ISX CM871 Problems on multiple trucks

Discussion in 'Trucks [ Eighteen Wheelers ]' started by fcdrifter13, Oct 3, 2014.

  1. fcdrifter13

    fcdrifter13 Bobtail Member

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    Hello all I am looking to get some advice. I recently started as a tech at a local shipping company and because of employee changing landed in the spot of garage supervision. We have a total of 20 trucks and 8 of them have the ISX CM871 engines. I have taken the advice from Rawze and preformed a EFG cleaning on each of the trucks and ended up having the turbos replaced on 2 actuators on 3 and DPFs and other things on 3 of them, all DPFs have been either cleaned or replaced on the trucks and overheads run on them. The MPG report from last month was just posted today and we are not showing any gains within the 2 months that everything was preformed. We are also starting to see spikes in soot content from all of the trucks, and raised lvls of lead, zinc and sodium. We had suspected that the bulk oil that we are using (gaurdol Titan 15w40) may have been the culpirt. After some reading into and getting the spec sheet from the provider the specs either meet or exceed CES20081 so we are thinking that this is not the issue. We are also changing from Donaldson filters to the FleetGaurd filters that Cummins Specifies. I have sent our OA to 3 seperate companies from the same fill to verify that the readings are the same between the OAs and that we are not getting false positives.

    The average between the trucks was 5.3mpg, these trucks are limited to 1500 RPM and range between 6 386Petes a 388pete and a volvo. All 13spds with different axle ratios. The top MPG from our cummins trucks is actually a IXS15 that we have no trouble with at 6.2mpg the lowest is the volvo at 4.9. I am all out of ideas on what we can do to raise these numbers and not cause a lot of downtime. A oil rep from one of the OA places recommended a diesel fuel supplement called DZL clean because he said that his lad techs said it was a fuel issue not a oil issue, but i am weary to try any kind of snakeoil because of the cost and the limited feedback that I can find.

    Can anyone suggest something that we can try. I like these trucks they all have been easy to work on and the only thing giving us fits is the issues above. We can not do deletes as we go to california.
     
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  3. magoo68

    magoo68 Road Train Member

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    If trucks have apu's set up limited idle in ecm. Most cummins hate idling which raises soot levels... Hopefully sodium is antifreeze from egr coolers getting in oil
     
    fcdrifter13 Thanks this.
  4. fcdrifter13

    fcdrifter13 Bobtail Member

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    Only one of the trucks has an APU and it is the ISX15
     
  5. magoo68

    magoo68 Road Train Member

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    That explains why it's 9/10ths better than average
     
  6. bubbanbrenda

    bubbanbrenda Road Train Member

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    Not nearly enough info. Need to know HP/Torq setting, tire size, and rear end ratio's to begin to break this down. Even the one with the APU should be doing a lot better IF it is set up right. If it has 3.70's and LP22.5's, 6.2 ain't bad. If it has 3.25's or 3.36's and tall 22.5's, it's not any better than the rest. I also have to wonder why there is no mention of the doser condition/age. Another question is the 1500 rpm limit, is it in every gear or just high gear? If its every gear that is going to be your biggest enemy, because the drivers foot is on the floor literally all the time.
     
  7. vangtransport

    vangtransport Heavy Load Member

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    What numbers are you seeing for the DPF system? I'm running a 500 HP 1850 TQ cm871, 13 spd, 3:42 rear end 11 R 22.5 tires, pulling a flat, the lowest MPG I've seen is 6.4, & since the last oil change I'm at 7.6 MPG pump to pump. The reason someone may be recommending Diesel Clean is to boost cetane numbers. There is a pretty interesting article online about ford diesels that had problems due to poor cetane numbers. When you took apart your EGR mixer pipe and if you noticed "tacky soot", this may be unburned fuel. If everything checks out from the turbo over to the intake(no leaks), and you are still seeing this "tacky soot", it may be due to poor fuel quality, which is why someone may recommend a cetane booster.
     
  8. Heavyd

    Heavyd Road Train Member

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    Another thing to look into is a static timing check. This is basically an ultra fine tune/check of cam timing.
     
  9. Bush chook

    Bush chook Light Load Member

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    When you service do you pull the sensors and clean them ? , depending what oil you use depends on the amount of soot that clogs the sensors - partial derate will occur 1500 to 1700 rpm
     
  10. fortycalglock

    fortycalglock Road Train Member

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    Nobody has asked what kind of trailers and weight your trucks pull. Nobody can say your mpg's are low without that info. How much idle time do your trucks see? What is the terrain? If your pulling 105k flatbeds in the PNW, your numbers aren't bad. If you're pulling vans in FL, then you have problems.
     
    magoo68 and Heavyd Thank this.
  11. fcdrifter13

    fcdrifter13 Bobtail Member

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    Ok guyssorry about tge delay in responses. Been kinda busy here this week.

    The truck gearing varies and i wilm have to pull tge books on them when i get back to the shop. All of them run 295/75/22.5 except the volvo which runs 11R22.5.

    Loaded weight varies anywhere from 10k to 50k anc they all pull van trailers. I have been on them to pull closer to the cab if they can. They all pull variying terrain we have 4 that run from SD to CA weekly.

    Dosers are either good working units or hsve been replaced. We have been cleaning and inspecting sensors at every grease and service. We are only getting 17k between services because of soot buildup. I recieved the oil report on the 388 today and even after all new sensors and cleaning,dpf replaced, new doser, and turbo soot content is still raising.
     
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