'94 Engine head gasket or cracked head?

[ttman4]

Well when it rains it pours in my world!

'94 factory turbo engine in my '90 CC Dually with 4" body lift. Been watching things for a while, watching dried water tracks down that side of block, but till recently no wet tracks. Now wet water & oil tracks. Used 1+gal distilled water other day in 200 mi. I've parked it.

Anyway Now I think I got a Dr side head gasket leaking. Not valve cover. Getting water in oil, no oil in water though. Loosing water & antifreeze and oil down side of block & blown backwards. Just hope it's not cracked head.

Other nite I cracked oildrain plug while cold but wasn't able to see any water drops. Pulled dr side valve cover & lots of water drops, BLACK goo sludge all in everything, not gray/milky, but black. CDR valve full of black goo. About 1K on this oil change. BTW, last oil change decided to add pt of LUCUS oil additive.

Recently rebuilt my oilcooler & posted about my "Oilcooler rebuild Boo-Boo." Near as can tell oilcooler isn't leaking, least not externally. But that was why I rebuilt the oilcooler then, hoping that was where water was going.

What little time I've had to research seems FelPro gaskets are general consensus here?
I've never overhauled one of these things or done a head job before, heck, will have to learn even how to adjust the valves/rockers!! But it's time to learn! Gott'a laugh about this somehow.

This thing been/still running awesome, stout, good oil pressure, etc, etc, Specially since Russ/Typ4 rebuilt my turbo & I put new/rebuilt IP & injectors in this thing. Going to pressure ck cooling system today & try to go from there.

Any thoughts, ideas, etc be appreciated. Or 'yall can cry with me. I don't need this right now, with everything else going on in my world !!! ......sigh......

 

[Thewespaul]

Couple things, you have hydraulic lifters so you have no manual adjustment in the valve train. Just about every 7.3 head i get is cracked, but very rarely is it enough to leak coolant. Hopefully you will pull a head off and find an obvious blown head gasket. Worst case scenario is your top end is fine and it is cavitation. You’ll know soon enough, when you go to overhaul the engine id recommend looking up the 7.3 cooling mod before ordering gaskets. Once you tear down the engine, post up your findings and we all will try to advise you as best we can. Good luck!

 

[ttman4]

Thanks Wes.
Mostly what I see is external oil and coolant leak about half way back down the block on the driver side. I may try to rebuild this oil cooler another time and see what happens. But so far I don’t think it is my oil cooler.

I am going to try to pressure check my coolant system this afternoon then go from there.

Edit: happy turkey day everyone.

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I am going to try to pressure check my coolant system this afternoon then go from there.

That's the best bet. It could save you some time and money. Before you try this, make sure that your cooling system is full. Any air in the system will compress a lot easier that the coolant. You can still build pressure, but it takes a whole lot more pumping on the tester. I wouldn't think cavitation since you can see coolant leaking down the outside of your block. Cavitation would keep all of it inside.

 

[Macrobb]

Head gasket. They tend to start leaking near the back at first, and Ive had two engines start weeping coolant from the gaskets out the sides/back like this
It starts when you get it really hot or work it *hard* for a long time, and may only leak when under load. Then, eventually it'll blow, but it could be a year.

 

[IDIoit]

with the 3 heads that ive personally seen crack, the majority of the cracks have been between the valves in a single cylinder.
when the coolant leaks from a cracked head, you end up with coolant in your combustion chamber which effects starting and what comes out of the tail pipe.

sounds to me like a headgasket.