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Low mile 6.0 dumping oil (I think)

2K views 21 replies 8 participants last post by  SparkyF250 
#1 ·
Unfortunately my new to me truck decided to give me the 6.0 woes for the first time today. I bought it at 59,800 miles in May and now have 70,400. I had a normal commute home and parked my truck in the driveway like normal, about 20 minutes later I noticed that there on the right side aft engine bay there was a puddle in the driveway. At first I was not worried thinking it was the AC thawing but to be safe I looked into it anyways. To my horror there was 5" diameter puddle of light brownish to my opinion is oil on the ground with a steady drip coming from the truck.

Some maintenance history on my truck:
-At delivery the truck was taken to my local diesel performance shop and deemed to be a perfect truck
-At 62,900 NEW air filter and blue spring kit installed
-Oil changed at 64K miles with factory oil filter and Schaeffers 9000 oil used
-Coolant system flushed at 64,700 miles by the diesel shop and they used 50/50 ELC EC-1 Coolant, mechanic noted that very little deposits were found in the drained ford coolant
-Oil changed at 69,275 with factory oil filter and schaeffers 9000 used again, oil analysis was clean and normal contaminants.

Other info-

-X4 programmer set on street tune and monitor deltas every trip, never more than 8 degree difference
-Degas bottle still full and has dust all around it, no evidence of puking.
-No CEL
-No steam or smoke in the exhaust when cold or normal driving, only black when getting on it.

Have only pulled 1 empty trailer since I have owned the truck so far and it was at 67K miles and I used the 50 HP tow tune. During my drive home I was on the freeway with the cruise set on level ground, no hot rodding at all.

Really this truck has been babied and I know the 6.0 is prone to problems but as far as I can tell there are zero signs of blown heads. I dont know if the truck did it on the way to work and left a puddle in the work parking lot.

From what I can see the leak is coming from around the rear right head, in the pic you can see dried fluid on the head but I dont think that is from this trip due to the amount of fluid I am getting.

Where are some possible trouble areas to look for? Should I park it until the shop can get it in in two weeks?

Some pics to help the diagnostic. Confusing thing is Scheaffers oil is green, my coolant is very clear clean yellow and quickly is absorbed by the towel. The two mixed together does not look like the fluid that is dripping.










 
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#2 ·
As I dig more the hints are getting more and more grim. I was able to stick my phone up and take a video to try to locate where it is coming from but by the looks of it the very rear of the head mating with the block is soaked.

Part of me still doesn't believe it, I really expected it to take some work to make it pop, not just driving down the road to cause this. Is it possible the turbo blew a seal and it is just running down the head? oil cooler?

 
#3 ·
Are you sure that's oil? Hard to say in the pics but it kinda looks more like coolant to me. Does the leaking fluid have an odor? Take a whiff out of the degas and compare. That also looks like it might be gold coolant. A switch to a good ELC might be in order.
 
#5 ·
Your original post said you had ELC put in right? the pic you show the syringe full of what looked like gold coolant???? They don't mix. The post above from DMc says it looks like a gold coolant leak, is your oil low on the stick? are you loosing coolant?
 
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#6 ·
I agree it does not look like the oil I use. I tried to do a sniff check but it has stopped dripping and I don't have any left over to get an accurate comparison. Only reason I thought oil was because the yellow EC-1 coolant I had flushed about 6K miles ago is very light colored and the towel quickly absorbed it to where you almost cant see it. The dripping fluid has a very slippery oil consistency, but the coolant also has a slick consistency as well. I will have to take it for another drive to get another sample.

I looked in the valley and all over the turbo, dry as a bone. I really can only guess it is the head at this point. Either way the bulletproofing came earlier than I expected.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Sorry guys I was typing and didnt see the other replies. Yes as a precautionary step I took the truck to a Diesel shop to flush the factory gold coolant out. They added a "treatment" to the system and let the truck run and get it circulated before they did the flush. I was told they put in the yellow 50/50 extended life synthetic EC-1 global complete (from my note he wrote out for me). Said it is a universal coolant that can be mixed with any other yellow coolant.

To be 100% honest I am slightly color blind so I dont know if I am looking at gold or yellow coolant, I dont have any gold to compare. But would the gold cause a problem in 6K miles? I specifically asked how the removed coolant looked and if I should expect a clogged oil cooler and the tech said it looked good. Would I get a delta split between the coolant and oil? they never usually are over 202 degrees and a difference of 8 degrees, might have changed on the last mile on my way home and I didnt notice. But the degas has no signs of leaks, I purposely leave dust in that area so it is easier to tell.

It is possible I have an exhaust manifold leak, I do get the smell in the cab at stops. could this possibly burn up the head in a different way or warp it?
 
#11 ·
I will call tomorrow to find out exactly what they put in, if it is not EC-1 I will be PISSED. The receipt they gave me doesn't have a brand, just says "EXT. LIFE GLOBAL COMPLETE ANTIFREEZE" and a quantity of 6 gallons. If what they used was not EC-1 could this cause this?

I took a look at the short blue hose in the valley under the turbo (I think that's what you were referring to, im a 7.3 guy) and as far as I can tell there are no leaks, it is mostly dry under it and a darker spot a little to the left that doesn't look too suspicious. Its possible that the hot engine evaporated it so I will look at it again when it is hot. I would think the wet head would be evaporated by now too if that was the case.

I did notice that the small blue vacuum line was unplugged from the little canister next to the oil fill cap. wish that stupid thing would stay on better.
 
#13 ·
Im going to call up the shop tomorrow, the more I research the more furious I am getting. Dont know why the "performance diesel" shop that builds race and pull motors would put something obviously wrong in the truck. From what I can tell your right and it should be red. WTF!!

