where is my oil going?

RalphWD45 · Jul 17, 2012

I bought a 90 ford super duty,350 flatbed last spring, and havent got to use it till today. The truck has made three trips to a local shop, for repairs since spring, but hasn't been used for anything.I feel like George Marsh, because the car lot at Chehalis, really hosed me! on this truck. I have had it into the shop to fix all oil leaks, new pan gasket, new front and rear seal, and new rocker cover gaskets, and finally there are no drips on the drive way.This is a 7.3 turbo charged diesel. I used it today to haul a chest freezer home from Federal way, and probably went 60 to 75 miles round trip. the oil stick said full when I left, and was verily showing oil on the tip when I got home. good oil pressure, and could not see smoke in my mirror while driving. Where is my oil going??? This is my Tractor hauler, to keep on topic.

Anonymous-0 · Jul 17, 2012

Unlike gas engines a diesel sees motor oil as extra fuel. They will burn a lot of oil with very little smoke. It sounds to me like you got hosed worse than you thought. You can check crankcase pressure to find out for sure.

bison · Jul 17, 2012

How many miles on that mill?
I would Do a compression test

bison · Jul 17, 2012

check turbo seals,it(oil) could be going down the tail pipe

NCWayne · Jul 17, 2012

I'll throw in another vote to have the turbo checked. Oil seals can leak on the hot side and raw oil will get into the exhaust, but that typically makes a bit of smoke. If the seals on the cold side leak then the oil gets sucked into the engine with the intake air and burned. In that case you'll see very little smoke.

M w J · Jul 17, 2012

Also I have seen them suck oil when the airfilter gets plugged and the turbo would leak on the intake side trying to get air .Does it have the round filter on top of the engine or a flat filter in an airbox off to the side .The flat 1 when plugged will suck in on the sides out of the box and suck dirt with a heavy load .

RalphWD45 · Jul 17, 2012

It is hard to answer that question Bison! The speedometer said 29849+10ths when I bought it, and it had stickers on the valve covers saying it was a H&H rebuilt engine, it was very clean under the hood. The salesman told me that the speedometer cable was broken, when I asked why it didn't work on my test drive. One of the first expences after getting it home, was to take it in to Mobil speedometer to have it fixed. They called me and told me that it no longer had the original 5 spd tranny, and there was no place on the tranny to put a speedometer cable. I had them put on a electric speedo, which works quite well, but is mounted on top of the dash, and I have to hunt to find it. the new speedo shows 84 miles on it. The syncros were about out of the tranny, and after putting a new flywheel, and clutch pac in it, I had to have the tranny rebuilt $1200.00 and that was the cheapest bid. I backed it out of the shed 3 wks ago and the pressure hose on the power steering blew. I replaced that and have been afraid to take it out of the shed, and use it till today. I now have an oil drinking truck, that I gave $2500.00 for, and with repairs it now totals up at $8000.00, but wait thats not all! it is worth $2400.00, and now I get to spend on it again, and it will still be worth $2400.00. Thanks for the opening to whine Bison!

ShadetreeRet · Jul 17, 2012

If everything were in good working order, $2500. would be a good price for the truck, Those 7.3s were good engines. The sticker on the valve cover may say H&H rebuilt, but it doesn't say how many miles it had on it when they took it out of that other truck at the junkyard. Obviously a later transmission, even though worn out. I may be mistaken, but it has been my understanding for some years now that it is against Federal Law to sell a vehicle without a working speedometer, or an altered speedometer. It may be worthwhile to check into that. If there were some way you could make them regret the transaction, I know that at this point, it would be headache relief for you.

RalphWD45 · Jul 17, 2012

Thats a thought Shadetree Ret. I just (around 8:00 my time) went out and brought the oil level up to full. used 3 qt's of Rotella. That equals 1 quart per 20 miles on todays trip! Just a little excessive! Maybe Mike Wa can chime in on washingtons rules pretaining to sale of used vehicles.

