Coolant Problem

[New2Diesel04]

Well while changing my dreadful ICP sensor on my F250 i noticed the coolant looked a lil odd. Was wandering if anyone could pin point why it looks the way it does., http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...05_1728101.jpg

[dieseldan2005]

pic kinda sucks, but is there oil in the coolant?

[New2Diesel04]

not sure possibly i can get another pic its only like that coming out of the degaus bottle it was just clean coolant in the the hoses.

[mike 6.0]

pic is hard to see could be casting sand?

[New2Diesel04]

here are a few more pictures hope these help a little more

[Tony721]

I discovered the exact same thing in my coolant bottle today. My coolant is clean, but I have this sludge on the sides of the coolant bottle above where the coolant level is. No loss of oil, no sign of water in the oil. I pulled a few of the smaller hoses that go to the coolant bottle and they are all clean, no residue at all. Checked the trans fluid as well. Still Bright Red and clean, and the level is right where it is supposed to be.

No smoke, truck idles and runs fine, no loss of power. Just this brown sludge on the inside of the bottle. I have no idea what this is!!

[Banshee365]

Wow, I hope fordmasterdieseltech or mchan check out this thread. To me it looks like your oil cooler and failed and contaminated your cooling system. Your's looks pretty bad but maybe salvagable. Ford actually say's that a contamination of the right magnitude can ruin and engine as it cannot be flush out. No matter what the issue is you need to stop driving the truck and start tearing it down if you do your own work on your truck. I'm assuming your have and 03 of 04. Order and oil cooler rebuild kit, EGR cooler (or EGR delete kit), 2 qt's of VC-9 iron block flush, 3 gallons of simple green cleaner and follow the Ford TSB for flushing of a contaminated cooling system. Here's a link to one copy: 08-23-1*** 6.0L DIESEL COOLING SYSTEM CONTAMINATION FLUSH PROCEDURE

To do it right you need to replace all rubber hoses along with the degas bottle. Try to get as of that crap out before replacing the parts. You'll be saving your engine if you spend the time following the TSB PERFECTLY. If you want to take the time to delete your EGR you'll be taking away a big weak point of your engine at the same time. I may be crazy, but if it were my truck, I would park it now and start cleaning that thing out. Plan to remove the radiator and heat core to have them hot tank or professionaly flushed while they're out of the truck. You'll know they're clean by doing this. When you're done install a coolant filter kit to keep our rebuilt oil cooler lasting.

[New2Diesel04]

hmmm aight well its down right now since the icp sensor took 2 weeks to get here for some odd reason, so i havnt drove the truck in bout 3 to 4 weeks.....looks like i got some work to do then....that sucks was hoping it was something major...but like Tony721 said i havnt had any loss of power or anything......off to order parts i guess oh joy

[Banshee365]

You may be able to drive it, for how long who knows. If you want a long lasting, dependable engine I would do as listed above. You'll feel alot better when you have a hard time looking at your coolant level because it is so clean. Check out the 6.0 bible in the stickies and look at everything coolant touches. It's so integral to the 6.0's operation that it should be clean and filtered. Replacing the rubber parts will save from future blow-outs that could happen down the road. If your oil cooler has failed you'll be running some high oil temps if you drive it as it is which is no good. If your truck runs good now you'll be much better off and happier with it all cleaned up. If you want to save some coin on ford parts check TascaParts.com in RI. That's where I buy all of my parts and you'll save a ton, especially on the VC-9 and such.

[New2Diesel04]

Does anyone roughly know what this cost so I know what I'm looking at?