I have some oil at the front of the engine at the base of the front cover. I assumed it was from the crankcase breather tube but today I took a closer look and it is not coming from the breather. The front cover bolts are all tight. I am not exactly sure where the oil is coming from. I will have to wash the front of the engine and perhaps use a dye to trace the leak. Cummins replaced the IP a few months ago, I wonder if the leak is related to that. Any thoughts?

 

What year?


phox

 

Yeah, we'll need to know a bit more about the truck before we can offer advice. What year is the truck? If a 1998, many valves does the engine have?

Chris

 

Sorry. It is a 1999 24 valve

 

OK, there are a couple of possibilities I can think of right now. If you are sure it isn't the blowby tube we will have to look at the timing case. One guy here, with a 98, DZLPWR, had his timing case leaking between the case and the block. Kind of a pain to repair. There is also the possibility of the KDP on this engine. It affected mostly 12v's, but it is my understanding that no one knows when the new timing cover went into production, they just threw the old and new together and put them on the engines. For this reason it is possible to have a KDP on a 24v, rumored as far as 2000. I did not want to take a chance on mine and killed the KDP on my 99.
It might also be the front seal, but this hardly ever goes bad, so I doubt it is the problem.

I suggest you clean it off real good then check it often if it doesn't leak right away, so you can see where it's coming from.

Chris

 

Thanks Chris. I had to do a search on this site to find out what a KDP is. It looks like the oil is coming out between the case and the block.

 

It could also be your vacuum pump. I just did that repair this past weekend......took me about 3 hours to do it all.

Waylan

 

If it is leaking between the case and block , you could clean it up really good and apply a nice bead of sealant at the leaking area.....or you could spend 10 hour changing the gasket.

 

Also check the oil fill tube, my 95 12v was leaking at the front of the engine, turns out the oil fill tube had backed out about 4 turns, you may need to loosen the hold down bolts up in order to tighten the tube.

 

A good way to trace leaks is to clean the area really well and dry it. Then put a generous coat of baby powder on it. Any leak will show up really well against the white powder.

 

I just did the vaccum pump seal too

If its coming from inbetween the power steering pump and engine, that is what it is.

My front diff cover got covered in oil when mine was leaking.

 

try a black light!! The oil shows up real well, hope it's not kdp!! good luck

 

Timeagain. Does blacklight work without a dye in the oil?

 

i read somewhere about relocating the breather tube and bottle? what is a good way to do it and what do i need?

 

No , blacklight does not work without a dye , also make sure you use yellow glasses when viewing for leaks.