[Powerstroke92]

Hello Im somewhat new (been doing alot of reading and first time posting) and my 6.0 started acting up the other day and I think I have the problem narrowed down to either head gaskets or oil cooler. The truck has been puking coolant for a couple of weeks now and the other day before I went to class I noticed a little bit of what looked like rust on the degas pressure cap and little rust specks floating in the coolant. When I got home I checked it again and this is what I found. Also all gauges have been reading normal and when I popped the hood to take these pics I could here the degass bottle whistling.

Pictures by Remington_Ping - Photobucket

Thanks in advance

 

[southend]

You need a monitor.....http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/showthread.php?t=259257

Looks like your coolant system needs maintenance, your oil cooler may be clogged, which causes egr cooler failure. Or your head gaskets may be blown. You need to check your deltas. What coolant are you running? The revised coolant level is the min line on the degas bottle.
You can pull your egr, and check for wetness in the intake.

Sent from my phone that somebody didn't help me get.

 

[Snake]

If you're building that much pressure in your cooling system, either your head gaskets are blown, your EGR cooler has ruptured, or both.

Do you see any separation (layers) in your degas bottle? You're looking for oil in your cooling system, and think about what oil and water sitting in a glass looks like. If yes, then your oil cooler has ruptured. Smell your degas cap - if it smells like diesel there's a 99.9% chance one or both of your heads has cracked.

Keep us posted! There's a ton of info on this site about fixing these problems.

 

[Powerstroke92]

I am running ford gold and the egr cooler has freeze plugs welded in it.

 

[Snake]

If that's Ford Gold in your pics, you've got some work in front of you. That coolant is in bad shape.

 

[Tuscany]

A ruptured oil cooler won't cause puking unless it has clogged your EGR cooler and it ruptures and then it will puke. Or your head gaskets are toast.

Snake it looks like he switched to ELC.

 

[Snake]

That's what I thought also.

I am running ford gold and the egr cooler has freeze plugs welded in it.

Where's the Quantum Leap "Oh boy" smiley?

 

[Tuscany]

Holy chit man if that's ford gold your cooling system is in BAD shape.

 

[Powerstroke92]

Yup thats supposed to be good ol ford gold. I read somewhere that if you pull off the fuel filter housing cap and the diesel fuel bubbles while running the head gaskets are bad. Is this true?

 

[dannyboy950]

That test has nothing to do with head gaskets. It is for checking if combustion gases are getting into the fuel system from injector barrel o-rings leaking by from damage or a injector copper gasket leak. The injector hold down comes loose sometimes and doesn't hold the injector in the hole properly. Occasionally the tip gets blown off and combustion gas gets forced back thru the injector as well.

 

[Powerstroke92]

Great well add injectors to the list. This would start happening 2 months after the warranty ran out on the rebuilt motor

 

[Powerstroke92]

Ok after doing more reading could the sludge in the bottle be the ford gold solidifying and pressure in system be due to having to much coolant in the bottle and having too high concentration of water.

 

[dannyboy950]

Entirely probable. The best test for if it's head gaskets and combustion gas is to use either the test fluid or the test strips available from napa. Be shure they are the strips for combustion gases.

If you suspect too much water in your coolant the use antifreezer tester. Too much water can cause rusting and cause actual boiling in the system.

 

[mhatlen]

Have you taken a look at your ECT/EOT temps?
Have you done a bubble test with a hose in the coolant recovery bottle with a rubber stopper and hose going into a bottle filled with water? or by the strips described above?

To me it looks like rust in the cooling system. The greasey finger is not a good thing but who knows that could be from a oil cooler issue long ago.
If it were my truck I would drain the coolant pull the thermostsat and refill with water and throw in some cascade to get whatever oil is in there out. Flush it 4-5 times after bringing up to operating temps with the cascade buisness. I would also for sure put those fumoto valves on both sides of the block to get whatevers in there out. This may take you the better part of the day!
After all that you may as well put in a ELC-1 coolant in it and you must install a coolant filter to catch what is still left over. Anytime you flush a cooling system you are taking risk of plugging the oil cooler as well as egr cooler which you said you did not have but a cooling system in the shape yours is in I feel there is not any other option.
After doing that refill to the correct level and see how well the coolant temps are with the oil temps.

 

[morganbryane]

If you do the combustion test you can save a few bucks and buy the test solution at Napa for like 6 or 8 bucks and do the rent-a-tool for the kit at Autozone. The test confirmed my head gasket failure. It sucks when you see the solution turn yellowish green...