September '23 Chat --"Jason finds his truck!"

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JoshH

Daggum farm truck
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Flipping thru channels this morning, came across "TwoGuysGarage" working on what looked like an LMM Dmax. New turbo and multiple cosmetic changes, nothing of substance. I could barely stand watching. My head hurt after. Good Lord.
I think I saw that also. If it's the one I'm thinking of, they installed a drop in turbo and did a DIY bedliner. I remember them claiming a big power increase from the turbo with stock tuning.
 

wydopenLb7

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Mar 10, 2023
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Im a little weirded out. After losing all my oil when my oil cooler line broke like I talked about at the beginning of the thread I’ve put probably 800miles on it, including 300miles of hard towing and everything seems fine.

Checked my oil today and it literally looks brand new still. Usually it’s black as night as soon as you run it after an oil change. I do have a bypass filter on it but that’s been on the truck since I’ve had it. Only other differences are I used delo instead of rotella and this is the first “oil change” since the compounds and I removed something that used to be blocked. Truck runs allot cleaner since the compounds but I wouldn’t think it would affect the oil that much. The remnants of what was left when the line broke looked dark like usual but that had 3k miles on it or so..

Does that seem normal for almost 1k miles? Oil pressure is what it was before during regular driving.
IMG_2278.jpeg
 

NC-smokinlmm

<<<Future tuna killer
May 29, 2011
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Might want to run an oil sample thru testing. Way back I had an lb7 that was leaking fuel into the crank case. The inside of the engine was spotless, when I put new oil in it and gave it to the customer it was still golden after a few hundred miles. I attributed it to the diesel fuel acting as a detergent, it cleaned out all the soot in the engine. Just a thought bc I’ve seen that once before.
 

wydopenLb7

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Mar 10, 2023
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Might want to run an oil sample thru testing. Way back I had an lb7 that was leaking fuel into the crank case. The inside of the engine was spotless, when I put new oil in it and gave it to the customer it was still golden after a few hundred miles. I attributed it to the diesel fuel acting as a detergent, it cleaned out all the soot in the engine. Just a thought bc I’ve seen that once before.
I was planning on doing an oil analysis before the next change to make sure nothing got hurt during the oil cooler incident.

It’s not making any oil that I can tell and the injectors are fairly new also but that’s a good call.

I do have one of those banana pans that is supposed to drain all the oil when you change it but maybe having a -10 line disconnected at cold idle oil pressure really got all the old oil out and the bypass does a better job then I thought. I had the bypass disconnected while I worked on it also so every drop of oil besides what was in the filters came out so maybe I’ve never started totally fresh before. I’ll put a few hundred more miles on it and do an analysis.
 

DAVe3283

Heavy & Slow
Sep 3, 2009
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The LB7 in my Suburban takes forever for the oil to turn blank. It'll look like you posted after 1000 miles. Nothing weird on the oil sample. And for what it's worth, I also run Delo.

I also recommend an oil sample, especially given what all happened to the motor. But if you're not making oil I wouldn't let the color of the oil concern you.

Sent from my FlashScan V2 using Tapatalk
 
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wydopenLb7

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Well the plot thickens a little. The other day when I was pulling in driveway I thought I saw some smoke/haze blow by as I stopped. Didn't see it again so figured it was dust or something. Yesterday on the way home as I rolled up to a stop light I got a pretty decent puff that stopped as soon as I came to a stop. Continued every time I would let off the throttle and roll to a stop. My first thought was the big turbo was pushing oil so I tore everything apart when I got home. Zero oil behind the front cover or in downpipe. Nothing in the cross over from the valley.

Put it back together and drove it again. Only does it once its up to temp and it only does it when you are lugging and then let off the throttle and coast. Zero haze at idle once the initial puff clears. I tried to jump out quick and smell it and what little I caught didn't burn my eyes. Being that it only does it when it's up to temp and off the throttle makes me think injector but not doing it at all at idle is throwing me off.

Balance rates are good, no blow by, no obvious head gasket symptoms and runs like normal. Hasn't added any oil yet, PIDS all look normal. I can't smell any fuel in the oil. Don't know where to go from there, really don't want to go under the valve covers again..

