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Need opinion - Dirty/old coolant or oil/coolant mix?

8

87cr250r

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Oil cooler failures are a most common cause of oil in coolant. It's usually a fairly straightforward repair. But, you want to take care of it quickly because the oil will attack anything rubber in the cooling system.

It's also very difficult to clean out so it's not uncommon to have some residual oil that shows up in stagnant areas like coolant reservoirs.

Also, with the common plate type heat exchangers it's usually just the o-rings where they attach to the block that go bad. No need to replace the cooler itself.
 
Elijah95

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I tackled this mess a few weeks ago, check out Post #11

Elijah95s wrecker project

Recovered my a wrecker yesterday from Patracy, and if all goes well going to fix a few issues, attempt to convert to air brakes with my donor M925, and see if a little wallet molestation can breath new life into a classic. Here’s to my M543A2! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
www.steelsoldiers.com


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
WillWagner

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MarkM said:
It could use a flush for sure. If you suspect a leaking head gasket then there are products out there like the one below. They test for exhaust gasses in the coolant.

Mark

View attachment 892576
Click to expand...
In an older 855, WITHOUT the newer "Cealastic" head gaskets, it is almost impossible to get coolant into the oil / oil in the coolant via the head gasket. The only place oil can migrate into the oil from a head gasket is from the push tube cavity or the OP feed to the heads that are connected to the PT cavity. I have seen a low OP complaint from a ripped OP feed/PT cavity seal. It was very difficult to find and the only external sign was a large oil leak down the intake side of the block. The water grommets stick to the head/block via compression/ torqueing of the bolts. The grommets are made from a fibrous material that seals to the surfaces and in a separate cavity from the PT cavity. The PT cavity is not connected to any of the pressurized coolant or compression cavities and made of a rubber material but is connected to the cylinder head oil pressure feed. No chance of mixing oil and coolant there. If water grommets fail, you get the "Cummins Tears" which are the streaks down the block from the coolant eating/washing the paint away. Compression leaks will just blow out from under the gasket and the result is a "chirp" on laoded acceleration and a loaded uphill pull.

Cealastic gaskets are different. They have molded passages that are not connected, but VERY close to one another. These can leak coolant into the oil via the cylinder if a compression seal leaks, the oil pressure to head passage and the PT cavity. They are junk gaskets. The dye above still wouldn't pick out a compression into coolant on N14 engines, one had to use a stand pipe sealed to the radiator neck, watch the bubbles and short out cylinders to see which stopped the bubbles. With the intro of EGR, the test above did find exhaust gasses into the cooing system.

I cannot explain why the kit didn't work on old engines but does on newer engines because it senses C02. Maybe because higher C02 in EGR engines? Dunno. But on an 855 the dye test will not work well enough to pin point a gasket failure

I covered the difference between the gaskets a few moons ago. Don't have pics on the new puter to show the difference, Let me see if I can find some stuff to show the difference between the two
 
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