Good morning forum: my silly question of the day. I have an annoying oil leak on my 8.3. It's coming from somewhere up top, towards the back of the engine. It has been here since I got it, and the coach marks it territory with a few drops everywhere. It not bad enough to put spots on the toad going down the road, but is making quite the mess in the engine bay. Impossible for me to tell exactly where without some degreasing I believe.
My questions are: What do folks use to do this? How do you do this? And what to avoid doing while attempting to do this so I don't cause any more problems, electrical especially. I was thinking of using a three gallon yard type sprayer with degreaser, then some water to try and clean the areas so I can then diagnose where it's coming from and what I'm up against to stop it. I have power washers, but I'm sure I don't want to attack engine with these....
The best way to clean an engine without high pressure water, which like you mention can cause issues we don't need is to do as you mentioned and spray areas with a pump up sprayer with degreaser and then take a small brush and brush heavy soiled areas and then rinse with a water hose.... Take care not to get any degreaser on the coach's paint.
If you have a air compressor get a siphon gun and a gallon of mineral spirits,start at the top and work down,if you have baked on
heavey oily grease you can scrape or use oven cleaner,but do not leave on more then a couple of minutes,best if engine is hot when you clean,when done blow off with air,leaks on top could be where the breather hose comes out and or the valve cover,
keep us posted.
Thanks Dub and John....yes I believe that is the area, breather,valve cover...It's not a bad leak
, just messy...I will need to use a sprayer to do the job, as I have an air compressor at my home, I would be doing this in a wash bay at my storage facility. I will probably take the coach out and run it for about 30 miles to get warmed prior. It will be about a week or so until I can actually do, just planning an attack...you say use mineral spirits instead of a degreaser? I may have to try that....thanks.
Safest on the electric and electronic components is:
Roll of paper towel and a can of WD40. Oh,and a pair of disposable gloves!
If it's just oil and light grease the mineral spirits will melt it away fast,there is a smell to it,maybe use a mask.
When you say the back of the engine, do you mean towards the front of the coach, or the back of the coach?
When I was at Cummins service they mentioned steam cleaning the engine to look for leaks but they did not elaborate on exactly what type of equipment they use. I have looked hard to try to find a suitable steam cleaner and it seems that all I can find are flimsy little plastic ones for detailing cars and hot water/steam pressure washers which are overkill for the job. Steam makes sense because it will effortlessly melt away grease and oil but it's mostly dry on the engine and electrical components.
Keith, Top right side of engine, back of coach...as far as I can tell.
Try the easiest route first,the steam should be last resort,usually reserved for years of baked on grease and oil and dirt,it's a selling point for these shops,probably charge in the hundreds if not more.The steam will take alot of paint off for sure.
I degreased every ORED I sold with GUNK. Kerosene? Oshkosh painted everything on the frame two coats of polyurethane shiny black. Cat painted their 3208 shiny yellow. Every boy I showed under the bed too called out "you got to see this"
Obviously politically incorrect, enviourmentally unfriendly. Local diesel dealer has a steam bay
I use this for all my engines including the coach.
Simple Green - SMP13406 Extreme Aircraft and Precision Cleaner, 1 Gallon... (https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Green-Extreme-Aircraft-Precision/dp/B081D5R6T9)
Thanks Chuck.... I'll pick up some of that and start there...
When my timing case ( not cover ) was the leak problem I wanted to clean it before taking it to Cummins Coberg Or. what I used was certainly not the cheapest but I did not want water issues either. So I bought a bundle of yellow towels from Costco and half dozen cans of brake clean.
Started with a putty knife for the stuff that had been there for a while and a wire brush for the remaining stuff. Wiping off as much as possible along the way. Lots of rags. And then hit it with the brake cleaner which evaporates pretty quick and got it clean enough to see just where the leak was.
Side bar, Of course Cummins wanted 5,000 + to fix so that didn't happen there. I guess it quite the process to pull the cam and get that timing case off. Ended up using permatex spray sealer, 4 or5 coats at Quartzsite. So far so good. 🤞
I also use what Craneman uses and a stiff bristle foxtail brush which helps to get into the hard to get to places.
I spent a lot of time around the ISB engines back in the day. Your ISC is very similar. Look at this area of the front cover (circled). If it's like the ISB's (I haven't personally confirmed), there is a rubber gasket behind it, and it just turns 90* and squishes the gasket to seal the front cover. Oil is splashed up here by the geartrain and can leak around that rubber seal over time. VERY easy to replace if it's the same. Take a look.
Simple Green - SMP13406 Extreme Aircraft and Precision Cleaner is highly recommended as safe, but is different than the regular NON-Aircraft Simple Green, which is not recommended.
That looks a lot like our 8.3 and the Cummins guy told me that originally they used a paper gasket. Not great. He showed me the replacement one and it's a nice rubber impregnated metal that looks like it could totally do the job.
A lot of shops use a "HOTSY" pressure washer - I have one thats diesel fired - would NOT recommend it for our engine bays! As a note: they do an incredible job cleaning up grease!