My '05 Ram 2500 always used a bit of oil, but there was no blowby, and it ran great. Until it didn't anymore. Cruising at 35mph, I noticed some misfires, then it started running rough. When I went to restart it later, I heard definite skipping while cranking, and once it fired up, I checked for blowby, and found this.

Took it in for a full rebuild. He found very low compression on 3 cylinders, meaning 3 pistons with cracked rings. He didn't speculate on the cause of the cracked rings. But I noticed there were several reman'd injectors installed on the previous owner's watch, which I suspect failed. Moral of the story: only use NEW Bosch injectors.

Ran like new after 10k for a rebuild + new injectors. Ended up trading it in later and going back to Powerstroke for now. I was a bit disillusioned by the fact that the indestructible 5.9 died at 150,000 miles. It was stock, and I certainly never abused it. So, being a glutton for punishment, I decided to go for a 6.0 Stroker. She's sitting stock at 232,000 miles and no problems. Whenever the head gaskets finally go, I'll go back to another Cummins for a while.

BTW, I'm not sharing this video to badmouth Cummins by any means (despite the fact that I was more than a bit disappointed, I still believe Cummins is the superior engine in pickup applications). I post it here simply as a reference and resource for anyone else troubleshooting similar issues.

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