Cummins 350 ISC piston cooling nozzle

[lajuene]

I'm having a bunch of general maintenance done to get ready for fulltiming starting in May. The dealer just called and said when doing the oil change, a chunk of metal fell out and the tech fished through the oil in the catch pan and found it. Upon checking with a guy who works on Cummins he said it looked like a piston cooling nozzle.

I called the Cummins number (1-800-diesels) and the guy, Gardiner, said it was ok to drive it to the local Cummins repair garage, about 30 miles, as long as we didn't push it hard. He said any problem caused would show up on the temperature gauge or oil pressure indicator.

Since it was dumb luck to have even found this problem, I figure it broke off who knows when. I drove it from Florida where we bought it up to NY where we live back in July. Ran perfect. It only has about 13K miles on it.

Any one have any experience with this type of repair? The Cummins guy said it can be replaced by just removing the oil pan so no big engine pulling labor costs and the nozzle(s) cost about $20 each.

by the way it's a 2004 Winnebago Vectra 40AD with a Cummins 350 ISC.

I'll repost this in the Winnebago group too.

Thanks,
Eric

[AFChap]

Never heard of that one.

[lajuene]

I am posting further info on this topic here:
Vectra oil pan removal labor time

Don't want to post same thing in 2 places.

[Mr_D]

Never heard of it.

[ua40j]

In 2007, we were driving up into the mountains of WV when we started blowing oil out of the slobber tube. Long story short, some silicone had clogged the #6 main bearing sprayer and the cylinder cracked.

So I know and can confirm that there are sprayer nozzles on the block. I don't have any experience with them falling off. I do have experience with them clogging.

I would say that, unless they have misidentified the part, and you've seen it, that its a valid issue.

Now as far as HOW it happened? Don't have a clue.

[Craig_R]

I'd never heard of it either but here it is:

Piston cooling nozzle_Cummins Engine Parts

[jimkate]

I've been a heavy duty diesel engine mechanic/machinist all of my life.

A broken or defective piston cooler needs to be fixed. The engine may run forever under no load or light load. However, if the engine is operated at rated horsepower for even a reasonable period of time, it can result in an overheated piston which can crack. Once the piston is cracked, the only alternative is to have the piston replaced, which means an engine overhaul. Big bucks.

If the nozzle is indeed the type that is shown in the previous poster's picture, it is possible that the bolt was not tightened properly and loosened, or the nozzle was not positioned properly and rotating engine parts hit it and broke it.

My opinion is to have the piston cooling nozzle replaced right away.

[lajuene]

I agree on replacing it. I am getting it repaired. It is at the Cummins garage now. I posted the photo. I'll post back the final results. I should know tomorrow or at least this week sometime. The oil pan position should make it easy to do the job. The RV dealer mechanic wanted to do the work but the dealer service manager decided having Cummins do it was better just in case. I agree with that decision. I'm sure glad they found this now. Someday that engine failure would or could have happened. Got lucky I guess.

[powerboatr]

seems weird,,,but can happen
another engine builder had an issue in the early 1999 and 2000 engines that piston cooling jet was pressed into the galleries and folks were finding them when they did an oil change.....no idea how long they had been taxing around the pan.

agree on these engines that are pretty much run all day at full load
the piston cooling jet is IMPORTANT to be in play and functioning

when they drop the pan a few pics of the piston in question would be great...
compared to the others