DD 8V-71N Oil leak mystery, Cold smoking issues

[Hi yo silver]

Whoops...uhh, forgot to sign my post.  It's me, Dennis  AKA HiYoSilver   Is there a penalty?  Do I have to buy the beer?

[RJ]

Gary -

Ah, dumb question, but what oil are you running in your engine?  Straight 40 wt or Multi-weight 15-40?

FWIW & HTH. . .

[Garymci5]

Gary, it is not going to do any good checking the rings with the fast start up you have good compression and that is the only rings you can see in the air box the oil rings are not visible from there. 
Me I would remove the air horn on top of the blower use a light with the engine running if oil is running down on the end plates then you have bad blower seals 
good luck

Thanks for the solid advice and saving me some time, too!  The voice of bad S/C seals has always lurked in the background....guess it's time to face the wood chipper.

Thanks again.

[Garymci5]

As Nellie said, 11 gallons of oil is way too much unless that bypass oil filter you have holds 4? gallons.  An 8V71 holds 7 gallons/28 quarts.  Mine likes to run at about the 6-6 1/2 gallon level so even though i put 7 gallons in it at an oil change to make sure it is full, i know that within a short period of time it will get rid of the excess and stay at that level for the next 1200-1500 miles.

That's how much oil it took.  The oil pans may vary some and the Luberfiner housing is very large. Again there may be different size bypass filter housings, too. This is my third DD engine.

Either way, a high oil level, so long as the crank isn't splashing thru it, shouldn't effect anything aside from possibly dripping from the oil pan gasket due. That may be the cause of why these engines "find their own level".

[Garymci5]

Hi Gary -

I'd planned on introducing myself before replying to anything but couldn't resist this one. Mainly because I think you're needlessly worried.

To make sure we're on the same page: I assume "front left" means driver's side at 'pulley end' of the engine? If so, my 8-71 slobbers at the same place. And so does virtually every 8-71 I've seen. Mine also 'leaked' from an exhaust clamp (see Brian's reply)... but that turned out to be just unburned fuel (when engine cold) and not blow-by. Still, it looked bad and worried me a lot.

Mine also blew some white smoke but that disappeared once escaping the Frozen Tundra (see Fred and Gus's replies).

If your engine fires when cold you have good compression. And you say it "sounds good and runs smooth?" Heck, quit worrying - why ditch a perfectly good 8-71?

But your fuel and your oil pressure / level are question marks. Why not start with fresh fuel and see what happens?  (Any chance of algae?)

And are you sure you've got the original dipstick? Unless my math has gone bye-bye, 11 gallons is over 40 litres. By-pass filter or not, that's waaay overfull. And barfing 2 gallons in 15 hours suggests your engine is gagging on the stuff. Which seems to be confirmed by your oil pressure... which seems awfully high.

But that's just me. As I said, I'm a rank novice. Best of luck and keep us posted.

Nellie Wilson

PS. Happy New Year everybody!

Hey Nellie, thanks for the input and welcome aboard!

Sounds like we're talking about the same area on the engine. Sure wish it were the VC gaskets!  Is your leakage oil or fuel? Mine is a tar-like black gunk. Sure looks like oil to me, but maybe it's mixed...

The engine smoked before and after: oil change, fuel filter change, fuel additives, mixing old fuel with 99% Bio-Diesel. The only time is was "worst" was during the first drive in about 2 or 3 years when we bought it. But the smoke sure looked white to me, so thought it was a fuel injector.

No idea on the dipstick, but it sure looks old/original. Confident the engine is NOT overful. I almost ommitted this information on my post as I knew this would be a key focus. But don't blame anyone, without a Luberfiner or similar, type bypass filter system, that does mention it due to lack of experience. I know it's hard to not swing the finger around and point!

A high oil level should not effect oil pressure, only a low level, where the pump does not get enough oil. The oil system is positive displacement.  Only temperature and type of oil should effect pressure (aside from the specific design, but we're talking Detroit's here). My oil gauge is electric, has old wiring, a so-so quality gauge (prefer VDO) and who knows what else.  The oil pressure is just a general reference, but it does have the OE gauge on a manifold near the frame rail. Hard to say how accurate it is, but does work.

I'm set to lick this problem and know from the experience of owning a perfectly good-as-new ($20K in receipts) 8V-71N they can be leak free, barely consume any oil (proven by driving across the country), and not blow obnoxious combustion byproducts out the tail pipe. However, I did get revenge on those pesky Mosqitoes at our last summer camping size....goosed the engine a bit just to smoke them out!

Thanks again and look forward to having you as part of the forum.