The Lightning's great internal oiling system...

[Mike]

Dave's intercooler with 150k+ miles.



NASTY
Click for bigger pictures
http://www.carolinahorsepower.com/David/2s.jpg (http://www.carolinahorsepower.com/David/2.jpg)



A LOT BETTER
Click for bigger pictures
http://www.carolinahorsepower.com/David/1s.jpg (http://www.carolinahorsepower.com/David/1.jpg)

[Magoo]

Holy hell! I though mine was bad at 50k miles!

[slow04]

:bigthumb:

[wade w]

It cleaned up nice.:bigthumb:

[Dave]

The next time I have it off, I might try to weld a plate on there like Steg does for their stage 5, but with my porting skills I would say I'd have a stage 7 or 8 by then, :twisted:

http://www.carolinahorsepower.com/David/1-_15_-08_070.JPG

[Mike]

fixed it for you
The next time I have it off, I might try to weld a plate on there like Steg does for their stage 5, but with my porting skills I would say I'd have a stage negative 7 or 8 by then, :twisted:

[08 Racecraft]

The next time I have it off, I might try to weld a plate on there like Steg does for their stage 5, but with my porting skills I would say I'd have a stage 7 or 8 by then, :twisted:

http://www.carolinahorsepower.com/David/1-_15_-08_070.JPGDAMN looks like we found us a new Ford "HOW TO DO IT MAN"
keep up the good work:yourock::cheers::bigthumb:

[DolSVT00]

I did one today that was close but not quite that bad.

[08 Racecraft]

I did one today that was close but not quite that bad.
Keep up the good work :yourock::bigthumb:

[gearmesh, inc.]

Looks like that is the PCV gunk that gets pushed back into the intake system under boost. Without looking at an acutal Lightning in front of me, I can pretty much bet that the clean air end of the PCV system is connected ahead of the blower, but after the MAF. The fresh air supply side of the PCV system is always after the MAF, so that no air in the combustion process is left unmetered. The fresh air that gets drawn through the crankcase via manifold vacuum at the PCV valve gets sucked back into the intake and makes up a small part of your A/F ratio. When under a lot of boost (thus more blowby past the rings and into the crankcase) the PCV system gets deluged with more volume than it can handle, so even the clean air supply side of the PCV system gets a reverse backflow of crankcase gasses that can't get out of the crankcase any other way because the PCV valve is closed due to boost pressure. Of course, traveling along with these crankcase gases is a small amount of oil mist that creates this gunk in your intake.

Now most of us here see a PCV system as an emission requirement, but it actually helps keep your engine oil cleaner between oil changes, but it can only function as designed with manifold vacuum present at the PCV valve. It keeps the acids and other nasty blowby junk from accumulating in your oil and shortening its useful lifespan.

So with over 100k miles on the engine, you can bet that there is more piston ring blowby (thus more crankcase gas volume) than there was right after your engine was broken in. Unfortunately, this gunk that builds up on your intercooler surfaces cuts down on intercooler efficiency. You may very well see some improved track times after cleaning a filthy intercooler.

Now a lot of you with boosted engines may be asking, "How do I keep this from happening to my engine?" The simplest fix would be to put an aftermarket air/oil separator inline with the fresh air supply hose for the PCV system to cut down on the oil mist traveling back upstream. A more elaborate fix would be to convert over to an open crankcase and do away with the PCV system all together. If you do this your A/F ratio will be off due to no more measurement of the PCV fresh air component, and it would be in your best intrest to update your tune.

Now my 2003 Cummins Diesel powered Dodge Ram simply runs a road draft tube off the valve cover to get rid of crankcase gasses. This way, the intake system always stays clean and intercooler efficiency never diminishes. On a Ford Powerstroke, the crankcase is closed and blowby gasses are recirculated back through the intake system. This is why when you have the intake boots off of a Powerstroke, they always have an oily film on them. Even the intercooler walls and turbo compressor blades are covered with this oily gunk. Yuck! Unfortunately, the EPA emission requirements for the 2007 and up 6.7L diesel Ram tightened up and even they have to run a closed crankcase now. That sucks. I'm glad I got the earlier 5.9 engine in mine. Keep this in mind if you are ever looking for a diesel truck to pull your toys to the track.

[wade w]

Very nice info^^^^^^^^thanks.:bigthumb:

[Mike]

:bigthumb:

I have an oil seperator on my Lightning. There might be no need for it though, since I have the blower off the truck every plug change, and if the intercooler gets dirty I can clean it.

Unfortunately, the EPA emission requirements for the 2007 and up 6.7L diesel Ram tightened up and even they have to run a closed crankcase now. That sucks. I'm glad I got the earlier 5.9 engine in mine. Keep this in mind if you are ever looking for a diesel truck to pull your toys to the track.


I guess my '06 5.9L is like yours as far as emission goes.

[gearmesh, inc.]

The only emission difference on the 5.9 Cummins Ram starting in 2004 was the addition of the catalytic converter. The 2003 exhaust has nothing but a muffler in it. Of course, the cat converter issue is easy to remedy.

Rumor has it within a few years, the tri-county area around Charleston may have federal mandated emission checks due to diminishing air quality standards in recent years. The inspections will start off with a visual inspection to determine if all factory equiped emission devices are still on the vehicle. They do consider the production year of the vehicle for determining what devices were factory installed. After that, the actual tailpipe sniff is done. Diesels are only checked for opacity, not all the other gasses that a gasoline vehicle is tested for. So if you have a hot tune in your diesel (i.e. smokey), remove it and go back to stock programming to pass the test.

In case you do decide to remove your catalytic converter restriction, consider hogging out the guts in your converter and putting the empty housing back on. This way, the truck will pass the visual test for all required emission equipment still being in place. They will not even do the tailpipe sniff if the visual inspection does not pass.

As far as gas engines are concerned, you can still pass the tailpipe sniff with a clean tune even if your cats are hogged out. Gas engines have to pass the visual test first, too. If you don't happen to pass on the first attempt, then try some of the gasoline additives that are advertised to clean up emissions for the pupose of passing emission tests. Rumor has it that some alcohol in with your gas can clean up the sniff sample, too.

[Chillerman]

What a wealth of information. Where have you been Gerald all this time?