Cm2250 Air compressor or head gasket ?

[SIDE_SHOW]

Hello all I have a 2012 Pete with a cm2250 in it with 970k on it I parked the truck in February cause my dad had several strokes but before that I was putting maybe 1 gallon every 10k miles... in May I went and loaded in Houston and the light came on.. I didn't check the coolant before I left as I was in a hurry and forgot so I put 2 gallons in and I just figured it had leaked out while sitting and didn't think much of it headed to Kansas it was pushing 20 plus gallon a day out every time I would stop it would dump enough water out of the overflow for the light to come on I'd fill it back up and take off and all would be fine as long as i was running down the road till the next time I would stop and it would push out again... I checked behind the cooler and it was dry so I then put the overflow tube in a bottle of water and saw massive amounts of bubbles I figured it had dropped a liner so I deadheaded the truck home... Well last week I went ahead and checked the air compressor I plugged the intake and took off the hot line while the truck was hot and ran it and there was almost no bubbles whatsoever one small bubble every now and then so I thought hey maybe it's the compressor... so today I put a used one that I had around that is good and first thing I noticed was that on the old compressor if you turned the crank by hand it was very week and there was no pressure coming out of the hot line at all you could hold your thumb on it and spin all day but the truck built air fine? Also There was a small amount of pressure coming out of the coolant lines on the compressor while I was checking this. I put the new one on filled it up with water let it warm up and thermostats open and filled it up again and drove it about 50 miles and stopped about 6 times and it did not use a drop of water however there is still some pressure coming out of the overflow cap when I stick it in a bottle of water but nothing like it was its minewt now compared to before my question is how much pressure should be there and how do I check how much pressure is building at the cap? I put a brand new 16lb cap on it today as well there was a 23lb on it before that but it called for a 16 so that is what i put back on it... I just wanna make sure the truck isn't just acting nice now till I stick a load behind it and a driver in the seat and then all hell break thanks in advance

[Lonestar10]

probably need to pressure test the system with a pressure test kit take system to 20psi and see if pressure drops. if it does then take off pipe at back of EGR cooler and set a tuperware bowl or something similar under the back of it and pressurize again see if anything appears. if not and pressure still drops proceed to remove oil pan and pressurize and have someone bar the engine over while you look up the bottom of every cylinder looking for water coming out.

also
you may have had a bad head on your compressor dumping a bunch of air into the coolant system. ontop of that you might just have a small headgasket leak.."not sure on the comman rails if the injector bores can leak or not into cooling systems like an 870-871 injector cup can"


even if it turns out its just a small head gasket leak youll want to get that fixed as over time it can etch the cylinder block making it un repairable and not longer good for an inframe.


also there are kits for testing for combustion gases coming out of the cooling system. although they are not right 100% of the time but could possible tell you if its just air in the system or if the headgasket has let go.

[jimeneztrans84]

There's a you tube video with bad air compressor causing alot of bubbles on coolant tank and loosing coolant. I think the you tuber is called dieselbullet

[Waterloo]

I would go to NAPA and get one of their block test kits, they run around $50. Make sure the truck is warmed up, everything up to temp and then test. It may take a few minutes, but this test kit has worked 100% of the time I have suspected a head issue. It is the same test Cummins will run, it is in Quickserve if you want to look it up. Just make sure the fluid in the kit is fresh.

If that test shows nothing, and you still suspect the head or gasket, drop the oil pan and pressurize the coolant system. You will need to bar the motor, you are looking for coolant on the liner walls. On mine, you could actually hear the coolant gurgling when Rawze barred the motor. It was the #5 liner that broke loose.

[Rawze]

(06-27-2019 )SIDE_SHOW Wrote:  ...
when I stick it in a bottle of water but nothing like it was its minewt now compared to before
...

Even a perfectly healthy truck will make bubbles when tested like this. This is because the system will build pressure and boil off water at a very slow rate (a few small air bubbles bleed-off every so often) simply because of the wet liners making steam as the engine runs. What rate that is can be anyone's guess, as every truck is slightly different.


It is not a bad idea to put a pressure test kit on the coolant system and pressurize it to 20 psi, let it sit for a few hours with engine not running. This will allow you to find all external leaks and fix them. Unlike what others have said (above), it IS NORMAL for the pressure to fall off a few psi as the engine cools down and contracts in the system (engine cooling off). - In fact, unless it is massive, an actual leak will not show up as pressure loss, because the system is 15 gallons+ big and that equates roughly to about only 1 psi of pressure drop for every whole gallon lost if there is an actual leak.


Once all the external leaks are fixed ...

- If you use an actual pressure gauge, it will tell you a lot more than the method your trying to use. The system is designed to hold roughly 15 psi pressure, so with a pressure gauge on it, truck idling, all pressure relieved check to see how rapidly it will build pressure again...

Once pressure starts to move slightly above the zero mark again, If it takes only a minute or two (or less) to build up from slightly above zero (measuring from about 1 psi to 10+ psi), then you likely have an issue worth investigating immediately, but if it takes a something like 5 minutes or more, engine simply idling, then the only thing you can do is test drive it and see if it is pushing coolant out of the pressure relief cap over time, or ...

