Help Needed Sitting on Shoulder Help

[jherman]

I was pulling my regular gooseneck when i started smelling burning oil and was loosing power
I am stopped now because it wasnt going to go any further, there is oil coming out of the drivers side breather that plugs into the bottom of the rubber air filter housing intake. It is smoking out the exhaust and it is oil smoke. The truck is an 00 f550 with 150K on it, its not the one in my signature.
Anybody think i burned a hole in a piston becasue that is what i am thinking. and if i did can i still run the 180miles home or will i do even more damage?
It will run but it sounds like it only has 6-7 cylinders hitting.
Any thoughts or things i could check would be appreciated. i have never lost a motor before and want to make sure im not missing something simple.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

--there is oil coming out of the drivers side breather that plugs into the bottom of the rubber air filter housing intake.

Clarify: is the oil coming from the fitting on the rubber intake housing or out of the breather on the valve cover?

If the oil is coming out the fitting on the intake housing, it could be worse. The oil could only come from the turbo, most likely a bad shaft seal. A new turbo or getting the current one rebuilt would be the fix.

If there is a significant amount of oil coming out of the breather on the valve cover, that is the "could be worse" I was talking about. A small "misting" amount is normal. But if there is a lot of oil, that's not good.

 

[jherman]

Well now that the sun is up I can see that the underside of the truck is coated in oil and the dipstick shows about two quarts low I filled it yesterday
The dipstick appears to have had some oil forced out of it kinda like the crankcase was pressurised as far as the valve cover in yor question from what I can tell there is a breather on top of the valve cover and this breather has a small rubber elbow that hooks into the bottom of the air intake tube heading ti the turbo I will pull all that apart and look inside to see if i can grab the impeller and see if it wobbles or something
I'm not sure I answered the question good enough if not please reply and I will try again

 

[jherman]

Okay i pulled the first section of air filter tube off and there is alot of oil pooled in the second section towards the impeller

I started it and there is alot of oil smoke coming out of that little tube
If I did burn the piston is this worth fixing or should I scrap the motor and buy a used one from somewhere?
I am waiting for a tow now and wondered if I should tow it to shop or the junk yard

 

[WD40]

I think I would pull it to a repair shop and have it checked out.
Good Luck.
Doug

 

[DaveBen]

Sounds like a broken turbo. Do NOT run it. Have it towed.

Dave

 

[Y2KW57]

I have the exact same vehicle (2000 F550) so I feel like I should try and help, even though I lack expertise.

Where are you? Are in in northern CA?

Is the oil you saw on the driver's side breather... is that a cause of the problem, or merely a coincidental condition? Mine weeps oil there too, but still runs fantastically.

I remember when I lost a LOT of oil once... oil coating underneath the chassis like you report... turned out to be a failed HPOP plug oring. Lost mucho oil... by the gallon.

I imagine that since the injectors are oil fired, losses of oil in the HPOP would effect performance. But I forget how I discovered my leak... if it was performance related or just oil puddling. I do remember being on the side of the road though, adding more oil to make up what I was losing.

Is there oil in the valley?

If you are already towed to a shop (ouch!!$$$!!! a 550 AND a goosneck... dang!$$$) then I would ask them to use flourescent tracer dye to determine the EXACT source of the oil expulsion from your motor.

I used the tracer dye at home, without the fancy $500 detection light. I used a $5.00 flourescent black light tube, and did the test at night, where my black light would not compete with daylight. I put the dye in, and like magic, the EXACT source of the leak was revealed, even amidst a sea of oil. The bright green strain pouring from where it exits the motor is unmistakeable.

The tracer dye is so clear and precise, I would NEVER guess at where an oil leak might be coming from again. Diesel engine rated tracer dye is the best practice to diagnose if the leak is coming from the turbo pedestal, the breather cap, the HPOP plug and or fittings, or some other location.

You might have a lot more experience than me... but I'm just trying to help. I'm new here, and don't know a lot yet, so forgive me if you've been there done that. I am intrigued why you guess you blew a hole in a piston. Have you any reason to think cylinder number 5 got dusted? How are the edges of the turbo blades?

 

[JLDickmon]

Sounds like a broken turbo. Do NOT run it. Have it towed.

Dave

I gotta go with Dave on this one...sounds like the turbo hurled its cookies to me.. and yeah, don't run it.. if the turbo hatches, that's gonna make an even bigger mess..

get a compression gauge and do a compression test on it.. I doubt you holed a piston.. that's a catastrophic failure that would have more symptoms

 

[jherman]

well i forgot to post the results, the #5 piston had a hole in it because i failed to watch the egt close enough. i figured something was bad because of how much oil was coming out of the crankcase vent on the driver side and also how the dipstick kept getting pushed out of the dipstick tube. I really appreciate all the help. I was lucky and had a friend who came and pulled my trailer with my truck home so my cost was diesel only from Barstow to Vegas. I think i am lucky it could have been a worse day if i had to pay a tow bill.