So back to the problem, the wrong coolant was put in 6K miles ago and the only source that I can see is the head to block mating surface. So far I have noticed no other symptoms of blown head gaskets, the drive in the morning should reveal something if it is that bad.

Could I have a claim that the shop caused this problem? Or is there another location I should look on the back of the engine for clues? I have some inspection equipment at work that I will use when I get there to dig further.
 
#14 ·
I don't think their universal coolant would cause a leak.But mixing coolant has been known to create thick "jelly" crud that could clog oil coolers. Not all Cat-ELC should be mixed either. The Zerez ELC has silicates, and none of the other red ELCs do. Here's an interesting chart
http://www.eetcorp.com/antifreeze/Coolants_matrix.pdf
 
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#15 · (Edited)
Whoa now. Hold your horses there.
Like most vehicles, head gaskets on these trucks do not leak externally. You have a coolant leak. Somewhere above, that's leaking down and along the head and block seam. You need to pressure test it and see where it's originating.
As for the shop not using cat coolant, I really don't see the big deal about it. I mean, if they said it was cat, sure. Ask them wtf? But honestly, there's nothing wrong with global llc. It's still oat silicate free. Only difference is it doesn't last 600,000 miles. It "only" lasts about 400k. Like really? No one's gonna do a drain and fill within that interval?
But hey that's just my opinion
 
#16 ·
It's a coolant leak dude. Plain and simple. It's not coming from the head. Like Dmc and other have stated it's probably the blue egr hose and or the gasket for the oil cooler. It also could be the heater control valve. Again as Dmc stated. You have extended life coolant. Just not EC-1.


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#17 ·
Looks like I missed a lot while I was asleep. Don't get too upset just yet. Like the other posters, I agree that it's a coolant leak. It probably won't be too big of a deal. There's only a few places it could be coming from. It leaks at such a small volume it's hard to see where it's coming from but you already know the usual suspects. Try to get a paper towel under the little EGR hose. If there's a hanging drip of coolant there you'll find it. Same thing with the heater valve. May not be visible from the top but wipe the bottom with a paper towel and see what comes back. Some grime is normal, a wet drop of coolant will tell you where the problem is.

As far as the coolant causing the leak..... No, I don't believe the "wrong" coolant caused the leak. I brought up the Global coolant just so you'd know it isn't EC-1 rated. Thought maybe you paid a premium for EC-1 and didn't get what you paid for so just wanted you to know. I use an EC-1 rated coolant just because that's what I bought when I did my first coolant change and I was so happy with its performance I've stuck with it. Specifically, I could see a bunch of crud in the bottom of my degas bottle that I couldn't ever reach to scrub out. Within a couple months of running EC-1 it was completely gone so I assumed it did the same thing for the rest of the cooling system. Again, don't know if the EC-1 rating is what cleaned the bottle so well but it worked and I'm sticking with it. Even though your coolant isn't EC-1, it's still silicate free and I think that's the biggest requirement you want your coolant to meet. I'm sure you've done some reading on this but it's the silicates in the gold coolant that got the blame for falling out of suspension and forming a goo that plugged passages in the oil cooler resulting in downstream isssues with the EGR cooler and head gaskets.

So to sum up..... Find your leak. It may not be readily apparent but just keep poking and prodding until you find it. Not hurting anything, just make sure the truck stays full of coolant for however long it takes you to find it. By the way, full of coolant means it's about a half inch below the minimum line on the bottle. And no worries about a claim against the shop. I don't think this will turn out to be a major repair so there's really nothing to claim and I don't think it's a result of the coolant used. Lastly, change out the coolant if you want to. I would but I really like the stuff I'm using and I'm biased against anything else. If it's silicate free, safe for all metals and plastics and it works for you then use it. The main thing to remember is, keep it clean and change it on a regular basis. That's not bad advice for underwear either!
 
#18 ·
I've had the exact same leak 3 different times now. Dripping in the exact same spot as yours. The first time it was the small blue hose. The next two times were the o ring on the egr delete j tube that goes into the intake manifold. An egr cooler has this same o ring. You need a really bright flashlight and the system needs to be pressurized. Whether you hook up an air compressor or just drive it until it gets up to operating temp. If you drive it from cold up to operating temp this will pressurize it a little due to thermal expansion. I wouldn't necessarily advise this as the best way since the motor will be hot! When it's pressurized use your light and look in the valley right where the head meets the block. It runs along there then drips off the back. I have a little more room to see it clearly with a delete kit but I'd be willing to bet it's one of those two things
 
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#19 ·
Thanks to everyone that pointed me in the right direction, by the time I got to the top side of the engine it had all evaporated, did turn out to be the heater valve, crazy it decided to just go like that. When I got to work this morning I looked and everything was dry, After lunch it I took a look at the suspects that were recommended and sure enough it was wet. Still getting used to the 6.0 so I assumed the worst as I know it will happen eventually.

The different coolant scared the crap out of me, usually if wrong oil or hydraulic fluid is used it will eat up the seals and leak like a sieve. And yes I paid a premium for the coolant flush and the EC-1 is what everyone screams for so I thought that's what they used, never saw anywhere that it was red, just stay away from the silicate gold.

Normally I would have only gotten the motorcraft but they wanted 110$ and ship it in. I opted for a regular auto parts one since its a simple design and even the factory one is flawed. Anyone make a better valve?
 
#20 ·
Glad you found it. Pretty easy fix. If there's a better valve out there, I haven't seen it. My original lasted for 155,000 miles so I'm hoping the replacement lasts that long too. Thought about just ditching it and putting in a straight piece of pipe but that was when I was in Washington & Colorado and didn't use the AC much. Now that I'm in Arkansas the AC is on MAX all the time so it's nice to have the heater core bypassed!
 
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