My truck is a 12 valve with mild pump changes and 370 injectors. The truck has 172,000 miles and has just started having a blue haze comming out of the exhaust when it idle's. The truck uses 2 quarts of oil every 5k. Is this any thing to worry about?

 

Not a big expert here but i take a shot, i would lean more tward a seal in the turbo than worn rings in a short block with no more miles than that. Pull the down pipe off and look for a very oily inner turbine housing, this could either be the already mentined turbo seal or even poss. valve stem seals. Thats a pretty good amount of oil to just burn in that amount of miles i would think.

 

Does it always haze at idle?

Or does it clear when it warms up?

2 quarts is still within Cummins specs, but thats a lot to be burning.

 

you have 370's it most likely always hazed and you just noticed it. 370's are nasty lil boogers...

Jared

 

It only has the blue haze after it is warm when it's cold it doesn't smoke.

 

If it were white or black you could try a few diff. things tuning wise but Blue is oil. Rather its getting by the rings, turbo seal, valve gides, valve seals, ect... id still pull the DP and start there if it were me. If you are determined to fiqure it out you have to start somewhere, this would be be a easy starting point. Good Luck

 

Two likely causes are....
As mentioned the turbo seals, pull the intake tube and look in it for a oily residue and feel the wheel for play.
The other thing Ive seen on higher boost trucks is the valve seals can get pushed up the guide, pull the valve covers and look with a light if all the seals are seated down on the guides or if any looked cracked and broken

 

If you take the air hose off of the turbo, can you see any evidence of oil there? Id double check the compressed air side of things and make sure theres no oil in there. Worn turbo seals can allow oil to leak and can potentially cause a runaway.
Theres plenty other things that can cause oil to get burned, just figured this one was real important to check.

 

Yep a runaway =

 

It could also be the head gasket. I've many times (not on a Cummins) had a head gasket blow between an oil passage and a cylinder and that introduces oil into the combustion process, and thus the exhaust.

 

could be the injectors. the guy I bought mine from sent a thinner copper washer to remedy the complaints of blue smoke from them. smoked blue with the thicker ones the whole time I had them even kind of liked it, makes it look like it's pushing a lot of fuel. since went to bigger charger and the 435 injectors but havent ran it enough to know what they smoke like.

 

blue smoke is also plugged fuel filter. are you sure its burning oil and not leaking it.

and check what said above too.

 

Well thanks for all the input I'll get to checking all this next week when I put my lockers in,along with my new clutch center plate and my 6 inch stacks.

 

Well you gots lots of really good advise i hope you get it fiqured out! I had forgot about the thickness of the inj. copper washers going to a thinnerone really might make the diff on those injectors. Good Luck