West Coast

I purchased my 2005 from my buddy (original owner) about 7 months ago with the known issue of burning a quart of oil about every 250 miles. My buddy had taken it to Cummins a few years prior and they checked it out. No turbo issue but suggested bad rings and complete engine replacement. He parked the truck for two years. I bought it with 116,000 miles on it. Has 132,000 now. Truck had run Delo from day one. When I got it I switched to Rotella slowly as I was adding a quart every 250 miles. At some point the truck started slow down on the oil burning. But never quit completely. I towed 14,000 lbs one time with it and it seemed to slow down even more. But the oil consumption came back slowly to the quart every 250 miles. One night my truck over heated ( changed thermostat and think I did not fill up enough with coolant). The overheat stopped the oil burning for about a week but slowly came back again to the quart every 250 miles. Shortly after the over heat I switched back to Delo as I add my quarts every two weeks. As I went back to Delo the oil burning once again slowed down to a crawl. This weekend I changed the oil/filter ( first oil filter change since I have had the truck) with Delo and K&N filter ( that previous owner had a new KN filter in truck already) and have drove 650 miles with no oil loss. I have read countless posts of other Cummins owners burning oil issues but I have never read one that has the up and down oil consumption as I do. My truck has the Superchips programmer set on Performance/Tow. And everything else is stock. 35" tires. It does seems the harder I drive it the less oil it would burn in the past. I feel it's a ring issue or possibly bad valve seal? Any thoughts on what might be the issue? I have no plans on fixing the issue unless it was to burn more oil at some point. I am fine with adding oil when needed. Truck runs excellent. Extremely clean inside and out. I bought the truck for $8000.00. So even adding oil weekly the price of the truck out weighs the $20-$30 a month in oil expense. And I am still average 18 MPG. And often get 20-21 hand calculated MPG on freeway.

gorms

Ever get an oil analysis?

I would guess broken ring(s), as any other type of losing oil almost has to be consistent other then cold vs. hot motor. Rings do rotate as the engine runs due to cross hatching, maybe the broken ring is overlapping with the other rings gap (or break) periodically?

West Coast

I guess I could do a oil sample and give it to my buddy at the local CAT shop. 👍