DT 436 blowby smoke? How do you not worry about it?

Have read, and listened to lots of folks talk about this engine and how so many have alot of blowby, even when the engine is sound. Well, my 1460 has blowby. Enough to bother me when I am combining and the wind is the right direction so I see the puffs of blue smoke in the mirror. Had a full grain tank so let her cool a bit, shut her down and got another wagon to unload, and grab some 15-40 as I assumed it would be low with all the smoke, and even kinda dripping/small stream running from the blow by tube. Well, it wasnt really low, at all.This is a 5200 hour combine that I got very cheap, did do 15 acres of beans with it and it seemed to have plenty of power in the heavy beans, never lost power or RPMs, and always seems to start real good. So whats the deal with this engine and oil blow by? Anything simple to check? At what amount of oil consumption should I worry. Or should I just run it and stop needlessly stressing. oh yeah, hate the smell of it getting sucked into the cab fresh air filter when wind is behind me.

If it starts good, doesn't use over maybe a quart of oil in 10 hours I would not worry about it. The best way to check for excessive blow by is with what we call a water manometer. You hook it up to the breather pipe in conjunction with a orfice for that engine. If it reads over about 5 inches of water it is excessive. If I remember right, 28 inches of water is equivalent to 1 psi so you can see it is a very accurate pressure gauge. Not all shops have one but all IH dealers were supposed to have one. Fact is , I had one of my own and when I quit CaseIH dealer and went to work at John Deere dealer the guys there kind of liked my tool. After I retired they borrowed it once or twice and then bought their own for the shop. It is not the entire answer but along with other engine conditions it really is quite useful. Doing a compression test is quite a project and it still won't really tell you if blow by is excessive. Do realize that IH had two, (actually three) different crankcase breathers on those engines. If it has the side breather they are more prone to carry oil out with fumes. If the engine was ever overhauled and used the wide gap second ring it is a must to have the top breather as that ring does allow more blow by but actually controls oil consumption much better.

I would run a rubber hose to a catch tank and vent tank above the cab, Drain catch tank daily , a 5 gallon bucket will work for a catch tank or built one with baffles

What Pete said,

If it starts and runs, I sure wouldn't give it a second thought.

They are supposed to have blowby; it's how the engine vents it's crankcase pressure.

Allan

As I remember the 300-400 series engines appeared to have more blowby when they came out than any of us were use to seeing.
As Pete says, the most accurate way to determine if it is excessive or not is with the proper orifice and water manometer attached to the vent pipe. Good chance it is normal.
Dennis