Smelled oil Burning 2004.5 5.9 Cummins

[Bigwooly]

I am new to owning a Cummins or any diesel for that matter. I purchased my 2004.5 Ram 3500 back in September of 2018. It had 199k on it when I purchased it. The truck came with a hefty stack of service records for all the work on truck going back to the beginning. It was crazy clean not like they had polished it to try and sell it clean but more of a well maintained clean.

It has served my Family well since I bought it we've put over 10k miles on it since we bought it with very minimal issues.

When we were pulling into Denver the 2nd time around on our adventure I noticed the smell of oil. I popped the hood to investigate and was greeted with oil on the plastic valve cover and all down the passenger side of the head. It's not like gushing out and there's not any making it all the way to the bottom of the motor that i can see. I haven't been under it in about 3 weeks due to not having my own driveway to work in.

I've not noticed any loss of power when driving. I have noticed that on cold starts however it seems to take a couple more seconds than usual to start up.

My family and I are currently living in our 33 ft travel trailer and we are working on starting over in Colorado Springs, CO. I am working on finding somewhere to work on my truck myself. Any help or advice on where to start would be greatly appreciated.

 

[adrian_cast]

Looks like a simple gasket leak. I know lots of diesels that leak because there’s a lot of pressure being built up. Wondering if you used full synthetic. I heard that oil runs through seals a lot faster than basic diesel oil. Have you checked the blow by?

 

[adrian_cast]

I have a 2005 2500 5.9L with 203,000 and no leaks at the gasket but barely starting to get that rear main seal leak.

 

[Bigwooly]

I pulled the plastic cover and it seems to be coming from both the oil fill cap and maybe on older leak around the crankcase vent thingy.



I had the oil changed at a shop in Denver the last time and I honestly can't remember what they used. I am planning to do an oil change myself next week.

Waiting on some replacement parts to get here and then I am renting a lift at this place in Colorado springs and I am going to do brakes, oil change, transmission fluid and filter change.