[LakiPolitis]

Hey guys,

So I flushed out my coolant reservoir and radiator last week. Took 3 flushes to completely clean it, but now... I have the magical dilemma of still having oil in my coolant. All hoses have fresh (at least freshly moved) oil. I'm thinking there are a couple cause, I'll list them, but I want some feedback. It is important to note that I replace the oil cooler itself, but not the oil filter adapters - they looked up to par, I would like to test them, tho ($350 worth of parts). So here are 4 scenarios I've come up with that could be the cause. Can you guys think of anything else?

1.) I have left over oil in my radiator, engine block, coolant reservoir (just ordered a new one, got here today), and/or hoses. This will need a solid flush - someone suggested a pressure flush?

2.) The radiator has a ton of left over oil in it. I need to remove the radiator and REALLY clean that thing out with Dawn and a ton of water.

3.) My oil cooler's O-Ring could be slipped or one of the seals is broken

4.) I have a cracked head or faulty head gasket (no loss of power, no loss of compression, and no white smoke at any point in the powerband).

I've already got the new coolant reservoir in and I'm getting the oil cooler seals, oil cooler o-rings tomorrow morning. I'm going to pull that radiator out, flush the crap out of it, wash out all of the hoses, and hope for the best. I'm going to pull the oil cooler out, replace the o-rings and the seals.

Can anyone else think of anything that would get oil in to the coolant? I really don't want to keep having this problem, and I don't think Mandy-Lynn likes having oil in her drink.

 

[AOx4]

I would recheck the oil cooler orings, they have a nasty habit of not seating well.

After that flush it again (I hope youre just using water for now, just dont let that water sit for too long.. ask me and my 2 week waterpump how I know).

If you STILL have oil in there go to a dealer and ask what method they use to flush. My dealer charged me $165 for a full flush and refill of coolant.

Granted, they did forget to tighten the upper radiator hose clamp so a week later I blew coolant all over my block, but they refilled it again no questions and I was out nothing but a few hours and 2.5 gallons of distilled water.

 

[LakiPolitis]

AOx4, Here's the plan of attack for me.

1.) Pull the oil cooler out and redo those o-rings and seals on the oil cooler.
2.) Remove the radiator and clean it out with degreaser and water. Clean out all of the hoses with degreaser. (I heard I can run a 60% water to 40% degreaser mix in the coolant for a solid 15 minutes to flush everything out.)
3.) Plug everything back in. Fill the system with water leaving the pep**** valve open and start flushing the system for a good minute. Take everything off again.
4.) Flush system with tap water and coolant system cleaner.
5.) Run the system for 2 days on the coolant system cleaner mix.
6.) Flush the coolant out and replace with the Fleet Charge SCA precharged coolant I bought.

I'll check it out again in another 2 weeks. Hopefully, the system will have cleaned up by then.

 

[LakiPolitis]

So the status report....

Pulled the radiator off. There is more oil in there than Saudi Arabia. It's really bad. It's old oil too. Flushed it with water. Then with Simple Green. Shook it up. Let it sit. Flushed again. There is still a ton of oil all over the fins. (I'm taking it the radiator shop tomorrow to get it pressure flushed).

Pulled the oil cooler off. Looks pretty good. There was some particulate in the core, so I brake cleaned that, slipped on the new O-rings, lubed em up, and put it back in. The old O-rings looked fine in my opinion, but I'd rather put the new ones in, see if the problem comes up, if not... Hey, I got some o-rings for the future.

I cleaned all of the hoses and I cleaned everything I possibly could get off. I ran the truck for about 20 minutes today with the Simple Green in the coolant, gonna flush that out in the morning. Put in some of the Peak Cleaner/Additive, run it for a bit. Flush that, then fill it with water and take it over to the radiator shop.

On a side note, however, I kinked one the return line from the radiator to the transmission. Scale of 1 to 10, how FUBAR am I? Here's a picture:

LAST Point. In speaking with the diesel tech at the dealership (who seemed pretty knowledgeable), he said I may be having a water pump problem. That the pressure on the crankcase is causing pitting and forcing oil into the coolant. I wonder, though, with the pressure going up and down in the block, on decel, wouldn't coolant get sucked into the oil? And there's ZERO coolant in my oil. Thoughts, opinions, help!? Anything would be appreciated.