RalphWD45 · Jul 17, 2012

I looked at the air filter while filling the oil back up, and It has the rectangular box that says ford.

M w J · Jul 18, 2012

Thats the 1 my brother had his suck the filter in on both sides and ruined the motor at 70000 miles His was a new 93 and it came without a turbo but ford added it before he took it home . They put in a new engine and put more holes in the airbox to help with the problem The filter has to be very clean because the are really to small a filter for the air that engine needs. When they put the turbo on they never changed the pump settings so it will pull about anything he hooks to it . The engine has about 140000 on it now and it does burn oil.

hintocw · Jul 18, 2012

After my father-in-law's experience with a Ford Diesel (fairly late model turbo) I would never own a Ford Diesel. After spending thousands just to get it where it would start (he purchased the truck new, but never maintained it properly), the vehicle is now sitting in the barn, has been there for over two years.

RalphWD45 · Jul 18, 2012

That has been my experience, with this rig! when sitting in the shed, It don't break, use oil, or burn fuel! It really looks good, like I'm a real farmer with a hay hauler, and tow vehicle. There is nothing quite like having a big flatbed Dually sticking out of your bldg. Of course no tractors, machinery, or big round bales get hauled. But it looks like you could, if you wanted to.

bison · Jul 18, 2012

(quoted from post at 19:42:37 07/17/12) It is hard to answer that question Bison! The speedometer said 29849+10ths when I bought it, and it had stickers on the valve covers saying it was a H&H rebuilt engine, it was very clean under the hood. The salesman told me that the speedometer cable was broken, when I asked why it didn't work on my test drive. One of the first expences after getting it home, was to take it in to Mobil speedometer to have it fixed. They called me and told me that it no longer had the original 5 spd tranny, and there was no place on the tranny to put a speedometer cable. I had them put on a electric speedo, which works quite well, but is mounted on top of the dash, and I have to hunt to find it. the new speedo shows 84 miles on it. The syncros were about out of the tranny, and after putting a new flywheel, and clutch pac in it, I had to have the tranny rebuilt $1200.00 and that was the cheapest bid. I backed it out of the shed 3 wks ago and the pressure hose on the power steering blew. I replaced that and have been afraid to take it out of the shed, and use it till today. I now have an oil drinking truck, that I gave $2500.00 for, and with repairs it now totals up at $8000.00, but wait thats not all! it is worth $2400.00, and now I get to spend on it again, and it will still be worth $2400.00. Thanks for the opening to whine Bison!

ounds like you been had.

A turboed engine usually don't burn oil past the pistons/rings or intake valves, however,excessive blowby will push oil with the crankcase gasses to the intake were it gets burned in the engine.
A leaking turbo seal on the intake side will pump oil in the intake wich again is burned in the engine .
In both cases there will be a lot of oil present in the intake,..you can check that by removing the rubber elbow from the front of the turbo.

To see if it is the turbo seal causing the problem, start the engine and see if you can see oil radiating away from behind the vane wheel.(don't put yer finger in there!)If excessive oil is leaking from the exhaust vane there should be more smoke and in bad cases oil dribbling from the tail pipe.

For the blowby you'll have to do a compression test

hintocw · Jul 19, 2012

You've described my father-in-law's situation/truck exactly! The only difference is that after sitting in the barn for over the last two years it's covered with so much dust, bird crap, etc., one can hardly see it. For age (he's 97 yoa) and health reasons he's lost his driving privilages, but he refused to get rid of it, assuming anyone would want it.

chevytaHOE5674 · Jul 19, 2012

That 7.3 IDI motor has what is called a CDR valve. It is the tuna can looking thing that is probably mounted to the driver side valve cover with a hose running to the intake since you have a turbo added. This is to get rid of crankcase pressure, but when it goes bad it allows oil vapor to be continuously sucked into the motor.

My 6.9 IDI (basically the same motor) was eating oil, I bought a new CDR from the dealer for like 85 bucks and now I go 3k miles and burn maybe 1/2 a quart.

where is my oil going?

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