Ok I'll try and make this as short as possible without leaving info you need to help me figure this out. My truck has never needed much if any oil added in between oil changes but about a week ago it wouldn't start and after changing my cps and fuel filter it still wouldn't, come to find out it was almost TWO gallons low! so I filled it back up and she started. Now two days later it didn't want to start again, added another 1/2 gallon! Fuel in bowl was clean/clear, no huge oil stains under the truck after sitting, visible white smoke now at start up but not noticable when driving, and no oil in coolant. So the searches I've done here indicate a turbo problem? If it is the turbo my questions are;

Is the Garrett GTP38 the turbo that comes stock on these trucks?

Are all rebuild kits the same? (example: Riff Raff has two kits, journal bearing kit and a turbine wheel/shaft assembly kit)

Should rebuilding a turbo be left to an expert/shop?

Average time if done by myself?

Anything else I should do while I have it out? (pedestal, wicked wheel,up pipe gaskets, high flow outlet ect? although I don't have tons of money to dump into it)

Is it going to hurt the truck to drive it until gets rebuilt as long as I keep oil level up? (working nights 6/12's for the next couple of weeks and I don't have time) (I'm a millwright and ironically I'm working on a nuclear turbine rebuild job)

Of course if you guys think it could be something else other than the turbo let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help

 

Stock turbo is a gtp-38... Not a 38r. It is a Garrett turbo, but not a ball bearing.

It sounds like a turbo, but with that much oil you should have a near constant stream of smoke coming from the tail pipe.

I would have the turbo rebuilt and ballanced by a turbo shop.

 

thats what my truck is doing now, i kno its the turbo tho, but i dont go through that much oil, its more like a quart every week.

 

An update, I talked to Bob at dieselsite yesterday and he of course getting it scanned (which I am as soon as I can get time, when I called dealer they said I needed to drop off in morning and they would get to it during the day, just hoping I can make it till next day off) but said that it sounded like an injector problem being that if my turbo was going out I would be seeing large amounts of smoke when driving, I know the best and first step is to get it scanned so I'll start with that I did use orielly's scanner and not surprisingly no codes pulled up. This past year I have been meaning to buy the auto enginuety program and have been putting it off, I would be so much better off right now if I had gotten one already, thanks again for the responses.

 

Thats really your best course of action...

There is a link in my sig to Auto Enginuity, very good price!!!