Other details from the phone call.

Waiting for the oil light to change is bad; too long. Driving many short trips during winter is bad; too short.

Basically I need to change the oil more often to make the service dept. happy.

 

Sure sounds to me like your dealer is giving you the run around in some aspects. Did you check to see if it has oil? I am fairly certain if no oil, the engine would be rattling and a burnt smell on dipstick.

 

They did show me a dry dipstick and contaminated coolant. It's not impossible that they drained the oil themselves during the oil change and put some in the coolant. Why would they do that? At some point if you are not doing your own oil changes you have to trust someone else.

Most likely a leak caused the oil to go into the coolant and this is why it was low but not low enough to lose pressure. They will fix the leak under warranty. There will always be a chance that the engine suffered some damage and will cost me in repairs when the warranty runs out. Same would be true of any engine.

 

If I were you, I'd sell it and find a good used 2008+ 6.8 V-10. It will fit your situation alot better than a diesel. Plus, the 6.2 isn't a great engine with the regen, sootbag and cab lifting to work on it, not to mention the cost of maintenance and fuel issues. A gas rig is always a better bet unless you are putting 50k a year and alot of towing. Winter extras for diesel running is also another minus issue, no worries with a gas engine.

 

I agree. I have the 6.2 gas. Were you thinking 6.0?

 

Sorry, lost my train of thought, yeah, I was thinking it was a 6.4 diesel you had. I haven't heard of any problems with the 6.2 gasser, so you have a rare problem. As others have said, I would either trade it off or get the engine rebuilt, or find a good V-10.

 

My wife really loves our van and she is the one that drives it most of the time, but I am hoping I can talk her into trading it in on an excursion with a v10 one of these days. I've had or currently have a 5.0, 5.4, 5.8, 7.3 and 7.5 and as pleased as I have been with the 5.4 I am sure I would love having a 6.8 in the stable.

 

Fastfwd----Around a lot of shops, even dealers, the mechanics use the same drain pan for everything. One time it will have coolant in it , the next oil or trans fluid. Do you think, they take the time to clean a drain pan each time they use it? NO, they don't. Most of the time if your coolant is drained for any reason, especially under warranty, and antifreeze $10 a gallon, they will pour what they drained out right back in. That's usually out of a dirty pan.

If you decide to drive it a while since you still have plenty of time on the warranty, keep a real close eye on the gauges, oil level and check the coolant real often when the engine is cold. Look for a gray substance around and under the radiator cap. Oil is lighter than water and it will come to the top of the system. By the way, I always change my oil and filter at 3000 miles, regardless of what the manual says. Good luck, Dennis.

 

Update:
Truck is back from the shop. No charge except for the oil change I came in for originally. They replaced oil cooler, gaskets and thermostat under warranty.

So now I'm thinking coolant was flushed, cleaned and replaced. Leak is presumably fixed. Oil was low but never too low to keep good pressure. Engine should be OK.

Right?

 

Right! But you have to get them to say it and warranty it.

 

Given that you've got roughly another two years on your five year warranty and you had this repair done at the dealership, I suspect you'll be in fine shape warranty-wise for long enough to be sure the engine's life has not been compromised.

 

That only holds water as long as the engine is running. When the engine stops oil pressure goes to zero but cooling system pressure remains. Meaning that hot pressurized coolant would flow into the oil galleries that aren't pressurized when the engine isn't running.

Glad to hear they figured it out; the oil cooler is the most likely culprit for something like this to happen. I wouldn't be happy about it if it were my truck, but they fixed the issue and you have lots of time to figure out if the truck is worth keeping out of warranty.

 

It sounds like it's fixed but I would keep a eye on the oil level for awhile just to make sure its not using more than it normally should, I'm sure there's procedures that they have to follow with a bad oil cooler and contamination into the cooling system, flushing would be one of them.

I keep on forgetting about the oil coolers being part of the cooling system and a point for cross contamination, I will have to put that into my limited memory again but I will probably forget about it by next week. Helped a friend replace the O rings in his oil cooler last month on his 460 but it was leaking oil on the floor not into the coolant but still I had the it my hand cooling tank and all. If someone asks you to remove a oil cooler from a 93 F250 with a 460 unless it's a very good friend I would pass, it involves jacking up the motor and one very unhandy 90' hose but if you do make sure the new hose is from Ford not a parts store.

Denny

 

[quote=Tom;14617155]That only holds water as long as the engine is running. When the engine stops oil pressure goes to zero but cooling system pressure remains. Meaning that hot pressurized coolant would flow into the oil galleries that aren't pressurized when the engine isn't running.

I'll agree with you Tom, but I've seen it happen, especially from a crack between the two system and I guess, maybe, it was taking a lot more than 15 PSI to push it through----like 40-80 PSI of hot oil. I've seen this happen on old FE blocks (360,390, 330HD, 361HD, 391HD). We never would see water in the oil or an overfull condition caused by the coolant, but I've seen oil running out the overflow on the radiator. What you say could happen though, Dennis.

 

Huh, that's interesting Dennis. That's exactly what happened to my brothers car a few years ago with a fIled transmission cooler in the radiator. Coolant got into the transmission after the car was shut off and destroyed the transmission, and when running transmission fluid badly contaminated the cooling system. Not sure why it could work differently with engine oil.