Milky Oil

[cfunderb]

About 3 weeks ago I replaced the water pump on my 95 7.3 PSD. I've never done that before, but with the help of alldatadiy.com and the proper tools it wasnt' hard. About 1 week ago I had to replace my cam position sensor (176,000m) and while diagnosing that problem I noticed that there was just a small amount of milky oil at the tip of the dipstick (after it was wiped) when I checked the oil. My coolant resivoir was empty, but from the outside it looked full, so I hadn't checked it since I refilled the coolant from the water pump change (the plastic for the resivoir is somewhat stained from coolant over the years). I filled the resevoir with 50/50 mix and drove for a few days to burp out any additional air. 2 or 3 days ago, I added about 1 gallon of 50/50 coolant and checked the oil dipstick, it hadn't gotten any worse and the oil level was the same (half way in the OK area). After driving around for a while, I checked the coolant level, it was ok. Today, I was hearing a bit of a squeel from the engine so I decided to track it down. While looking at and listening to the serpentine belt, I noticed steam coming out of the oil dipstick. I've never seen this before. I removed the oil fill cap on the valve cover and a lot of steam was coming out and the cap was covered in milky oil. I checked the dipstick and it had a lot more milky oil on it than ever before. I cleaned it and dipped it, this time it came back almost entirely white and was up to the full level. I checked my coolant resivoir and it is empty again.

Do you guys think this is a blown head gasket, injector o-ring problem, oil cooler problem, or something else?

In the 6 months that I've owned this truck I have replaced the vacuum pump, low vacuum indicator switch, cps, water pump, changed the oil, flushed the motor, installed an air intake system, and installed a 4-bank chip.

[Marty]

I didn't read through most of this b/c I'm at work but anytime you question oil it's usually a great idea to send your oil off for a UOA

blackstonelab.com

Looks like their website is not avail? sorry! Free bump!

[TexasR.N.]

Just from what you described it sounds like a head gasket. I suppose it could be a gasket at the oil cooler as well.

Craig

[mschn99]

dont worry about it......Here is the deal...

Im guessing the truck doeesnt get driven a lot.....it has condensation build up in the oil. That vapor your seeing is just the water working its way out of the oil...nothing to worry about. If you had a blown headgasket the vehicle would be overheating....

[powerstroke0298]

ive had a blown head gasket now for about 15,000 miles i put stop leak in the coolent and check the oil often it wont always overheat, and when you add the stop leak pinch the lines off going to the heater in the cab or it might plug it resolting in no heat good luck and stop leak does work

[Clay Henry]

Originally Posted by powerstroke0298

ive had a blown head gasket now for about 15,000 miles i put stop leak in the coolent and check the oil often it wont always overheat, and when you add the stop leak pinch the lines off going to the heater in the cab or it might plug it resolting in no heat good luck and stop leak does work

Bad idea...

[cfunderb]

Originally Posted by Marc

dont worry about it......Here is the deal...

Im guessing the truck doeesnt get driven a lot.....it has condensation build up in the oil. That vapor your seeing is just the water working its way out of the oil...nothing to worry about. If you had a blown headgasket the vehicle would be overheating....

What about the loss of so much coolant? I'm going to drain and refill the oil tonight. The stop leak sounds like a good idea, can I just leave the heater turned off while running the stop leak for awhile? I thought that coolant doesn't flow to the heater core if the heater isn't turned on (I could be wrong though).

I do drive the truck everyday, at least 20 miles. It just seems like there's too much milkyness to be just vapor, I hope I'm wrong. I'll report back on the condition of the oil later.

[cfunderb]

Originally Posted by CHenry

Bad idea...

CHenry, can you expand upon the "Bad idea..." comment, please?

[silverF250]

Sounds like a head gasket issue or intake gasket. But most of my knowledge comes from gas GM engines. On those it was typically intake, matter of fact i get to do one tomorrow on a 99 Malibu.

[cfunderb]

OK. Here's the update. We found the problem at the oil cooler, the first place we looked!

The oil itself had greenish tint to it from the coolant. We drained the oil and coolant and replaced the oil cooler with a new (o-rings and gaskets too). Put it all back together and filled everything up. She fired right up and ran great.