Sudden coolant leak

[leftcoastjeff]

Perfect timing, I got time and no money.

Coolant is dripping from the oil filter. remove the cap on the rad. it flows!

Oil cooler?

I just washed it, there's a little water above it, on the head.....

Hope it's the cooler O-rings!

Truck's ready to go to the dump, engine's not. Spewing clouds of steam in 2 miles from stone cold.

Looked at the tech articals, will do again......

Happened quick, I was surprised how fast, glad I was not on the highway at the time. pretty sure it would have emptied the cooling system post-haste.

I'll look again tomorrow when things are cold, maybe pics!

Thanks in advance,

LCjeff

 

[Mat J]

sounds like oil cooler because its right above the filter.

 

[leftcoastjeff]

good morning

I'm having a problem finding a thread in which the oil cooler is removed and replaced, leaving the front cooler manifold in place. IIRC

Put some water in the rad. this AM, it dumped out around the oil filter.

Guess I'll look for an International dealer locally, anybody got the part #s?

LCjeff

 

[leftcoastjeff]

Is this the correct cooler?

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1167691783035088401OcDNeM

 

[The Warden]

That cooler would work on your truck...however, it's a 6-ring oil cooler from an early 6.9l. IH switched from the 6-ring design to a 4-ring design in the 1984 model year IIRC (I have the serial number info at home, FWIW). The basic design is similar IIRC, but you can't use a 6-ring bundle with 4-ring end caps or vice-versa.

I can't offer too much more, since I've never looked at a 4-ring cooler. Hopefully someone else can chime in soon.

Dumb question, but how sure are you that the coolant's leaking from the cooler itself and not from the gasket where it mates to the block? I don't recall having heard of a cooler developing an external leak like this before...usually, an O-ring fails and coolant gets into the oil (or vice-versa) as opposed to leaking externally. Possibly it's just a matter of replacing the gasket? On that same note, you might want to make sure that the oil cooler assembly isn't cracked and needs to be replaced.

Good luck with it...

 

[leftcoastjeff]

thanks

Thanks for the heads-up, I'll clean the area and snap some pics to get a better look. I learned my camera can see way more detail than I can.

I would think that my cooler has only 4 rings, looks orig. (87)

If its the gasget, will I need to remove the front as well as the rear end caps?
That front one looks like a real PITA to get at.

LCjeff

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Pull your A/C compressor and you'll have a great access to the front cap of the oil cooler. I just tossed my compressor in the scrap bin, then moved the P/S pump 3/4" forward so that it runs off the most-front grooves in the crank and W/P pulleys (I needed the middle grooves to run the vacuum pump), and now I'm having all sorts of room in there!

 

[leftcoastjeff]

Thanks

I'll remove the AC, never used it, don't need it, here on the coast.

So......I'll see tomorrow

pics to follow.

LCjeff

 

[argve]

How I did the oil cooler...

all this work is done laying under the truck.

Start off by draining the oil and coolant.

Remove the oil filter - it only gets in your way.

Remove the bolts attaching the rear header to the block.

Pry the rear header off the bundle. You will find more than likely the bundle will come out of the front header.

now remove the front header.

Clean everything up and reinstall the front header.

Now press the bundle into the rear header outside the truck. If you need you can take a floor jack and some pieces of wood and use the frame of the truck or rear bumper as a point to jack against. Make sure you lube the o-rings and the header and install the o-rings on the bundle first then press them together.

Now with the rear header and bundle together crawl under the truck and line up the bundle to go into the front header and pry it into place with a piece of wood - I always used a 2x4. Now that that's done attach the rear header to the block, install oil filter, fill with oil and coolant. enjoy!

 

[leftcoastjeff]

again thanks

If I remove both (oil cooler)headers, why wouldn't I assemble the "bundle" before installing?
There must be a reason.

The Napa people were clueless (which is understandable) for a sunday,
I'll call tomorrow when the hounds are there, if they no-go, it's off to IH for a try.

It seems these parts could be remaned pretty easy, just need all the specs. for the rings and pattern for the gasgets.
Who's gonna make a kit? If I buy one, I'm gunna think hard about that as a spare or 2....

