Did they ever do anything to the pistons and liners to make them more durable on newer diesels?

[The motor guy]

Years ago I read an article that said the three leading causes of diesel engine failure were fuel in the crankcase, excess soot in the crankcase and antifreeze. I guess they broke two of the three rules with these newer engines. Makes me wonder why can't they just make the materials the engines are made out of a bit more durable to mitigate thus extra wear?

 

[eljefino]

Is there a specific engine in question?

 

[wwillson]

excess soot

I agree with fuel and antifreeze, but "excess soot" needs to be more clearly defined. A few years ago @dnewton3 looked at a ton of UOAs from the 6.6L Duramax and found little or no correlation between wear metals and soot. I think it's very unusual to see a UOA from the set that Mr. Newton had that exceeded 1% soot. Which leads to the question, when does wear start from the amount of soot in the oil. I'm not sure we know.

Over the road semi engine manufacturers allow 2.5%-4.5%, but we don't have enough data to see if wear is occurring from soot in the oil as the concentration approaches the condemnation levels.

 

[The motor guy]

I agree with fuel and antifreeze, but "excess soot" needs to be more clearly defined. A few years ago @dnewton3 looked at a ton of UOAs from the 6.6L Duramax and found little or no correlation between wear metals and soot. I think it's very unusual to see a UOA from the set that Mr. Newton had that exceeded 1% soot. Which leads to the question, when does wear start from the amount of soot in the oil. I'm not sure we know.

Over the road semi engine manufacturers allow 2.5%-4.5%, but we don't have enough data to see if wear is occurring from soot in the oil as the concentration approaches the condemnation levels.

Soot levels in the oil to clarify

 

[CDX825]

We have better coolant now. All of the OAT diesel coolants have greatly helped with cylinder liner cavitation. Before that you had to keep up with your diesel coolant additive and charged coolant filters to maintain the DCA level in the coolant.

For those that don't know about it, diesel engines suffer from cylinder line cavitation. It can happen to both wet sleeve engines and parent bore engines. The reason it happens is because of the high compression ignition event of a diesel engine pushes the cylinder wall out during the ignition event. When this happens it pushes the coolant away from the cylinder wall. When the cylinder wall moves back in after the ignition event it causes a vacuum bubbles that collapses in on themselves strong enough to erode at the cylinder wall. Diesel coolants have an additive that forms a protective layer on the cylinder wall to stop it from being eroded.

 

[The motor guy]

We have better coolant now. All of the OAT diesel coolants have greatly helped with cylinder liner cavitation. Before that you had to keep up with your diesel coolant additive and charged coolant filters to maintain the DCA level in the coolant.

For those that don't know about it, diesel engines suffer from cylinder line cavitation. It can happen to both wet sleeve engines and parent bore engines. The reason it happens is because of the high compression ignition event of a diesel engine pushes the cylinder wall out during the ignition event. When this happens it pushes the coolant away from the cylinder wall. When the cylinder wall moves back in after the ignition event it causes a vacuum bubbles that collapses in on themselves strong enough to erode at the cylinder wall. Diesel coolants have an additive that forms a protective layer on the cylinder wall to stop it from being eroded.

It's partly a design issue. Not all brands suffer that issue. The 5.9 cummins is an example..

 

[Shannonwilkerson]

It's partly a design issue. Not all brands suffer that issue. The 5.9 cummins is an example..

That’s where you would be wrong. All diesels can suffer from cavitation if not taken care of. I have personally witnessed a 5.9 that died from cavitation erosion of the coolant passages because the guy that had it ran nothing but green coolant with no sca.

I asked him if he ran elc or sca and he was just dumbfounded because he didn’t need “none of them snake oil additives”