I screwed up and let my Air filter go to long without servicing in these extremely dusty conditions (NW Florida dirt roads) and now I'm having oil out my vent tube. Changed my oil (Amsoil 15W40) and filter and was down a quart after 500 miles!
After all this intro, my question is, should I just pull the head, have it checked, drop the pan and install new Rod bearings, remove the pistons, hone the cylinders and replace the rings, install new gaskets and see if this fixes the problem? I know people who have 500k + on their cummins in these light trucks so I'm thinking as long as my oil pressure is good, I'd be OK. What do you think?

 

How long were you overdue? How many miles? These are tough engines and meant to operate in those conditions.

Id keep an eye on it - dont think I would rebuild just yet.

 

I use K-N oil filters and the amsoil so I normally go 12k on my oil. I'm not really very hard on my truck so it seems appropriate. Ive got 290k miles on it. I appreciate your response.
I read a post from another site that kinda makes me feel dumb for not thinking that there might be a connection between a couple of minor problems and this. First I noticed my cruise control wasn't working. Next thing I know my HVAC duct control was stuck at the defrost position and not quite fully functioning there.
The guy there with the user name "Dozer" said it is probably my vacuum pump creating the problem due to a line being off. I am changing my Steering Gear Box this morning. I will look for a vacuum line off. I bet the fluid from the leaky gear box has swollen a line, or either me adding fluid I've accidentally pulled one off. Either way, I'll be happy when she's back to her old self!

 

A little blowby is normal. How much is too much? Who knows. A quart in 500mi. is too much, IMHO. I'll bet it's coming out the vacuum pump, not blowby. Clean up the underside with a power washer and determine exactly where the oil is coming from.

 

The plugged air filter might have caused oil to get sucked past the seal in the turbocharger due to the high vacuum.