reading all about the emission control stuff on the newer diesel's has me wondering if this is a potential disaster that needs to be addressed by us truck owners even though the government has it illegal?

what are the long term ramifications of leaving our cummins stock with all the emission controls intact?

are we going to have shorter engine life compared to the famous "million km engine life expectancy" that we hear bragged about over the years?

are we going to spend $1000's and $1000's of dollars more in fuel over the life of our trucks due to the poorer efficiency?

should we be scared and worried?

 

I don't think that the emission stuff will have a huge engine life effect.

 

The likely hood of a Common Rail getting to a million miles stock is......like waking up and seeing a unicorn standing in your yard.

It's made even worse with the 6.7. The EGR being dumped back in the intake tract is going to increase wear on rings at the minimum. It also gums up the grid heater BAD. There have been soot issues with the VGT as well.

I have two 5.9 Common Rails; the 03 lost it's second engine in July, and the 07 lost it's first last July and recently got back on the road in May. Any injector issue can lead to major damage, like melted pistons major.

 

The guy with the Hemi is significantly less impacted by emissions equipment than those of us with diesels.


DPF - why do we have a DPF? To capture those nasty nasty soot particles. They're bad for the environment!

So they collect in the DPF, and then every now and then it gets loaded up and the engine has to over-fuel in order to raise EGTs to burn the soot up.

I'm not sure if the latest software will take care of it, but a lot of people were getting SIGNIFICANT fuel contamination in their oil (20% or more diesel in their motor oil) because of the regeneration cycles. Diesel washes oil off of bearings and cylinder walls. It's not good.

EGR - What does EGR do for us? It helps to reduce NOx by injecting inert gas into the cylinder, which in turn makes it so the engine injects less fuel, causing lower combustion temps and fewer oxides of nitrogen go out the tailpipe. Wait though, the DPF regen does exactly the opposite, right? Yeah, makes sense to me too.

But then there's that pesky soot issue. If soot is so horrible for the environment, why would I think it good for my engine's internal components? It's not. It's like injecting microscopically fine sand blasting material right into your engine, and since your oil may be diluted with fuel and not protecting the cylinders and bearings as well, well... you get the picture.

On a gas engine, EGR is fine. On a diesel, it kills your engine. I read somewhere that GM dropped the mean time before major overhaul on the Duramax by 100,000 miles when they added EGR to it.

Couple those with the new fuel and oils required by the DPF and you've got a major problem with the life expectancy of your truck. ULSD fuel has most of the sulfur filtered out. Unfortunately the method used for removing sulfur also removes some of the components of the diesel fuel that lubricate the fuel system (injection pump, injectors, etc). When you're squeezing the fuel through pinholes at 30,000 psi, you need as much lubrication as possible. Especially when a set of injectors will cost you about $3k online, probably double to triple that from a dealer... If you're not already, you should be running a fuel additive. Also, stock filtration is what, 7 microns? Most of the damage is caused by particles in the 2-5 micron range - you need a better fuel filter.

Now let's talk about the oil. CJ-4+ diesel motor oil was awesome. It also clogs DPFs and catalytic converters, so the oil had to be reformulated. Enter CI-4 oil. They claim it's better, but what are they going to say? "Our new oil sucks, but you have to buy it anyway because the EPA mandated this hardware on your truck and the good oil will foul it up."

Hardly. You should be running an oil additive too.

There are a lot of options out there for additives. Do your own research and figure out what will work best for your truck.

The other item that should be addressed is the oil filter. Stock is ok, but again most OE style spin on filters aren't fine enough to catch the particles that cause the damage. Look into a bypass oil filter.

 

I wasn't comparing them to a gas engine. I know they will run a long time with that crap on them, but I agree, they do more harm than good in the long run.
It's kind of like the coal burning electric plant near the house. it is one of the cleaned coal fired plants in the country. But, it has scrubbers in the stacks. So every so often, these need cleaned, so they get blasted and the soot comes out anyway. I don't see the point, but the EPA is run by a bunch of uniformed, tree hugging idiots, that don't have a clue how things work. Same deal on these new diesel emission controls. It's a joke.
I agree that we need clean air and water, but they have choked this country down with so much unneeded crap, that the MOG's pay a big price. If you are getting much better mileage without it, you are using less fuel, which in turn, means less emissions. At least that's how it seems to me.
The EPA is also a main reason that so many jobs have been lost to foreign countries.

 

it is a sad dilemma

I like having a warranty

I might want to trade in my truck in a couple years

in the meantime I am spending a lot more money on fuel due to low mpg, so that starts to even things all out

I'm getting 6 mpg in the city unloaded

11 mpg in the mountains pulling a load