Next Steps....

Having some issues....

2015 KW T680
Cummins ISX
Emissions deleted
425hp Stock Tune
395,103 miles

I get shuddering when pulling up hill at full throttle in the 1200 - 1400 RPM range. Letting off the throttle in the slightest will get rid of the shuddering.

Lowest level of engine brake causes bad vibration, the other two levels aren’t very bad but still there.

Turbo pulsates or surges when climbing a hill, only happens sometimes. This will be retarded but best interpretation would be “weeeooooweeeeeooooooweeeeeoooooo”. Yeah laugh it up...

Turbo has oil inside it.

Motor consumes oil at the rate of about a gallon per 3500 miles.

Checked blow by and it’s pretty #### bad I believe....

Coolant has recently began to be consumed it looks like.

Fuel mileage seems to be suffering but my load weights vary all the time, routes vary all the time...hills and wind and weights.

So what do I do? I’m flat broke cause I drive for a company that’s pays absolute trash to owner operators. Just need some guidance on my next steps. I cannot stop driving or I’ll lose whatever money I have left. Warranty expired 20,000 miles ago. I keep up with preventative maintenance, full service every 40k as per recommended by stealership. Ran Rotella T6 Synthetic for a while, recently switched to Rotella T4 Traditional.

 

The tune for the delete was just the stocking file adjusted for the deletion of the filters and closing the EGR valve. No power or other performance adjustments were made for the very reason of the potential destruction of the motor. The delete was done 8k miles ago and all these problems existed before that. I had problem after problem with the sensors and had enough of it.

 

No no EGT gauge, it’s been on the list of things to get along with a boost gauge. I’ll have to ask what exactly was adjusted on the tune. In-frames are what like $15k+? ####ing great. I’ll give your guy a call and ask him what he suggests. I don’t trust anyone to work on my truck because I always get ####ed but I have to get #### done either way. I might as well trust someone who’s trusted by someone else. Don’t know what the hell im going to do to fund an in-frame.

 

Blow back or blow by. On my diesel pickup just for an estimation of how bad the situation is you can see how much smoke comes out and also set the oil cap on loosely like I did in the video to see if it gets shot off or not. It’s just an eyeball test to see if you’re screwed or not. No official numbers or anything like that.

 

So after driving with my attention focused on the truck’s performance, I’ve decided to be a complete ####### and ignore what’s been said. I’m also voluntarily putting myself in denial. Long ### post following...

This is based off the Fuel Economy display on the dash which numbers are probably bogus but they can give you a guesstimate about the engine load.

Driving a 32,000lbs load I averaged 6.5mpg at 62 mph over 565 miles. If I tried to maintain 70 mph it would drop and bounce from 5.5-6.0mpg. Constant up and down hills absolutely murder fuel mileage way worse than a few weeks ago and that’s not a very heavy load at all. I could usually haul a 32,000lbs or even heavier at around 7.5 mpg according to the display.

Today I drove empty for about 100 miles and averaged 9 mpg at 63mph, again this comes from the display which I’m just using as a reference to engine load. Hooked up to a mere 15,900 lbs load and 200 miles later I’m still showing 9 mpg at 62 mph. Sped up to 70 and it only dropped to 8.5 mpg. But there haven’t been many hills at all on this route unlike the other day with the 32k load. With a light load it runs like nothing is wrong at all. But also with a light load I can feel the lack of acceleration that I used to have. Correlating that with the effort it puts into climbing the slightest of hills either empty, light, or heavy plus the sound the turbo is making...it boils down to boost. So my next plan is to buy a boost gauge along with an EGT gauge and see what I’m running. What’s the average boost these big trucks run? I have a turbo diesel pickup at home that ran about 50psi max stock but it’s no longer stock and hits 80 psi so I have no idea what to expect for boost out of this motor/turbo.

With the numbers I just put up you guys are probably thinking ####ing nothing is wrong but what really got me worried about it was when I hauled a 41,000lbs load through hill country in Oklahoma which is what was behind me when I first started this thread. I’ve hauled heavier than that through that same route and got around 7 to 7.5 mpg but lately with a load and route like that it’s been 5.5 to 6.5mpg. Something is wrong but I don’t know how serious drop like that is, just that it means something isn’t right.

Of course this doesn’t answer the vibrations the truck is having which could be driveshaft or U-joints. Sometimes I hear a metal clacking when I let off the throttle and get back on it again like there’s play somewhere in the driveline.

As for the apparently bad blow by, based on visual inspection, I don’t know what that means at this point. I read on a few forums that a bad turbo can cause blow by but it’s extremely rare. With oil in the turbo the oil consumption could be from the turbo alone and not seals around the cylinders and pistons it’s only got 395k on the ###### thing. It was owned before up to 262k so who knows how it was treated. Along with the sound the turbo makes and the way the truck is acting with hills and acceleration I’m going to bet (hope and pray to Jesus) the turbo is the culprit for at least the fuel mileage. I really want to put a non-VGT turbo on it but I know that means a new manifold, new turbo, new tune. Which is like a $6,000 deal. So after I check boost and EGTs I’ll make a decision on that. I’ll keep the thread updated for anyone who cares.