Diesel fuel in my coolant

[az250diesel]

After doing a lot of research online and calling a local diesel repair shop, its obvious that I am going to have to do some engine work on my F250. Its either a blown head gasket or a cracked head which is causing my problem. Right now I have almost a 1/2" of diesel fuel sitting on top of the coolant in the degas bottle.

Those of you who have torn down to the head gaskets before, do you have a list of parts needed to do the job, and any recommendations of what else I might need? Don't have a large budget to do much upgrades, but would like to do an EGR delete and ARP studs. If a new head is needed, where do you recommend that I get one from?

By the way, the write ups that some of you guys have put up on how to tear down to the heads will be a great help when I tackle this. Never worked on a diesel engine before, but have torn into gas ones before, so this is a new adventure for me!

[4realestate]

I will beat Tuscany to this one...
Odessa Cylinder heads, Florida. $650 and they give you a shipping label to return your head to them.
For an extra $2500 they will include Platinum Valves and diamonds spelling out the word FORD.
How's that Tuscany, did I get it right ?

Originally Posted by az250diesel

After doing a lot of research online and calling a local diesel repair shop, its obvious that I am going to have to do some engine work on my F250. Its either a blown head gasket or a cracked head which is causing my problem. Right now I have almost a 1/2" of diesel fuel sitting on top of the coolant in the degas bottle.

Those of you who have torn down to the head gaskets before, do you have a list of parts needed to do the job, and any recommendations of what else I might need? Don't have a large budget to do much upgrades, but would like to do an EGR delete and ARP studs. If a new head is needed, where do you recommend that I get one from?

By the way, the write ups that some of you guys have put up on how to tear down to the heads will be a great help when I tackle this. Never worked on a diesel engine before, but have torn into gas ones before, so this is a new adventure for me!

[Tuscany]

Haha good one.

[SySx]

6 0L Ford Solution Kit Arp Head Studs EGR Cooler Delete Oil Cooler Gaskets 03 07 | eBay

[az250diesel]

Had to replace the degas bottle and cap cause the opening of the old one had warped or something. The old cap wouldnt go on and a new one wouldnt either. Only slution I had at the time was a new bottle. Just to give you guys an idea of whats in my coolant heres a couple of pics.



The top layer looks like sludge and smells of diesel too. Coolant temps have been around 190 using the Torque app on my phone. Starting to get my "shopping list" of parts to perform the work myself when I get it all, then the teardown will begin!

[Tuscany]

Better be adding the price of a new head or two to the shopping list.

[az250diesel]

Is that the only way fuel can get into the coolant?

[Tuscany]

That or cracked or leaking injector cups but the injector cups are less occurring than the cracked fuel rails in the heads are.

[az250diesel]

Lets hope for an injector cup.

While looking over the engine planning my work, I noticed a plug in the side of the exhaust pipe coming out of the turbo. Could this be where a previous owner was monitoring the exhaust temps at?

[WildStyle]

Been there done this. The head has cracked just above the injector cup.

You are going to need every rubber hose that coolant goes through replaced most likely as well as the diesel makes them go soft and gummy.