant in the oil that I can tell. Nothing foreign in the coolant.

Could this excessive blow by and poor running be from a blown turbo? Took intake pipe off and turbo vanes look good, spins freely, no slack in shaft.
Could it have melted a piston or rings?
I don't really think it is a head gasket due to the excessive amount of blow by.

I've got a video of the blow by if anybody would want to see it and give a theory.

Anybody got an idea?
 
Sounds like you have some ring/piston/cylinder damage, probably low on coolant, got hot and scuffed a couple of pistons.
How low was the coolant?
 
What horsepower over stock tune are you running? Also did you have provisions in place to monitor EGT and Boost numbers? If so what kind of numbers did you regularly see?
 
superjoe83 said:
Sounds like you have some ring/piston/cylinder damage, probably low on coolant, got hot and scuffed a couple of pistons.
How low was the coolant?
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Had enough in the bottom of the reservoir to see it and took about a 2/3 of a gallon to get it back to normal.
 
flan said:
What horsepower over stock tune are you running? Also did you have provisions in place to monitor EGT and Boost numbers? If so what kind of numbers did you regularly see?
Click to expand...
100hp over stock. And no, I do not have the provisions to monitor EGT. Boost gauge on the truck is the only gauge for it and it was running pretty normal. Still building boost as I moved it off the highway.
 
flan said:
What horsepower over stock tune are you running? Also did you have provisions in place to monitor EGT and Boost numbers? If so what kind of numbers did you regularly see?
Click to expand...
About 30-34 psi
 
It’s a tough diagnose over the ‘net. But I’d be guessing headgasket, turbo, then piston damage in that order.
 
Any updates on this? From the sounds of it the truck is going to be down for a bit.

I am leaning towards head gasket;, sounds like you popped it pretty good allowing coolant to enter the combustion area and your also pressurizing the crankcase causing the blow by. It could be piston related but this would only cause a crank case pressurization issue, not the rapid loss of coolant. Does the white smoke out the tail smell like coolant?

You mentioned the truck has used coolant since you first deleted it. Did you leave the EGR components in place or remove them and use block off plates? Again, dont think this is your issue, has to be something related to both coolant and oil.

I do not think its turbo related because this would not cause the crank case to pressurize. Sure your seals could let go but you would more than likely just have oil/coolant (if turbo uses coolant.... im not sure) entering exhaust and it would just smoke like crazy.
 
Enve46 said:
Yup from the tech wizards I spoke with, up to 10k MAX and thats if you MUST for short duration
Click to expand...
Anything in tow its best to not run high HP tunes heck even when i plow i run the lowest power on my SOTF
 
Enve46 said:
Yup from the tech wizards I spoke with, up to 10k MAX and thats if you MUST for short duration
Click to expand...
H3LZSN1P3R said:
Anything in tow its best to not run high HP tunes heck even when i plow i run the lowest power on my SOTF
Click to expand...

Generally speaking this is true, but there are tuners who can give you a strong tow tune in the 100hp range… but you better have gauges.

I’ve written many tow tunes for folks that are +100, or more, and they don’t have issues. There is a big difference in a +100 street tune vs a +100 tow tune. Many tuners only do 50-75 as tow settings and I’ve also found that many custom tunes aren’t much more custom than box tuners. Truly one off custom tunes are harder to find, or at least they were last I looked.

My 05 was running +130/330 to the ground over stock, but it was a tow tune and I ran that tune all the time.
 
AH64ID said:
Generally speaking this is true, but there are tuners who can give you a strong tow tune in the 100hp range… but you better have gauges.

I’ve written many tow tunes for folks that are +100, or more, and they don’t have issues. There is a big difference in a +100 street tune vs a +100 tow tune. Many tuners only do 50-75 as tow settings and I’ve also found that many custom tunes aren’t much more custom than box tuners. Truly one off custom tunes are harder to find, or at least they were last I looked.

My 05 was running +130/330 to the ground over stock, but it was a tow tune and I ran that tune all the time.
Click to expand...
Even with the proper tow tunes the limits are pushed way to close for my comfort personally besides the usual risk is more the trans than the engine.
 
H3LZSN1P3R said:
Even with the proper tow tunes the limits are pushed way to close for my comfort personally besides the usual risk is more the trans than the engine.
Click to expand...

Yes it has to be built as a system to handle the power, but if proper components are upgraded and tuned correctly it’s easy to run a bit more power towing. But most tunes at that power are setup as street or race tunes, not tow tunes.
 
AH64ID said:
Generally speaking this is true, but there are tuners who can give you a strong tow tune in the 100hp range… but you better have gauges.

I’ve written many tow tunes for folks that are +100, or more, and they don’t have issues. There is a big difference in a +100 street tune vs a +100 tow tune. Many tuners only do 50-75 as tow settings and I’ve also found that many custom tunes aren’t much more custom than box tuners. Truly one off custom tunes are harder to find, or at least they were last I looked.

My 05 was running +130/330 to the ground over stock, but it was a tow tune and I ran that tune all the time.
Click to expand...
I dont tow so Im safe with my current mild tune, would you still suggest to have an EGT probe installed? Ive been toying around with the idea but I dont really beat on it to justify the cost of probe and screen to monitor. However, it seems having one is a good idea based on this thread, or is that mainly for towing?
 
Enve46 said:
I dont tow so Im safe with my current mild tune, would you still suggest to have an EGT probe installed? Ive been toying around with the idea but I dont really beat on it to justify the cost of probe and screen to monitor. However, it seems having one is a good idea based on this thread, or is that mainly for towing?
Click to expand...
Diesel + EGT monitoring is always a good idea IMO. More-so if tuned even if you aren't towing.
 
Enve46 said:
I dont tow so Im safe with my current mild tune, would you still suggest to have an EGT probe installed? Ive been toying around with the idea but I dont really beat on it to justify the cost of probe and screen to monitor. However, it seems having one is a good idea based on this thread, or is that mainly for towing?
Click to expand...

When I was tuning I didn’t write tunes for guys that didn’t have boost and pyro at a minimum.

Talk to your tuner, not all tunes have the same safe EGT limits. Older specs, my tuning was mostly 5.9, but a stock 05 could run 1450° all day and be fine but if you do that with a custom tuned motor you run the risk of melting a piston.
 
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