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Headgasket or oil cooler gasket? or neither?
Ok.. My truck has 230K on it. I don't know the maintanence history of it.. Its a 1997.
Ok, the truck seems to run fine. Still has good power, doesn't have any bizzare roughness or anything. But, at idle speed(around 500RPM) it does have this "pss psss pss pss pss" sound that sounds like an exhaust leak from the manifold(which it could be Im guessing). Its done that since I got it.
But last week a friend of mine was noticing that there was coolant on the ground after it sat for a little while, by the passenger tire. I noticed it for a few days and said its just drippings from the A/C, but his keen eye noticed "Hey, its green"... so much for being a/c drippings. Well I didnt drive it all week anyhow due to a busted drag link, but got it running again Saturday morning. On Sunday afternoon while I was towing a trailer another friend asked about the same thing, so we popped the hood and noticed that the overflow bottle was almost filled, and when I took the cap off noticed it had oil or some other petroleum based fluid in the water. We were about 5 miles from my shop, and dropping the trailer wasnt an option. But when I got back to the shop I took the cap off, and coolant actually came out of the overflow. Not under pressure, but just seemed like it was overfilled and needed a place to go. And it had the petroleum clumpage in it. It was tan if that tells anything. if I start the engine it doesnt seem to pressurize the cooling system with any violent amount.
The truck is low on oil, but it leaks like a seive from somewhere, not sure where yet. So I dont know how much if any oil is going from the crankcase to the oil system because of the oil leak. Its leaked oil since i got it in may.
So how do I diagnose between these oil cooler gaskets and a headgasket? Due to the noise and being a deisel, I wouldnt be suprised if thats what it was, but I also wouldnt be suprised if the noise is just an exhaust leak. And is there a way for diesel to leak into the cooling system? The water drippings smell alot like diesel.
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