Radiator fluid discoloration and overflow

[Daves05KR]

Hello all, long time reader first time poster

I have a bit of a problem i hope you guys can help me answer. I recently towed a vehicle 400miles, half way through the tow i stopped for a short break, and when walking back i noticed a steady leak of a milky brown texture dripping onto my front right shock and then down to the ground. So i poped my hood and noticed it is coming from my radiator coolant reservoir, I unscrewed the cap and the picture you see attached is what happened next. I have a feeling it might be a blown head gasket, but not sure...im thinking the oil is leaking into the radiator coolant at the gasket and coming up and purging it self out the top, but that is total speculation. To top things off i did check my other fluids to make sure nothing else was acting up and my oil was 3x quarts low. So that further leads me to believe that is the problem.

I drove the last 200 miles and constantly monitored to see if anything was over heating and nothing ever did. I stopped and checked the coolant again after the trip and after unscrewing the cap the milky substance began to overflow again

Does anyone have any ideas? Am I right to think that this might be the issue or am I way off? Any suggestions?

[sinner6.0L]

suspect oil cooler failure

[jse51599]

Wtf is that!?

[Daves05KR]

I dropped it off today at a local diesel shop, I was explaining the problem to the mechanic and he mentioned it would be roughly $4500 to replace the gasket, new studs and EGR delete, all of which i planned on doing eventually, just wrong timing. But if it is the engine oil cooler that would be a huge sigh of relief, its still a **** ton of money but only half the cost, ill find out more in the morning when he can further look into it.

[OUMX117]

That definitely looks like an oil cooler failure. Don't let them jump to slapping headgaskets in it without proper testing.

[Daves05KR]

Ok, so just heard back from the shop. It definitely is the engine oil cooler, so thankfully its not a 4k job, but for $2500 they are going to replace the radiator and engine oil cooler with a beefier system and install a EGR delete...So hopefully this will do the trick and last awhile before i have any more issues (Crosses fingers)

[mike 6.0]

Dave I would ask more questions about a beefier system for 2500 bucks? Needs good flush and new cooler for sure. What is wrong with radiator that it can't be cleaned? Hoses are toast and now is a good time to change to elc coolant. Would do more reading on subject plenty on the org. Good luck we all feel your 6.0 pain. CTS would have saved you money in the long run, coolant filter couldn't hurt either.

[Daves05KR]

Originally they were just going to flush the radiator and leave it at that, but then the mechanic mentioned for about the same price as a flush I can get your a beefier radiator from bulletproof diesel. I think the price for the flush would of been 3x hours @ 95 bucks an hour, or pay $400 for a new one...sounded good, so hopefully its legit. And thanks for the advice, i love powerstroke.org i have been coming here for awhile, just never posted until recently