Engine failure

[OldManEco]

So I have a 2018 eco and am very happy with it thus far. I've had it since new but have heard the horror stories about the failures.
My question is has anyone come to a definitive reason for the failures? No offense but I have no desire to hear from the haters. Would love to know if people have torn them down and actually found cause for these catastrophic failures.

 

[TC Diesel]

No offense but I have no desire to hear from the haters, what is your definition of a hater? OldManEco

 

[Ramman1]

So I have a 2018 eco and am very happy with it thus far. I've had it since new but have heard the horror stories about the failures.
My question is has anyone come to a definitive reason for the failures? No offense but I have no desire to hear from the haters. Would love to know if people have torn them down and actually found cause for these catastrophic failures.

My 2016 has over 200k on it and is going strong. I’ve seen and heard that a connecting rod cap comes loose and begins to thump against the crank.. etc.

 

[1shadowsabre]

So I have a 2018 eco and am very happy with it thus far. I've had it since new but have heard the horror stories about the failures.
My question is has anyone come to a definitive reason for the failures? No offense but I have no desire to hear from the haters. Would love to know if people have torn them down and actually found cause for these catastrophic failures.

There is really no definitive answer that I have read.... possible causes are everything from too much soot in the oil. plugged oil passages, poor quality control at the factory, harmonic oscillation of the crank, too small of bearings, and wrong viscosity of oil. To my knowledge none of those theories have been proven to the ONE cause of failure. Loose connecting rod cap is a new one to me but hey, sounds as good as any other potential reason..

 

[Ed Brock]

So I have a 2018 eco and am very happy with it thus far. I've had it since new but have heard the horror stories about the failures.
My question is has anyone come to a definitive reason for the failures? No offense but I have no desire to hear from the haters. Would love to know if people have torn them down and actually found cause for these catastrophic failures.

Biggest issue with any Diesel is very short trips and not getting the motor up to temp for a few hours. Diesel, any Diesel is not a happy camper at starting it, running it a short time then shutting it off.

My son has a '15 Eco. Longhorn Edition. He now has 90,000 on it. Always drove it at least 2 hours per trip per day, never had any issues with it. Now he drives it about 15 minutes per day per trip and has had some issues. I informed him of what I am telling you. He has started doing my suggestion and the minor issues have gone away.

 

[mrdiesel]

I've rebuilt a few and while I can't give you a definite answer I can provide some insight. The vast majority of failures are main bearing failures which then cause low oil pressure to rods resulting in a spun rod bearing and if continued to drive a broken crankshaft. The bearing clearances from the factory on the mains in very tight in most cases .0015 is typical. So combined high load low rpm which causes torsional vibration and crankshaft deflection with tigh clearances and hot thin oil and you have a recipe for wiping out a main bearing.

 

[OldManEco]

Thank you all for the insight. Main bearing failure seems to be the culprit. the big question is, how given that the truck is otherwise flawless, could I mitigate this failure. I'm not against having it torn down and rebuilt before failure and given the cost of new trucks today, might be the best option.

 

[mrdiesel]

Thank you all for the insight. Main bearing failure seems to be the culprit. the big question is, how given that the truck is otherwise flawless, could I mitigate this failure. I'm not against having it torn down and rebuilt before failure and given the cost of new trucks today, might be the best option.

There is a German company M&K that makes bearings with different geometry. I. Currently running a set on my person truck so far 10 k on it after rebuilding it from a catastrophic failure resulting in a damaged block that was re line bored for oversized main bearings.

 

[OldManEco]

Curious if anyone is doing an engine flush. If this is a defect, you'd think failure would happen much more often. Seems like soot may be getting into the oil and plugging some of the ways. I've read some say don't flush, some say it's fine. I'd rather not wait til a failure.

 

[mrdiesel]

Curious if anyone is doing an engine flush. If this is a defect, you'd think failure would happen much more often. Seems like soot may be getting into the oil and plugging some of the ways. I've read some say don't flush, some say it's fine. I'd rather not wait til a failure.

Sometimes if there is another issue or the wrong oil is used the pickup can be blocked but that's not the normal cause of failure and shouldn't be a concern in a properly maintained 3.0.

 

[rodd]

With the bearings being the issue of a lot of failures as well as possibly soot, you need to change your oil no later than 5k unless you have a bypass filter. Additionally use a high quality oil like amsoil or some other brands. My engine spun at 113k. I'm now at 66k on new motor. I have a bypass filter and use Lorenzo's oil and get my oil tested. It's good insurance.

 

[TC Diesel]

OA Trends are mandatory on VM 3.0. additional filtration may prolong rotating mass failure. When that bed plate starts to squirm around impending destruction follows IMO. Thier are three different size main bearings match to block , Crank , bed plates , this requires absolute precision spec's if it stays perfect your rotating mass will last, it squirms or improper assembly its only time before &(&^%$+ $$$$$$.

 

[mrdiesel]

OA Trends are mandatory on VM 3.0. additional filtration may prolong rotating mass failure. When that bed plate starts to squirm around impending destruction follows IMO. Thier are three different size main bearings match to block , Crank , bed plates , this requires absolute precision spec's if it stays perfect your rotating mass will last, it squirms or improper assembly its only time before &(&^%$+ $$$$$$.

View attachment 4176

I doubt it's the block that's doing the moving it seems mostly to be crank deflection or possibly harmonic issues, Ive noticed damage on harmonic balencer keyways on engines that have failed. Aftermarket bearings only come in 1 size and due the the bed plate design it's difficult to adjust clearances so precision is critical when grinding crank or aling honing or decking the bed plate.

 

[TC Diesel]

We built several 3000+ HP motors in fact it was our Build (Long Block 6.7 Cummins that won the UC 2785 HP, stayed together the entire season We will be tearing it down next month) we've/I seen the damage Bed plates create over the decades. If you check my postings back in 2020 I forecasted the failure will continue, and Ram would be stopping production in 2022. All the Nay sayers are still at 1500diesel.XXX Those mods would hump a dead horse if was branded with VM3.0 Hero/Zero Status.