Hi,
Great forum you have here. I am looking at an '04 250 diesel, 2 wheel drive with 88,000 miles. Dunno' if it's early or late '04.
The dealer made a mistake on the price online, to the tune of about $4000 bucks. He's going to honor the price but I have to fix the 2285 code, no prob thanks to your ICP sensor thread.
I noticed today that the coolant reservoir has a grey/green sludge in it, hopefully it's not Stop-Leak. The dealer is having the cooling system flushed to see what is going on.
Are there any common coolant leaks on these trucks that would make a previous owner want to add crap to the coolant? There's no coolant in the oil, the oil is normal diesel dirty.
It's in great shape and has been well taken care of, I'm really hoping the purchase works out! I wouldn't want to buy one with a cracked block or something expensive though.
Thanks for your help!

 

Make sure you obtain oasis report to see what was replaced.(egr,egr cooler,oil cooler,headgaskets) these are your main concerns with the 6.0 If it was properly cared for and you continue to do this they generally go a long way. 6.0's take Ford Gold coolant only, if something else was used I'd be leary of it. Educate yourself as much as you can on the 6.0 This is the best place to do so. Good luck and welcome to FTE

 

There are plenty common spots for coolant leaks but none that I can think of that stop leak would help any with. Besides that putting hat crap in the cooling system is a very bad idea. Sounds links it has a bad oil cooler to me. The repair can get expensive if you can't get all the oil out. If you do a little searching you will find plenty of info on this.

 

failed oil cooler or cavatated front cover are the only things that will cause this. Odds are 98:1 its an oil cooler.
to repair you will need all new hoses, degas bottle, cap, oil cooler, water pump, t-stat, possible front cover, a few bottles of simple green, vc9, coolant and oil and filter.

 

Thanks, I can manage an oil cooler etc... if that's what it is.
Just wondering, if oil is getting in the coolant, wouldn't coolant get into the oil?

 

No the oil pressure is higher than the coolant pressure in the oil cooler therefore when you get a leak the oil makes it way into the coolant and not vice versa.

 

For the $4000 dollar "mistake" your "dealer" is making it's possibly intentional and the truck may have other problems. I might think twice about this purchase unless you intend to do all those repairs yourself. Not that the truck or engine is hurt by an oil cooler failure, it's just fairly expensive to have that repair and cleaning done at a dealership. You also need to consider the cost of the ICP sensor repair.

 

I think while I was in there I would replace the egr cooler also. Labor is more than the part.

 

Thanks, I am considering that the truck is a POS, I haven't committed to it yet and I don't get emotionally attached to a car until after I own it.

Frankly, I do trust a bunch of anonymous guys on a forum over a used car salesman or his 3rd party mechanic.

Here's the update, salesman called me, truck is at the mechanic, truck needs a radiator 'cuz it's tranny fluid in the coolant, an aftermarket radiator is on order and will be finished tomorrow. The mechanic's friend who's a Ford diesel mechanic says it's common for Ford radiators, bla bla bla, I'm not going to argue with the salesman.

I'm thinking it will not be fixed and I'll get a new radiator out of the deal. I'll plan on replacing the oil cooler and maybe the water pump and hoses and a good flush.

Just wondering, what's stacked up behind the grill.... Intercooler, A/C condenser, oil cooler and the radiator. I'd assume the tranny cooler is inside the radiator. How is oil getting into the coolant in the oil cooler....... There must be a coolant zone thru the oil cooler??

What's an egr cooler? where is it and what does it do?

Thank you all again for your good advice!

 

Behind the grill is the a/c condenser, power sterring cooler, intercooler, Transmission cooler, and radiator. Thats all I can think off, if I missed somthing someone will chime in with it. The oil cooler is located on top of the motor under the oil filter housing. It is cooled by coolant. That is how you get oil in your coolant. If you are getting trans fuild in your coolant (if that is what it is) I would think that it would be comming from the radiator. There is a trans cooler on it at the bottom. That is the only place where I can think of that there is a connection between the two. The EGR cooler is part of the egr system (exhaust gas recirculation system). The cooler cools hot exhaust gas, by means of antifreeze, to be injected back into the motor to be re-burned. Its a way to controll the amount of emmisions your truck puts off. If your oil cooler is bad then most likely the EGR cooler is too. Sinse it is next in line for coolant flow. What typicaly happens is the oil cooler plugs up with casting sand (hense the suggestion to put on a coolant filter), then the egr cooler being next in line dosent get enough flow to cool the exhaust gas causing it to fracture on the inside, then you start puking coolant, then if you dont get it fixed you are looking at a head job. thats the quick run down of things. if you let a pluged oil cooler go for to long it will break internaly and start putting oil in your coolant then that is where you have to do all the things that Cheezit recomended. This is why it is recomended when you do a oil cooler or egr cooler replacement you do them both.

 

Transmission fluid in the coolant............

I'm sure that at somepoint in history (and I'm not just talking 6.0 here) there has been such, but I've never seen or heard of it. Maybe someone else will chime in here.

Engine oil cooler failure is, unfortunately, all too common on these engines.

Used car salesmen trying to sell POS is, unfortunately, all too common on this planet.

Make him an EXTREME lowball offer on this truck OR ask for a warranty that HE pays for that covers EVERYTHING. Good luck.

I'm not trying to be a total pessimist here but I am trying to keep you from making an expensive mistake. Radiator replacement is CHEAP (and tells me they don't know anything about this truck). If you have tranny fluid in the radiator how is the tranny would be my next question. You could probably smell Mercon SP in the degas bottle cause it literally smells like poo.

 

I was thinking the same thing. I really don't see how it could get there. If the trans cooler in the radiator was bad I would think it would put water in the trans not the other way around.

 

IN fact it does happen not common you wind up with coolant in the trans and atf in the coolant. the issue here is a tranmission clutchs are held together with glue that will react with the coolant and the frictions will peel off.

 

Uncle...... UNCLE!!!

I'm bailin' on this one, I don't have a good feeling about it anymore. The dealer has just bumped the price up by $2000, just in case I don't buy it I guess. Hope their new radiator works for them. Here it is... 2004 Ford F250 - Fairway Auto Sales Rochester, NH

I'm off to see an '06 2x4 supercab longbed with 80,000 miles 100 miles away tomorrow after work. It looks real clean in the pics and the salesman says it's mint, we'll see!

I've got my heart set on a diesel, I'm one of those wacky guys that believes it's possible that there may not always be gas at the pumps. You know a natural disaster, war, oil rigs sinking, politics... whatever. Here in New Hampshire there is a 275 gallon tank of #2 fuel oil in just about every basement.

Thanks for talking me out of a money pit, I can afford a decent truck.

 

I think you made the right call my friend. If you do a search on here look at bismic post on buying a used 6.0. There is a lot of info in there to help you in your choise.