ISX CARBON PACKING

Just overhauled my 13 isx at 684k and yes the liners were polished.
Started using oil about 530k and went downhill from there .

 

I wonder if you did a dyno/blowby on the engine first?

I have a reason for asking and here is what happened in my fleet.

I had three of them giving drivers fits with higher oil consumption and declining performance last year.

One truck landed at the dealer in California, another in Georgia and one up here.

The two out of state mechanics instantly said "need to rebuild ... carbon packing ... blah blah blah". The one up here was put on the dyno and we saw problems. I got the other two home, had them on the dyno and saw an increase in blowby of 43% but that's the HP was right in spec for the mileage.

So we did an inframe with the first engine, it showed nothing out of the ordinary (other than one issue), of course the bore of the liner was polished, it is supposed to be at 500k but the rings were packed with carbon and that indicated a problem with the EGR system to the guy doing the work. Once it was put together and broke in (25k), back on the dyno it went, it was right back up near new spec.

Took another one apart, just replaced the rings, put a cross hatch on the liners and put it together. This ran great, put 40k on it, oil consumption was back to what it should be, we pulled it and did a dyno, blowby was within spec of a truck with that mileage and no more fits.

The third we didn't bother with it, it was traded for some equipment I needed for other work.

I talked to cummins CS line about this, they said "we don't know" but my mechanic up here said that this is caused by a combination of issues, one is the EGR needs to be checked around 400k, I don't know what needs to be checked, I never asked him. He also said that these engines need to be run on the high side of peak torque, not the low side which is done often.

So that's my comments, maybe it will help you guys.

 

Replacing emissions components won’t have an effect on engine internals. I had an EPA2010 Cummins that didn’t have those issues, it’s problem was the cam. If you don’t have excessive oil consumption, I wouldn’t mess with it.
The emissions system will not affect cylinder or ring wear, that’s just the nature of EGR and that Cummins is a dirty motor.
If you’re keeping it awhile, Schaeffer’s makes a high detergency oil, run bypass filtration, keep valve adjustments in check, and idle as little as possible.

 

No I didnt bother with it as most of the mates to my truck were having the same issue ...most of them didnt make it as far as mine did and there were no surprises at teardown time .

 

I had an ISX that I got an entire another year out of by using Valvolines oil that they designed for Cummins to de-carbon the rings. It’s $100/gal but worth it.

It got to where it was using about 1 gal of oil every 2000 miles and started clogging up the dpf.

 

@Daveinaz has right about 600k on his 13 isx and runs like a new one and know of 2 others pushing the high 700s with no issues ...luck of the draw I guess .
Mine looked good inside on teardown other than liner polishing , minor cam lobe flaking and some cam followers flaking .
I wouldn't waste the money on a new Dpf filter until you overhaul it ...I had my DPF replaced last February and it didnt even make to xmas before it needed cleaning again due to the oil consumption...other than that it ran great !
If your overhaul kit comes from Cummins it comes with updated cylinder packs which takes care of the carbon packing issue .
Easier said than done I know .

 

how often you gotta use that oil ?how many miles your oil consumption is gone to a gallon compare to 2000 miles a gallon that you had before? mine is burning gallon of oil 5000 miles on new oil. As the oil gets older it it goes to 2000 miles a gallon.

 

I ran the special oil for 20,000 miles and then went back to the standard delo oil. It went from 2000 to 6 to 8000 miles per gallon. That change happened within about 5000 miles too. Pretty quick.

I’d go ahead and do it now before your problem worsens. It’ll give you the time needed to save for an overhaul or go ahead and send the truck down the road should you decide too.

Edit: or if your the 2nd owner and it’s less then 600k miles and I believe 6 yrs old you could buy the Cummins encore xt1 coverage and get your overhaul paid for when the time comes. That’s what I did.

It costs $4500 assuming they don’t find anything needing fixed during the inspection like oil leaks and what not.