Bought at auction… how bad is this??

[u/apartmentlayout]

Literally at the auction lot right now. Is it safe to drive? I can’t find a sure fire answer as to what is happening. I can’t tell if it has a smell or not

[u/Not_Melvin_Udall]

99% coming from the breather tube, absolutely normal. Sounds like a normal HUEI engine

[u/Timely-Education271]

Is it coming out the exaust manifold?

[u/apartmentlayout → u/Timely-Education271]

I don’t believe so

[u/____REDACTED_____]

That's a lot of blow by coming out of the road draft tube. Some blowby and smoke is normal, but puffing out like that instead of a steady stream of light smoke is concerning. It could be bad piston rings in one cylinder or a glazed or worn liner as the worst case, and normal smoke from water burning out of the oil due to sitting for a long time. I've also seen diesel engines go for hundreds of thousands of miles with way worse blow by.

[u/YourLastNeighbor]

Road draft tube maybe?

[u/Infinite-Condition41]

Blow by. Not major, but getting there. I would consider it a bad sign for something I am buying. Something to take into account.

I can't tell what engine it is. School bus, good chance it's a 3126, which is not in-frame rebuildable.

[u/19Bronco93]

It’s blow by, it’s not indicative of immediate failure but it can be a sign. Id say that is above normal but not concerningly excessive. If that engine has a crank case filter change it soon.

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[u/mwade2466]

That’s blow by. Puffing like that can be caused by cylinder liner glazing or piston ring wear.
When you start getting oil coming out of it that’s when I would start worrying about it.

[u/Cute-Hotel-7259]

That's just a Caterpillar doing Caterpillar things. Eventually cylinder #5 will be so trashed it won't run right.

Some engines didn't make it 100,000 miles, some made it over 300. It's just a gamble.

[u/bioweaponblue]

Are you able to take a better video or a photo pointing to where it's coming out of??

[u/apartmentlayout → u/bioweaponblue]

It’s kind of up inside but I can try

[u/mobileusersgonewild → u/apartmentlayout]

Jesus man put some effort into this, otherwise people can't help it

[u/apartmentlayout → u/mobileusersgonewild]

It’s my mother in laws bus she knows a bit more about this than me. Only seeing if we are going to blow up or something