Head Gasket?

[gm4lnch]

Ok guys this is my first posting but I do have a big issue. Driving my truck lastnight it was surging a tiny bit (it has lack of power in my opinion since I have own it) and the heat gauge showed the truck getting warm but it never hit the "H" just 3/4 up. I turned the heat on the check that and it blow ice cold. When I got home I pop the hood and the overflow tank hand over flowed and sprayed oil/anti freeze mix all over the right side of the engine (passenger side). There is a very small amount of anti-freeze in the oil when I look at the dip stick. I have read a few post on here that a blown oil coller can do the same but I don't understand how that is possible. I know very little about diesels but on a gas engine this all points to head gaskets or cracked head. What do you all think and does any one have a walk through on how to replace headgaskets or whatever this could be. Any one know about how many hours it should take. Please help.

[DANA60F250]

I would do a compression test before u get into tearing the heads off. I thought my head gasket was blown and it turned out to be a cracked cylinder wall. the mechanic i took it to told me he has very rarely seen a 7.3 with blown head gaskets.

[gm4lnch]

Which would mean the motor is done for I'm guessing? How do you do a compression test on a diesel? With gas it just takes minutes and you pull a plug and test but there is not plug in diesel. lol

[DANA60F250]

ya it was done for, you can pressure test the cylinders threw the glow plug hole. the glow plugs are found under the valve covers.

[gm4lnch]

But I have heard those are a pain to change so wouldn't it be to test pressure?

[ryandamo]

they arent that bad, pop the valve covers off and they are right there. It is pretty dam hard to blow a head gasket on these trucks in stock form, unless yours is modified, and even then they hold up pretty well.

The oil cooler is a heat exchanger and flows coolant through the oil to cool it down. It a cylinder looking object right next to the exhaust manifold on the driver side. These o rings can go bad causing oil and coolant to mix.

It is possible that your thermostat stuck shut and perhaps overheated the engine, i have never seen any of the heat gauges in my trucks make it even half way. But then again the engine temp light should have came on in theory.

[gm4lnch]

I did have a shop tell me I need new gaskets on the oil cooler cause it was leaking on the ground. how would you test the cooler to see if it the gaskets on it? I looked at it some to day and here is the up date. The over flow tank is full of oil residueon the inside, oil in the tank and on the out side of motor is a lighter color than the oil but not like how I have seen most gassers with water/oil mixed (they look like chocolate milk where this does not) Some sludge on bottom of oil filler cap, when I pulled the dipstick it has a littleanti-freeze/oil mix but still lots on black oil and it was driven about 20 to 25 minutes after this all happens so it should all be milky right if it is head gaskets? Over flow tank is empty also, just oily residue. It could have heated up after the head gasket blow then sucked up all the coolent right? But I don't think I have seen any gasser suck that much water in that short of time. It isn't stock but nothing huge like my bodies have. Just bullydog flip chip, 4in exhaust, k&n filter. If it was a cracked cylinder wouldn't it make a noise? I had a cracked piston once that was very noisy in another truck. I have owned it a year and it has little power(compared to the way people on here talk about how these should run), smoke white smoke when starting, needs to be plugged in if its very cold, misses, poor fuel mileage, black smoke when driving even if the chip is off and crusing, leaks oil (been told it was from oil cooler), leaks oil or fuel when "hi ideal" is on to warm it up. That most of the things I can think of that might help to figure this out. I know very little about diesels but can hold my own on gas engines.

[ryandamo]

sounds like you have a few things that need to be fixed. did you check to see if the upper radiator hose builds pressure immediatly after a cold start? try to get the oil cooler fixed first, then change your oil and flush the coolant system,