Let me know if anyone has any suggestions
 

wydopenLb7

Active member
Mar 10, 2023
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California
Well the plot thickens a little. The other day when I was pulling in driveway I thought I saw some smoke/haze blow by as I stopped. Didn't see it again so figured it was dust or something. Yesterday on the way home as I rolled up to a stop light I got a pretty decent puff that stopped as soon as I came to a stop. Continued every time I would let off the throttle and roll to a stop. My first thought was the big turbo was pushing oil so I tore everything apart when I got home. Zero oil behind the front cover or in downpipe. Nothing in the cross over from the valley.

Put it back together and drove it again. Only does it once its up to temp and it only does it when you are lugging and then let off the throttle and coast. Zero haze at idle once the initial puff clears. I tried to jump out quick and smell it and what little I caught didn't burn my eyes. Being that it only does it when it's up to temp and off the throttle makes me think injector but not doing it at all at idle is throwing me off.

Balance rates are good, no blow by, no obvious head gasket symptoms and runs like normal. Hasn't added any oil yet, PIDS all look normal. I can't smell any fuel in the oil. Don't know where to go from there, really don't want to go under the valve covers again..

Let me know if anyone has any suggestions
Well that escalated quickly. Looks like the valve covers are coming off again, it isn't using any coolant and it stops once you are on the throttle. Radiator hose isn't rock hard either. Strange thing is the balance rates are all .5+/- except two that are -1.7 but with the oil the color it is it must be a leaky injector. Have less than 20k miles on them.

Found this site right after installing them and immediately regretted buying LDS remans after reading some of the posts here...Really don't want to just replace 1 or 2 and put the others back in to go bad in a few thousand more miles. 3year warranty doesn't do much good when it's such a pain to swap them. Would like to go with sac45's also...
 

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2004LB7

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Dec 15, 2010
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I had a stuck injector do that with the white smoke. Was able to free it by commenting max pressure several time until it stopped. Never happened again. I figured it was some debris or something that got in and jammed up the pintol
 
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wydopenLb7

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I had a stuck injector do that with the white smoke. Was able to free it by commenting max pressure several time until it stopped. Never happened again. I figured it was some debris or something that got in and jammed up the pintol
Thank you..I'll have to see if the chicom scanner I have can command rail pressure..I've never used it on my truck, I just have the edge to read codes..
 

2004LB7

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Dec 15, 2010
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Thank you..I'll have to see if the chicom scanner I have can command rail pressure..I've never used it on my truck, I just have the edge to read codes..
You can always unplug the CP3 regulator which will make it go max pressure. But it not as convenient as a bidirectional scan tool
 
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wydopenLb7

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Well I unplugged fpr yesterday and turned it on and off a few times. Have to remove ac compressor to plug it back in so couldn’t plug/unplug it while it was running.

This morning I took it out and “commanded” full rail pressure with the skinny pedal quite a few times and it’s still doing it. My bad luck continues apparently.

Going to try again with scanner before I tear into it. It says it’s bidirectional so hopefully it will work.
 
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wydopenLb7

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Mar 10, 2023
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Turned out not to be the injectors. Valley turbo was pushing oil which is strange because that was my first thought and I had the atmosphere out and didn’t see any oil. Started pulling everything apart planning on pulling the valve covers and there was oil in the downpipe.

Was only pushing a little oil so it would only smoke when you were on the throttle or after you ran it hard until it all burned out. Idled it with the cross over pipe off and it would only blow oil when you revved it. Still doesn’t explain while the oil looks so clean. Going to have to do an analysis. Going to rebuild the turbo and throw a new wheel on it, this one is all banged up.

Still not a fun job the oil drain bolt on drivers side it a pain in the ass.

IMG_2294.jpeg
 

wydopenLb7

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It looks like it’s been a little hot before.
Glad you found the source. How old is that turbo?
10k miles. Had been sitting around for a long time before I put it in though. Was pretty dirty but I cleaned it up good before I installed it but I didn’t pull the compressor wheel and pull the shaft out.

I was wondering about the color also. My old one I took out was the same color too but had 330k on it..It’s getting coolant and ect’s never over 225deg and only once even that hot. Egts barley hit 1050deg with the compounds.

I did just run it real hard towing 15k across the desert in 110deg weather without the remote oil cooler though..
 
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