About 2 months ago my wagon (diesel) started dripping oil at a much more considerable rate off the cross-member behind oil pan and also started pushing oil out the top of the dipstick tube.

Prior to this, I had none at dipstick tube and just a few drops here and there from the back of engine.

I'm thinking excessive blow-by, but have a few questions regarding this. She still starts, runs, performs very well along with fuel mileage seems unchanged. Also she doesn't smoke that much at all under normal driving down road. I do get some blue smoke upon start-up (which I assumed was leaking valve guide seals) and I get some black smoke under hard acceleration and load.

Things I've checked or done:
1. checked breather hose for clogging or obstruction - clear.
2. checked air filter, rotated orientation as I do get some oil
depositing in air cleaner housing.
3. replaced o-ring on dipstick to try to slow leak down.
4. performed "plugging breather tube test" as described on
this forum. engine shuts down in 2-3 seconds.
5. pulled oil fill cap off while running engine and observed
light but steady vapor puffing upwards from oil in valve
cover, along with tiny droplets of oil being blown out and
landing on top of valve cover.

My confusion is this; if I have worn piston rings and I do have excessive blow-by, shouldn't she be starting hard, running poorer and shouldn't she be blowing blue smoke out the exhaust?

I ran a post last week on the diesel discussion, but didn't come up with a lot of answers. For reference it's called "HELP - oil all over the place".

Would greatly appreciate anyone's help or advice. I am leaking at a rate of 1 qt. in about 250 miles. Prior to this I would typically burn 1 1/4 qts. in a 3000 mile interval, which I thought was good for an engine with almost 300k on.

There is a drain tube from the bottom of the air filter housing to the oil pan. Its purpose is to drain the liquid oil separated in the air filter housing down to the oil pan.

If this has somehow shaken loose or gotten disconnected, it makes a pretty big mess. I suspect it might tend to shake loose if the air filter support bracket is broken.

Ken300D

Can this be replaced with some rubber fuel hose?

You need to check the compression, it’s the only way to know for sure.

If you have a 61x series engine here are the compression specs:

The service manual indicates an acceptable range of 24 to 30 bar or 348 to 435 psi. Minimum pressure is 15 bar (218 psi) and the allowable difference between cylinders is 3 bar or 43.5 psi.

If the compression is good then you obviously have a leak somewhere.

Your best bet is to make a new thread, asking about your specific issue in Diesel Discussion.

This thread is about 5 years old, the original poster probably won't respond!

__________________
Current:
2021 Charger Scat Pack Widebody "Sinabee"
2018 Durango R/T

Previous:
1972 280SE 4.5
2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited "Hefe", 1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo "Jeepy", 2006 Charger R/T "Hemi"
1999 Chrysler 300M - RIP @ 221k