cavitation advice

[thill]

Here's my situation: 93 f 350, dump, 5 speed manual, l box, pto dump. Ultimate setup for treework. 148k. I paid 4 grand for thetruck. Needs injection pump, tank straps, horn fixed, a few other minor things. My concern is cavitation. Compression test was flawless. Coolant pressure test was done by me (18 psi, 5 mins, 3 x). Held pressure. Oil analysis- heavy metals were high. I haven't changed the oil yet. Judging by the condition of the guy I bought it from, it's probably been awhile. The problem: 2percent coolant. Before re I put money into it, I'd like to hear others opinions. The truck did sit for 4 month before I did the analysis. I did get the oil temp hot before I took thesample. Thoughts, advice opinions?

 

[laserjock]

Welcome to the forum.
First thing is don't panic. That is probably not cavitation. Somebody more in the know will chime in but other places where you can get coolant into the oil would be heads, head gaskets and the oil cooler. Is there any oil in the coolant? Did you check the coolant for the SCA?

Those are the questions I can think of right off.

 

[thill]

No oil in the coolant. Didn't check for sca's but I'm fairly confident they have never been added. The other stuff I dontknow how toCheck..

 

[ToughOldFord]

Cavitation concerns are overblown. It does happen, but it is rare. And you can't undue any past damage or neglect, so there is no point in losing sleep over it. Change your fluids, run the proper coolant with SCAs, forget about it and enjoy your truck.

 

[icanfixall]

The coolant in the oil can be as simple as leaking past a water pump bolt or the oil cooler needing o rings. All the above mentions can also allow coolant in the oil. Try changing the oil cooler o rings first. On that rig it may be easier than other pickup trucks. Its the cheapest way to go at this time and it never a bad idea to change them. When mine failed years ago they were rock hard and I thought they were some odd material. They did not look or feel like rubber.

 

[PwrSmoke]

Check for obvious things and if nothing is jumps out, change the oil and retest the oil after a couple thousand miles. For all you know, that coolant came from a previous repair and if it had been a long while since a change...???

When you pressure tested, did the system slowly lose pressure or did it hold? If it loses pressure track down where.

I have run into a few neglected engines that had evidence of coolant in the oil but no obvious cause. When the engine was then serviced properly, it was no longer a problem.

You may or may not have a problem, or a problem that is easily diagnosed until it gets worse, but the point is that it's not a good idea to go off on a goose chase, or shotgun a bunch of repairs until you have a clear direction. Most of the repairs you know it needs now are not related to the coolant issue e and won't have much of an effect on any repairs you may have to do later, so do what you know it needs and run it. That's what I would do lacking any obvious problem I could see.

As to the oil cooler, since oil pressure is lots higher than cooling system pressure, can you be getting coolant in the oil without getting oil in the coolant?

You might also try a good cooling system sealer. I've had good results from the alumaseal type stuff versus the brown doo-doo stuff. The alumaseal would be a good choice for leaking bolts, etc. If you have a leaking head gasket or oil cooler, non of that will help.

 

[thill]

How do I locate the oil cooler and o-rings? Thanks for your help so far

 

[laserjock]

Oil cooler is the big tube thing on the drivers side of the engine below the exhaust manifold. It is three pieces that go together with o-ring seals on the ends of the tube part. Can't check the o-rings without pulling the oil cooler. Lots of threads on here about oil cooler o-rings. There may even be a tech article on replacing them. Check out the tech articles section. Lots of good stuff in there.

Just as an aside, if I were in your place I'd probably change the oil, run it while and check again like was mentioned above before I did anything unless there is a visible leak somewhere.

 

[C_Luft]

Check autozone or advance for oil cooler O-rings and gasket , Victor rienz# gs33545

 

[79jasper]

You can do a combustion gas test on the coolant.
Just ask the 6.0 and 6.4 powerstroke guys. Lol

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk

 

[yARIC008]

Based on the information presented so far it is impossible to tell if it's cavitation. Your options are head gasket, oil cooler, or cavitation. Obviously the simplest to do (relatively speaking) is the oil cooler. Next would be the head gasket, then would be cavitation repair.

I've had two engine fail from cavitation, both right around 110,000 to 120,000 miles. Without proper SCA protection the 7.3L is very prone to it.

Here are some pictures of what cavitation looks like. http://www.oilburners.net/articles/cavitationartic.html#real

 

[thill]

what can I do to determine head gasket vs cavitation repair?

 

[79jasper]

Compression then Leak down test.
If one is low, bring it to tdc, then do leak down.

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[thill]

I had a compression test done. Im not sure if the mechanic actually did the test thought. He only charged me for an hour of labor for a compression test and to look the whole truck over for defects and problems. How long would it take to remove the glow plugs and test all 8 cylinders?

 

[Sycostang67]

If there is no turbo on the truck, you can get to all 8 glow plugs pretty quickly. It takes me 60-90 minutes on a turbo truck, about 30, maybe less on an N/A truck.