"COKED UP"

Bedlam wrote:
Excessive idling, long periods of slow speed driving or over fueling the engine will cause coking of the turbine. If the oil was cooked, it is due to running the turbo hard and shutting down before the circulating oil has a chance to cool down the turbo. What oil is left in the turbo gets overheated and breaks down.

Only Dodges have this problem.....

Seriously, good explanation here from Bedlam.

The dealer didn't charge for it because it fell under the 100k warranty. I do a lot of stop and go driving every day. Freeways here suck. 1.5 hours to drive 37 miles. So I guess there really isn't anything I can do to prevent this, except park it. :h

Hilarious picture, from Chapelle Show. That's more referring to dry ashy lips that are burnt from a crack pipe.

Sounds like an honest mechanic, lucky you. This is the downfall of diesel vehicles for daily drivers with relatively short commutes. Glad you got it fixe, hopefully it was inexpensive for you.

I had an old GM 3.2 motor that had a problem with carbon buildup on oil drain lines somewhere in the engine. Oil couldn't properly drain back and would burn off and I would be short about a quart and a half between oil changes.

The suggested fix by other owners of the same engine was to use Seafoam in the oil before changes and suck up some Seafoam in the brake booster. Something in the Seafoam was good at breaking down the carbon buildup and freeing up those passages. Don't know how it worked... but it worked. No more oil being burned.

Not sure if there is some similar tip for you. Find a Cummins forum and see if anyone has suggestions. Good luck!

Yup! Common problem. Run with the EB on all the time, dont lug the motor, dont drive in town traffic without getting it on the highway and driving it hard for 20-30 miles every week.
Either that or do the delets, which of course the federal government deemed illegal.

Google or Youtube: coking turbo

Be thankful you found an honest shop that didn't sell you a new turbo.

Excessive idling, long periods of slow speed driving or over fueling the engine will cause coking of the turbine. If the oil was cooked, it is due to running the turbo hard and shutting down before the circulating oil has a chance to cool down the turbo. What oil is left in the turbo gets overheated and breaks down.

This was something I warned about with my variable geometry turbo on the 6.0 PSD. I tried to avoid the above conditions and never had problems.

Coked up EGR valve

Coke = carbon
decnt article here