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Well we are seeing issues with our 2014 3500 at 170k , miles. Fully intact emissions system. Truck was going into Regen more often than usual and using a lot of DEF. Exhaust brake performance was about 50% of out 2018s. Turbo boost was topping out at 26psi, mileage towing heavy loads was down to 7.5 avg MPG. Would throw emissions codes so we cleaned the EGR system again but didn't help at all. Truck is setting the CO monitor off in the cab and fumes were terrible above 1500rpm driving or at idle.
Dodge said the turbo was probably going out and to clean or replace the DPF. Estimate from dodge dealer was $10-12k for new turbo, new DPF and probably a new SCR. Not a very good day for a truck that only has 170k on it.
Removed the whole exhaust and checked pressure drop across the filter. Couldn't measure actual delta but it was obvious the DPF was at least partially plugged. cut the end off of the filter to check the media and it looked fine on the surfaces. Like any self respecting redneck, I decided to get some of the media out and sure enough it was 50-60% plugged off. That explains the frequent Regen cycles.
Next the SCR. Well the injector port was almost plugged off from DEF deposits and it was obvious the "spray" was more like a stream. You can see where it ran down the pipe and was crystalizing in the one picture. Could get decent airflow through the catalyst on the upper 60% but the lower half was plugged tight - probably from saturation of the DEF. So catalyst is ruined. Explains the high DEF consumption.
Noticed a slight leak developing on the exhaust manifold at the front of the engine so removed the turbo and manifold. Turbo looks good, no end play but shipping it to Diamond Diesel in Oakland CA anyway for a full inspection and testing. These are not fun trucks to remove all this stuff and I don't want to put a marginal component back in.
So gutted the DPF media. and welded the end back on. Gutting the SCR next and welding the end back on it. It would be so easy to make these filters modular so they could have the media replaced instead of the entire filter but I wont get on that rant right now. This rig is just going to get a DEF delete, cannot justify $4-6k in filters just to be back here in 100k miles. Going to use the gutted components for exhaust system - don't see any value in buying a $500 exhaust - it really only took a couple hours to cut apart remove the media and weld back up.
Thought it was interesting how these things were constructed so sharing some pictures of the media and the plugging. Sorry started gutting the SCR before getting a picture of as found condition. Will update on turbo findings after the shop reports back. The top two pics are the DEF nozzle into the SCR and deposits. The next one is the DPF inlet and then the DPF outlet. Last one is the OEM delete exhaust DPF housing. The red material in the DPF media is hard plugging of the media.
If anyone else has done this and used the stock shells as the exhaust I would like to hear how it worked out, noise ect. Not looking to draw attention to the rig just get reliable mileage out of it.
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Originally Posted by RamIt
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