Dirty Crisco

[John Matthews]

Hi,

I'm new here but not to fourms in general. I did some searching and I think I might know what my problem is but I'm hoping somebody has pictures of when they did it.

If you didn't get it from my title I've got oil in my coolant, and coolant in my oil.

Up until last week my 1997 F250 7.3L has been super dependable. I't got about 265k miles and I've pretty much neglected it as much as I thought I could get away with. Anyway, I was gone over the Christmas holiday and when I came home everything here in northern Michigan had just about melted, then it got cold again. I noticed my heater wasn't working so I figured i'd pull it into the shop and check it out. The next morning I couldn't get it started. When I popped the hood I noticed oil had been leaking from my radiator cap. I didn't notice any overheating when I was driving it so I don't think I did anything wrong. The coolant tank is about half full of sludge and I've got it inside the valve cover too.

I'm going to try the oil cooler, but does this sound familiar to anyone. And, if you've done the job did you take pictures?

Thanks,

John

[ianstew]

thats alot of oil. oil cooler is an easy fix.

def will require many flushes of your coolant systrem, maybe a cleaner as well.

look here: Oil Cooler O-ring replacement R and R - PowerStrokeNation

and here: Replacement O-rings for Ford Diesel Engines

[John Matthews]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for

John

[ianstew]

you are welcome sir

[Aussiekeeper]

Is this anything like a dirty Sanchez?

[John Matthews]

Well,

I got the truck into my shop (thanks goodness for a warm, well lighted space) and tore into it. It took a couple of days just to drain the gook from my engine, and get the one special bolt out from the top front. Once I had the thing out I realized this is what's been leaking for the past 12 years (the truck has leaked almost since day one).

I'm now in the process of cleaning everything up, the guys on the other forum said not to try and clean the inside of the oil cooler but I'm betting they don't have an industrial ultrasonic cleaner in their shop. I build race motors for karts so I can't stand the idea of putting anything dirty back onto any engine.

Anyway, as soon as I get it cleaned up and assembled I'll put it back on, fill it up, and see how it runs....

John Matthews
Heartbeat Power Products, LLC.

[Jarrod B]

You might want to flush out the cooling system with some cleaning agent to get the oil out. I had to do that when there was oil in my cooling system.

[John Matthews]

Yeah, I was planning on doing just that. I have some stuff from Prestone, any tips on what else might work on sludge like this? Simple Green?

Thanks,

[Jarrod B]

i used cascade gel. I was told to use that by Ford and my mechanic.

Its been 2yrs since I've done it but what I remember was run the cascade a few times and rinse cycles. Straight tap water tho. Then a distilled water flush a few times to get the tap out, then drain and fill with mixed coolant.

Get the engine up to temp so the stuff can flow through the tstat. It took awhile since I had to wait on the engine to cool so I could refill with water that was cold.



What the prestone stuff?

[John Matthews]

Good tip on the dishwasher soap, makes sense.

The Prestone radiator flush is the stuff you get at the auto parts store. It might do the job but they want me to use two bottles for each flush. I figured it might take more than one shot to get that goop outta there

Thanks,