If it builds very quickly (less than a minute or so) only when getting on the accelerator, engine under a load, or when engine brake kicks in on high. This can be checked by extending the hose for the pressure test gauge set and putting it in the cab of the truck during a test drive.

-- Like others have said, any time a person has coolant issues of any sort, pressure testing the system and repairing all external leaks is the first step. Right along with this is to check the EGR cooler for seepage, as well as the doser injector, and checking any lines that go to the aftertreatment system components, your APU if you have one, and checking for seepage into your transmission if it is water cooled. Past that, if it is still making enough pressure to blow coolant out of the pressure relief cap, then the next thing would be to drop the oil pan and pressure test if over night,.. see if the coolant is seeping into the engine from somewhere, like past a liner, or past the piston rings, or other component.

[SIDE_SHOW]

(06-28-2019 )Rawze Wrote:  

(06-27-2019 )SIDE_SHOW Wrote:  ...
when I stick it in a bottle of water but nothing like it was its minewt now compared to before
...

Even a perfectly healthy truck will make bubbles when tested like this. This is because the system will build pressure and boil off water at a very slow rate (a few small air bubbles bleed-off every so often) simply because of the wet liners making steam as the engine runs. What rate that is can be anyone's guess, as every truck is slightly different.


It is not a bad idea to put a pressure test kit on the coolant system and pressurize it to 20 psi, let it sit for a few hours with engine not running. This will allow you to find all external leaks and fix them. Unlike what others have said (above), it IS NORMAL for the pressure to fall off a few psi as the engine cools down and contracts in the system (engine cooling off). - In fact, unless it is massive, an actual leak will not show up as pressure loss, because the system is 15 gallons+ big and that equates roughly to about only 1 psi of pressure drop for every whole gallon lost if there is an actual leak.


Once all the external leaks are fixed ...

- If you use an actual pressure gauge, it will tell you a lot more than the method your trying to use. The system is designed to hold roughly 15 psi pressure, so with a pressure gauge on it, truck idling, all pressure relieved check to see how rapidly it will build pressure again...

Once pressure starts to move slightly above the zero mark again, If it takes only a minute or two (or less) to build up from slightly above zero (measuring from about 1 psi to 10+ psi), then you likely have an issue worth investigating immediately, but if it takes a something like 5 minutes or more, engine simply idling, then the only thing you can do is test drive it and see if it is pushing coolant out of the pressure relief cap over time, or ...

If it builds very quickly (less than a minute or so) only when getting on the accelerator, engine under a load, or when engine brake kicks in on high. This can be checked by extending the hose for the pressure test gauge set and putting it in the cab of the truck during a test drive.

-- Like others have said, any time a person has coolant issues of any sort, pressure testing the system and repairing all external leaks is the first step. Right along with this is to check the EGR cooler for seepage, as well as the doser injector, and checking any lines that go to the aftertreatment system components, your APU if you have one, and checking for seepage into your transmission if it is water cooled. Past that, if it is still making enough pressure to blow coolant out of the pressure relief cap, then the next thing would be to drop the oil pan and pressure test if over night,.. see if the coolant is seeping into the engine from somewhere, like past a liner, or past the piston rings, or other component.

I put a local load on it yesterday just to see how it would do and it did great until the hills in the Texas hill country i had straight water in it only not wanting to waste antifreeze if this wasn't the culprit and I believe the water was boiling off and making excess pressure it never got hot but blew out 4 gallons in 600 miles after I got unloaded this morning I went and got a radiator pressure tester and pressuref up the surge tank to 20psi for a while and had virtually no pressure drop and couldn't find any external leaks I then warmed the truck back up and zeroed out the pressure and let it idle it took 7.5 mins to build 5 psi I zeroed it out again and idled up to 1600 rpm and it took 4 minutes to get to 3 psi and that was as high as I could get it to go the fan came on and the pressure went back down to zero... So I went ahead and drained out the water and put in some antifreeze with it I bought all I could get my hands on at this local store here 5 gallons concentrate and filled it back up with water the rest of the way I am loading tonight to go back to the yard so we will see how it does but I can already tell you it feels 100% smoother I never realized how much cavitation straight water can cause... The only other thing is I keep getting check engine lights on and off on and off one is spn 4364 fmi 18 I believe that is because the truck has been sitting with same def in it since early February another is spn 102 fmi 16 it just says boost pressure I've never gotten that code and another one is spn 444 fmi?? I have no clue what this is I think something to do with battery's and the water in fuel light keeps coming I need to buy a new one but they are on backorder at the stealer ship

[SIDE_SHOW]

Any body have any clue on those codes I'm also getting a spn 3226 fmi 9?

[SIDE_SHOW]

I just got loaded and made it about 80 miles and now I've got a dpf light with a explanation point thru it and another code 1569 for engine derate I think the the light is for a parked Regen but it won't let me do a parked Regen for some reason... Is it possible that this is tied in with the coolant issue? I'm at a loss on what to do here any ideas?

[Waterloo]

No clue. The internet will usually answer the code question, or register on QuickServe, the codes are there, along with repairs and diagnostics... Running straight water in the ISX, not a good idea. Have you done an EGR tuneup?