Guess I'm looking at head gaskets

[patracy]

Well I've been wondering where my coolant has been going. It appears I've got a leak. The truck starts and runs fine, but the engine oil is cloudy, not milkshake, but it appears black/gray/greenish. Looking at a gasket online and the surfaces, I'd think the leak is probably going back into the opening for the pushrods. Tomorrow if I get home in time, I'm going to pop the valve covers and see if I can find anything. I also found that the hoses between the intake manifold and the one behind the oil filters were leaking. So I tightened the clamps on them.

Has anyone had a head gasket failure of this nature? From all the searches I've done people typically have had failures that caused oil leaks outside of the engine or combustion leaks.

I've also seen Clinto's head freeze plug issue. Are there any other freeze plugs located under the valve covers?

 

[doghead]

I'd suspect a bad oil cooler.

 

[patracy]

I'd suspect a bad oil cooler.

I'd think it would be the other way around? Wouldn't the oil pressure force engine oil into the radiator/coolant. And not coolant into the crankcase. I realize though the oiling system does drain on these trucks.

 

[tm america]

ussually you get water in the oil.When things are shut down the cooling system is still pressurized even though the engine isn't this forces coolant into the oil..When things are runing both are pressurized even thought the oil pressure is more... there is n nothing that says the leak is in an oil passage. it could be a coolant passage near the push rod galley..The chances of it being exactly between the oil galley and coolant passage is slim..

 

[patracy]

So should I not bother with pulling the valve cover and instead drain the coolant and inspect the cooler?

 

[tm america]

I would get a cooling system tester....pressurize the cooling system and listen for where its leaking ..Take the oil fill cap off..listen in there..then pull the valve covers and listen maybe you can narrow it down to front or rear..If you aren't hearing much from having the valve covers off i would suspect the oil cooler to be at fault...

 

[patracy]

Any sources for an oil cooler or a price on them?

 

[militarysteel]

its probably head gaskets,

 

[patracy]

I'm leaning more towards that as well. If it were the oil cooler I would think wouldn't be loosing coolant but rather filling it up with 30-60psi of oil. I'm going to pop the valve covers off tomorrow and take a peak.

 

[bratpackdad]

Head Gasket, coolant in the oil.

 

[Westech]

dont rewire the house just beacuse a light bulb burnt out. DO your home work first. to fix a oil cooler seal will cost about 10 bucks.. head gaskets 500 of you have the heads shaved (do it the correct way that is) and all the gaskets. I would rather spend a little time and a couple bucks to know for sure.... YOu think when I was a tech I would say the engine is blown with out checking some things first? Just my 2 cents.

 

[Bill W]

Changed out my oil cooler gaskets/o-rings, got them from Memphis Equipt for around $28 delivered. Easy repair

 

[patracy]

So you had coolant in the crankcase due to a leaking seal?

 

[dabtl]

I changed out the same oil cooler gaskets and o-rings. The o-rings were the problem.

 

[patracy]

Interesting! Would you happen to have any pics of the damaged o-rings? Were you getting oil in the coolant or just oil in the crankcase?

It does make some sense thinking through it now. As the coolant system does seem to stay pressurized long after shut down.

 

[dabtl]

I was getting coolant in the crankcase. The o-ring that was bad had a small portion of it discolored, they were orange and the defective portion was very dark.

 

[Bill W]

So you had coolant in the crankcase due to a leaking seal?

I did mine as a precaution being when I bought my deuce there was gobbs of rtv hanging out of the OC cover which made me suspicious enough to open it up and redo it right to which I'll probably never have to mess with it again

 

[patracy]

I picked up the gaskets today for the oil cooler from Tom at CSI. ($10.70 for all of them!) But the truck is covered in ice, so this will be a project for when I return back from a mini-vacation next week.

I've got to pick up some more oil, filters, and coolant as well.

 

[patracy]

I had a little time tonight so I pulled the valve covers and the oil cooler. I could tell one o-ring had a little discoloring to it, but I can't see it being the cause of the amount of coolant I'm seeing. The cooler looked fine, but I'll get it pressure checked just in case. The underside of the valve covers were NASTY. They're coated in milkshake. But suprisingly the oil isn't that bad. The freeze plugs under the rockers look fine too. I couldn't make out any leaking from the openings near the pushrods. Course that doesn't mean a lot.

I'm not sure the next step I want to take at the moment. I would think head gaskets would be the next possibility if the cooler checks out. I'm going to ask the previous owner, who bought the truck from GL, if they had changed the oil in it. If not, I think I'll change the oil (been meaning to anyhow) and toss a little alumiseal in the coolant system and see how things go. The coolant is also green with no oil in it. I had a clean plastic drum that I caught the coolant in.

Any thoughts?

 

[patracy]

Oh yeah, I had ran the truck the other day briefly. The rad cap still had a little pressure on it when I opened it up.