Blow by tube mystery liquid

Discussion in 'Heavy Duty Diesel Truck Mechanics Forum' started by God prefers Diesels, Jan 4, 2021.

  1. God prefers Diesels

    God prefers Diesels Road Train Member

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    Shut off my truck, and see this five minutes later. Truck has never done it before. Usual couple drips of oil after a trip, but that's it. This puddle is about eight inches in diameter. Visually, it looks like hydraulic fluid, or a puddle of brand new engine oil.

    When you touch it, it kind of feels like oil, but runs off your fingers like water. Doesn't smell like diesel. Really, it doesn't smell like anything but faint smell of oil.

    I checked my oil, and it's regular black like normal. Fired up the engine, and blow by is dry. Doesn't feel moist like burning off water condensation. Any ideas? CM870.

    20210104_133553.jpg
     
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  3. 062

    062 Road Train Member

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  4. God prefers Diesels

    God prefers Diesels Road Train Member

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    I won't lie, it's kinda sweet. Hard to tell for sure. Tastes like oil too. Definitely doesn't taste like diesel.

    Is there some way to get coolant out the road draft without it mixing with the oil? I mean that's right in front of the gear train, and a direct path to the crank case.
     
  5. bigtravelr

    bigtravelr Light Load Member

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    It's most likely coolant mixing into the oil.

    Send off for an oil sample if you want to know for sure.

    Could be bad EGR cooler, head gasket bad liner maybe even a trans cooler.
     
  6. God prefers Diesels

    God prefers Diesels Road Train Member

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    Just popped open my surge tank to look inside. Clean. Took a tiny taste, and doesn't taste anything like what's on the ground.

    Truck sat for about a week and a half. Not sure what difference that could make. I've been around engines with blow by tubes for twenty years, and I've never seen anything come out of them but oil.
     
  7. God prefers Diesels

    God prefers Diesels Road Train Member

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    @bigtravelr I just had the oil sampled a couple thousand miles ago. No coolant, no diesel. Not even trace amounts. If something's broken, then it just broke.
     
  8. bigtravelr

    bigtravelr Light Load Member

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    I would send off for another sometimes when it starts to mix it just happens quickly I had the same thing it looked like a caramel milkshake coming out of my blow-by tube. After spending thousands having the heads removed it turned out to be a bad liner in my case.
     
  9. 062

    062 Road Train Member

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    When the egr cooler started leaking on the one I had it puked coolant out at the egr valve.
     
  10. bigtravelr

    bigtravelr Light Load Member

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    If it is in fact coolant in the oil it's got to be somewhere where coolant and oil are close together and can be rusted through.
     
  11. bad-luck

    bad-luck Road Train Member

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    May be coolant. Possibly head gaaket starting to leak in to the cylinder. You would notice white smoke at start up and it may be hard to start as it is starting to fill up the cylinder
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2021
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