Oil getting in the coolant

[Idi93]

I'm fixing to buy a 92' F350 crew cab, long bed 7.3 NA, 5 speed, 4x4, with 180,000. The truck itself is clean, the only problem is that it's getting oil in the coolant. I haven't noticed any coolant in the oil. The truck had rebuilt heads put on after this problem started, and there is no change. I'm kind of leaning towards a busted oil cooler, but would like to get more input from people who have had more experience with this issue. Thanks for y'alls help.

 

[Dieselcrawler]

Oil cooler orings are done for. Look in the tech articals, there is a thread in there for rebuilding them.

 

[stumiister]

If thats all it is then I would buy the truck oil coolers are relitivly inexpensive to replace compared to replacing the heads or sleaving the block, and from the sounds of I would pull the oil cooler off and have it tested its possible it could have a crcked tube, if it comes back good, it could have had a bad gasket on the block or o-ring between the ends and the center core.
I had a radiator shop test and replace the 0-rings on mine.
But I had bought a truck with 2 cracked heads, so I rebuilt the engine, then I ran into problems with freze plugs but after about 8K miles on the rebuild all is good.

 

[Dsl_Dog_Treat]

It seems that once they start approaching the 200k mark, the orings have started getting hard and start failing. I've replaced more than I can remember and all seemed to be at the 200k mark, IDI or Powerstroke.

 

[Idi93]

I may buy the orings first, and see what it does. I'm getting the truck for a good enough price, and it's not one with a time constraint, so I'll just tinker with it. The main thing I want to find out is if it might be "the worm". Worst case scenario, I put the motor from my 93' in it.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

what Ron said about the hard o-rings.

i did my oil cooler at around 213K miles(headgasket project) and the orings were so dry i was surprised they were not leaking at all. i could bend them and they just cracked and disintegrated.

 

[Idi93]

Well, got the orings changed out, bolted back in, now it looks like I'm puking oil between the front header and the block. I'm guessing I screwed up the gasket. Any other ideas?

 

[icanfixall]

Sounds like a fubared gasket... Sorry but its time for gaskets again. Did you use some rtv on the gaskets??? If so thats usually the reason for leaks. RTV is very slippery and the gaskets get squeezed out. Use some 3m weatherstrip cement. They wont move useing that stuff next time.