I would like to see how far some of you have driven with an injector that was leaking and flooding the crank case and pushing the oil out the vent tube. Myself 200 miles, the #3 injector failed somewhere outside of Houston on my way back to San Antonio. I had reached the half way point in my drive home when I stoped to get a drink and noticed how much fuel had been used to reach this point and the bottom of the truck to the top of the tailgate were covered in that missing fuel. The only items replaced by the dealer were the #3 injector, oil filter and the missing 12quarts of oil. I have logged some 2500 miles since this happened and truck seems to run fine but the motor to me just doesn't sound right I hear sounds I don't remember hear before. I would all so like to know if your truck was repaired like mine or did your dealer go futher to make sure the motor itself was not damaged by checking bearings, using a borescope to check the cylinders. etc

 

I was lucky when my #1 went, noticed that after 10 miles of driving I was missing 1/4 tank of fuel........ flatbed from there to dealer, now if it had been leaking slowly to that point I have no idea, at most it could have been was 200 miles, the distance from the previous tankup & last time I cheked the oil, check at every fillup for just such a reason.

 

Does your oil pressure "gauge" (really just a glorified idiot light ) give you any indication when the crankcase starts to fill up with diesel?? You'd think the pressure would start to spike.

 

actually if it were accurate enough the gauge would read lower, thinner fluids tend to develop less pressure in equal pumps, temperature plays a role as well, heat thins, again dropping pressure.

 

200 miles might not be good...but I would think that, unless you were pulling a really heavy load, that several miles would not hurt much. In reality, everything is probably A-OK. When my dad was in high school in the late 60s he worked part time at an implement/machinery dealer, and these old boys would bring in tractors and combines for service, that were all sludged up and nasty inside. The service manager would have them drain some of the oil, add a few gallons of diesel fuel, and run it for quite a while to clean it out, then dump the oil, refill, and send it back to the guy for a few thousand more hours of use. I don't know if it applies at all to these modern diesels, but it goes to show that it doesn't necessarily kill bearings, etc. It may shave some percentage of life off of everything however. If it were my truck I would be upset and worried as well, and would probably trade it off when the warranty is over if you can swing it.

 

So you're saying that over-filling the oilpan up into the crankcase doesn't increase oil pressure? Not being a smartarse (for a change), just honestly wondering...

I guess the pressure reading is taken in the oil line (near the oil filter probably?). I haven't really had to pay that close attention to my truck yet.

I'm just wondering if there is some kind of early indication (other than drivers giving you that 'International Symbol' because you're blasting their windshileld with oily gunk comming out of the overflow tube) that you've dropped an injector.

 

You can bet those bearings are clean in the lower end. Your lucky you did not have a crankcase explosion. I've seen that before on gm generator sets.

Big Mess.

On most marine engines they have crankcase relief valves that prevent the explosion, but sometime cause fires.

Dave

 

jwooden,

The fluid level in the crankcase has nothing to do with oil pressure unless it is too low to pickup or so high that the crank is running in it. The pressure is developed by the pump and thinner oil leaks through the bearings and through orofices easier so may show lower pressure on a real oil pressure gauge. Since the computer is only noticing that there is some pressure and deciding what the gauge should say, our gauges would not show the problem. If the oil level gets high enough so that the crank is running in it, air gets stirred in and makes an emulsion that changes the viscosity and makes the fluid compressible. With a few gallons of fuel mixed with the oil and some air stirred in who knows what the pressure might be. At that point, and under heavy load, the bearings might begin to suffer. Or the turbo.


Wetspirit

 

Has anyone had a real oil pressure gauge on a truck and have an injector fail?

Just looking for real data.....

Tony

 

My truck is currently in to the dealer for fuel in the crankcase. The thing I noticed with my oil pressure gauge was off acceleration it would drop to 20-22 psi and then jump back up to around 40 on acceleration. Truck had never fluctuated this much prior to fuel leak.

Hope this helps,
T398

 

when my #2&3 went at the same time i was drivin down the road and a deaf/mute guy stopped me and tried to tell me that i was sprayin oil everywhere. i definitly knew what he was tryin to say when i stepped out of the truck and there was oil everywhere. i climbed back into the truck and as soon as i looked at the oil pressure it dropped all the way and i shut it off. took off my box while the tow truck was hookin it up. all under warranty!

 

I would think an oil sample may show some problems if any exist, like maybe 1000 miles or so.

 

that oil pressure "gauge" in the dash can not be used to diagnose any sort of oil pressure issue. anything above 6psi and it is closed. after that the ecm controls the movement of the needle.

 

I noticed the fluctuation in my oil gauge as well...it never behaved erratically before I had an injector blow, after the dealer installed a new one the gauge went back to normal reading.

 

Have any of you folks who had a injector failure have a fuel pressure gauge installed?If so what was your PSI reading?I guess this is one reason why I installed a autometer fuel pressure gauge.coobie