Trying to pin point coolant leak into oil hoping for some advise

[WyoF350turbo]

Hi
So i have a 1993 F350 crew cab with a ZF5 and a factory turboed 7.3 IDI, so my problem is that I am loosing coolant ad having a hard time figuring out what is happening and what is going on the truck has 189000 miles on it. I have seen no white smoke or sickly antifreeze smell from the exhaust like a classic head gasket. I had to replace the o-rings on the oil cooler as they failed and have been replaced. I have pressure tested the cooling system and the system holds pressure I did this with a full cooling system and no oil and left the drain plug out to see if anything made it to the pan and nothing system held pressure. Refilled with oil and started truck let it run nothing out of the ordinary and no weird noises no oil in coolant or coolant in oil, let truck sit overnight went and checked nothing out of the ordinary started and let idle watched everything and everything was good. Let sit overnight again and now the radiator is low enough to see the baffles and the oil is mixed, pressure tested coolant system again and it holds pressure, pulled glow plugs and got some coolant out of the number 4 cylinder thru glow plug hole. Now I am wondering if I am overlooking something or if this is a head gasket gone bad or worse, when the truck is running there is no bubbling or burping into the radiator or coolant bottle. Anything i have overlooked or any ideas from anyone??????
Thanks sorry its long
Ralph

 

[riotwarrior]

Sounds like cavitation to me...suggest read stickies...learn about it. If piston sat just right likely wouldnt lose coolant then sits differently and bam...bobs yer aunt n water in oil

 

[OLDBULL8]

Cavitation occurs predominantly on the drives side. That mileage is about right for it to happen if SCA's have not been used in the coolant.

Do you know what Antifreeze coolant you have in it?

riotwarrior is more than likely correct on what you have.

Only real way to tell is to pull that side head, and put the piston at the bottom. Then you can pressurize the system.

 

[WyoF350turbo]

Not sure what coolant was in it when I bought it but I replaced it with green conventional and mixed it with distilled water and added the wix coolant additive to it

 

[WyoF350turbo]

Stickies is a member who has a write up on cavitation correct??

 

[Knuckledragger]

Stickies are the threads at the top of the page when you open the forum. They are all "stuck" in one place for easy retrieval.

Go here and read: http://www.oilburners.net/forums/sh...on-Block-Worm-The-Expensive-Death-A-MUST-READ!

 

[WyoF350turbo]

Thanks

 

[icanfixall]

Sadly you do post what appears to be cavitation. But as already posted. Only way of knowing for sure is to remove head. Might actually see the corrosion coming thru the cylinder liner too.

 

[WyoF350turbo]

Ok well looks like I'll be pulling the head off to take a look

 

[riotwarrior]

Ok well looks like I'll be pulling the head off to take a look

It can be donewith heads on but ya have a lot of work to do it.

Involves removing glow plugs....locating tdc and bdc for various cyl..pressure testing coolant system and rotating engine to various spots..

It really likely cannot be anything else other than cavitation likely and sadly.

Removing heads you can usually see the results..

JM7.3CW

 

[idiabuse]

It can be donewith heads on but ya have a lot of work to do it.

Involves removing glow plugs....locating tdc and bdc for various cyl..pressure testing coolant system and rotating engine to various spots..

It really likely cannot be anything else other than cavitation likely and sadly.

Removing heads you can usually see the results..

JM7.3CW

see what happens when you use AMSOIL? told ya so!

 

[riotwarrior]

see what happens when you use AMSOIL? told ya so!

W T F are talking about willis?

 

[WyoF350turbo]

So with cavitation being the most likely culprit for my issue I should be able to sleeve the motor and rebuild and start over new with it and be ok right

 

[riotwarrior]

So with cavitation being the most likely culprit for my issue I should be able to sleeve the motor and rebuild and start over new with it and be ok right

That would indeed be a remanufactured engine yes

 

[WyoF350turbo]

So then sleeving a 7.3 would be ok and not have alot of problems as long as the machine shop know what they are doing