My repair shop is telling me my head gasket is blown on my 08 F250 Diesel. The engine was idling rough this morning and took it in for a diagnosis. The engine had no loss of power and started without issue.

I have 105K miles.

About 6 months ago (15K miles), same repair shop replaced the radiator in the vehicle. Off and on since then, I could smell a coolant odor inside the vehicle. The repair shop discounted the issue to a slight coolant leak and sent me on my way.

Could the coolant smell inside the vehicle and the blown head gasket be tied together?

Did not notice any coolant leaks under the vehicle when I park it.

Many posts on this and other sites seem to have a coolant leak and coolant/oil mixing as a potential cause for the head gasket failure.

ALso, the coolant resevoir on the top of the engine is somewhat discolored (greyish).

Any help or comments would be appreciated.

 

Moved to the 6.4L Power Stroke Diesel forum.

 

what about your tail pipes? sweet smelling or moist? What about your oil level? You growing oil?

Any white or black smoke when driving?

Did they do a cylinder pressure test of each of the cylinders and show you the values?

 

I think you will find that a coolant oil mix is not a cause of head gasket failure but rather a sympton that one has failed. Are you running any heavy duty tunes? Nothing about replacing the radiator should contribute to HG failure. However, when the radiator failed did you catch it early and shut the truck down before the engine over heated? Over heating is one way to blow a HG. Hard to believe you would have driven 15,000 miles with it blown before discovering it. Coolant should have kept getting low for one thing. Exhaust smoke, oil growth, lack of power or some symptom should have caught your attention before 15,000 miles.

 

run from that shop.
oil mixing in with coolant in the cooling system is from a failed oil cooler. coolant mixing with oil in the oil pan is a front cover issue.
6.4 dont tend to have many head gasket issues. I can count the ones I have seen on 1 hand, 95% of what I work on are 450/550 trucks

 

6.4 head gaskets are funny, some seem to hold really well, but a few seem to let go without even getting worked. Tuned or not, from what I've seen, doesn't make the difference you'd expect.

That said, some trucks that were tuned, like mine, have had coolant puking issues, which can also be random in nature. This might be more because of stretched studs rather than a HG failure though.

 

if you have ever torqued a head on a 6.4 you would know why so few of them have issues.
FYI 14mm bolts to clamp them down.

 

Cheezit, the 6.4 uses 16mm head bolts and the 6.0 uses 14mm 16mm is 5/8" diameter and 14mm is a hair under 9/16"

 

Two mechanicseparate have told me head gaskets this is 3 Rd radiator now water in oil are reservoir have just bought 3 Rd radiator that is reinforced old ones are leaking on sides any help

 

Welcome to FTE.
Oil in the radiator may very well be headgaskets, but could also be the oil cooler.

How are the old radiators reinforced?

This is a replacement that is better than the factory radiator.
Ford 6.4L Powerstroke Aluminum Radiator, 2008-2010, by Mishimoto

It ain't cheap, but folks on here have found them to be a better product. The main issue with the factory radiator is the twisting of the cab causes the seals on the cheap plastic tanks to leak.

 

Check your degas bottle for exhaust gases.


Pressure test the coolant system.


Don't guess.

 

Thanks for help on radiator both old radiators were stock 3rd one is reinforced and beef up sides will check degas bottle

 

Go on line to "Power stroke help" and find his video on 6.4L HGs. That will do a better job explaining this. Do you have a tuner? Have you been towing tuned? I ask because that is how most 6.4L HGs fail. Anyway the test to find out for sure is:

Plumb in a water pressure gauge to the degas return hose. You need a T fitting a piece of hose three clamps and a water pressure gauge. You run the hose and pressure gauge to where you can see it from behind the steering wheel. I taped mine to the outside mirror because it was raining the day I did it.

From a dead stop on an uphill grade floor it and hold it down. The pressure gauge should rise to the same level as the coolant system. (I'm having a senior moment here and can't remember the pressure number I'm thinking 16 PSI but just not sure) Anyway, it should hold at that point. If you have a failed HG the pressure will keep on rising.

I tried the exhaust in the coolant test and passed twice. I also only puked under the hardest of pulls but when I did this test it was evident the HGs had failed. That was confirmed when torn down.

Cost me over 5K to get it repaired. I needed the truck and had no choice. If I had more time I think I would have tried re-tourqing the heads or even changing to the high power head bolts before tearing it down.

Good luck

ON EDIT Ok I went and refreshed my memory. The you tube is at" powerstroke help you tube" He has a bunch of them on there so scroll down and find the one on 6.O Headgasket failure. The same test applies to the 6.4L. The test on there was to 15 PSI and that's what my 6.7 Is. If in doubt just read the cap on the degas. He also has a couple other you tubes on radiator problems. Good luck.

 

get your resivoir cap pressure tested. common problem for stock caps to have 0 PSI. your coolant protection ratings assume 16PSI. at 0 PSi, the coolant boils before the thermost opens.

 

Pressure went to 19 psi never reaching any higher only part I have not changed is the T that comes from egr will be in local ford had to order radiator is leakingout side close to bottom any help is great