So, if i remove the AC and steering pumps, it looks like a fairly easy job to get to the front header, (endcap?) having to clean is the hard part, prep means success......

I now return you to your regular programing

LCjeff

 

[argve]

reason for not reinstalling a fully assembled oil cooler is because you can't get the entire thing in place with both headers installed. The front header is forward of the cross member and the rear header is rearward.... You can lift the motor and squeeze it in there but why go through that extra work when you don't have to is my motto...

 

[argve]

Oh and on the gaskets - have used "smurf poop" before on them without a problem. But the paper gaskets aren't real expensive. The only reason I used them once was because I yanked the cooler off thinking that I had a set stashed away in the ye ole goodies box and didn't - had the o-rings but not the gaskets... so there I sat with my only transportation in pieces and I had to go to work later.... so I grabbed up the tube and went to squirting - figured that it might leak and I would just have redo it later... but that later never came - sealed up just fine.... must have been because I stopped and picked up the gaskets on the way to work that night. Had I not done that it would have been pouring out.... ya know murphy's law....

 

[icanfixall]

I have the Ford part number for the front gasket on my desk. Its E3TZ-6A636-G. Its a spare gasket that I bought and when I wanted to use it I found the package was slightly cut when I bought it.... Sure enough the gasket was cut in half in the smallest area of the gasket... Who would have known....

 

[leftcoastjeff]

OK, I spoke with the stealership $70.00, But they said 6 rings not 4.
So I asked if they are the same part# for the 6.9 and 7.2, the answer was yes.

Geez, why do they have to be so pricey?

LCjeff

PS Napa wanted to sell me 3 gasgets, no o-rings!

 

[The Warden]

OK, I spoke with the stealership $70.00, But they said 6 rings not 4.
So I asked if they are the same part# for the 6.9 and 7.2, the answer was yes.

Geez, why do they have to be so pricey?

LCjeff

PS Napa wanted to sell me 3 gasgets, no o-rings!

That doesn't surprise me. To my knowledge, the O-rings are a dealer only part. Napa will sell you a kit with 3 gaskets; you can just discard one of them (it's for the van-specific oil cooler) and use the other two.

As for the O-rings...they aren't cheap, although $70 sounds like a bit much. I still have my receipts from when I did it in '04, and I bought the O-rings for the 4-ring cooler assembly before I realized that I had a 6-ring cooler (that's what I get for thinking ahead and buying things in advance ). The outer O-rings (green; used with both oil cooler designs) are (or at least were in 2004) Ford part number 1C3Z-6C610-BA, and were $4.21 each in 2004. The inner (purple IIRC) O-rings are Ford part number 1C3Z-6K649-BA and were $10.03 each in 2004. And, just for the record, the inner O-rings for the 6-ring oil cooler setup are Ford p/n E3TZ-6K649-A, cost $5.83 each in '04, and are now discontinued according to a few people on here. All of the O-rings are packaged individually, so you'll have to buy two of each for a 4-ring oil cooler.

If Ford keeps giving you a hard time, you might try an IH dealer. They may be more helpful.

Hope that helps some...good luck! BTW, http://www.dieselwarden.net/ford/project10.html here's a little bit more on the differences between the two oil coolers. I don't know why Ford's trying to tell you that you have a 6-ring oil cooler, unless there's a mistake in their system...which is VERY possible. IIRC the FSM says to put the inner rings inside the headers before installing the bundle; however, if you do this with a 4-ring cooler, you'll cut the O-rings. With a 4-ring oil cooler, you need to put the inner rings on the bundle...however, it IS correct to install the inner rings on the 6-ring cooler in the header and in fact can't be done any other way.

Confused yet?

Also, when I did my oil cooler, I had the cylinder heads off and was able to install the assembly on the engine after I had pressed both headers onto the bundle. However, I installed it from the top, which I think is impossible with the heads and exhaust manifolds installed. So, I tend to agree with Travis about pressing the assembly into the already-installed front header...although I've never done it myself...