Cat C15 blue smoke and blowby

Discussion in 'Heavy Duty Diesel Truck Mechanics Forum' started by Vipercat, Dec 13, 2019.

  1. Vipercat

    Vipercat Bobtail Member

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    I have an 05 NXS twin turbo c15 that has about 935k kms. Truck had blowby when I bought it, and slowly it’s been omitting more and more blue smoke. I can really notice it pouring out when under load in soft ground, goes through a bit of oil but not an insane amount.
    Talked to a mechanic that is going to do the work for me and he figured it was an over fueling injector, or injector o rings. Is this a safe assessment or could it be piston rings.
     
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  3. Mattmanstroked

    Mattmanstroked Light Load Member

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    Is the blue smoke coming out of the exhaust or the crankcase breather tube?
     
  4. Vipercat

    Vipercat Bobtail Member

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    Hey there, blowby is coming out of the breather tube (slight grey haze but pretty constant)

    blue smoke is coming from the exhaust aswell as underneath the truck, but there’s a few exhaust leaks so I figured it was from there. The blue smoke is not constant, but is getting much more prevalent and thicker.
     
  5. Mattmanstroked

    Mattmanstroked Light Load Member

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    We have two at work 2006 C15 one with little over a million other with 950,000 miles on them.

    Have not been rebuilt, heads have not been off. Injectors have been replaced on both trucks.

    These are very good engines. I would probably check on getting injectors replaced and see what happens.
     
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  6. Vipercat

    Vipercat Bobtail Member

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    Jul 22, 2019
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    I’ll have the mechanic look into that once he opens the head up for sure, thanks! Yeah this one doesn’t even have a million kilometres yet and I’ve heard these should last 1 million miles, injectors would be a good replacement
     
  7. AModelCat

    AModelCat Road Train Member

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    Blue smoke typically means burning oil. Over-fueling is black/grey. If blowby has gotten worse at the same time the blue smoke started, I'd say you've got an oil consumption issue.
     
  8. DieselTech_Aus

    DieselTech_Aus Light Load Member

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    NXS
    are typically bad for blow by and breather smoke. there was an update to put a steel wool canister inline with the breather tube many years ago.

    general rule of thumb. if its puffing, especially from cold start up, you have an issue. if its just a constant haze once running and at operating temp, there is no serious issue.

    if you do rebuild though I would strongly recommend fitting 16:1 comp pistons, ever as a standard ACERT
     
  9. Vipercat

    Vipercat Bobtail Member

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    Jul 22, 2019
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    Yeah the blowby is pretty much a constant, at startup and operating temp.
    The main concern now is the blue smoke from exhaust. It doesn’t all the time but under load it gets pretty heavy between O rings and injectors. It seems blue smoke indicates an oil issue. I’ll definitely look into that 16:1 if I rebuild, thanks for the reply!
     
  10. DieselTech_Aus

    DieselTech_Aus Light Load Member

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    ACERTS aren't the best for oil consumption and blue smoke.

    I personally use the late SDP prefix rings with the 164xxxx middle ring on 16:1 IPD pistons and don't have issues.
     
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