Got a call from Danny a minute ago who is having some issues, and I told him I would post up so you guys could start looking at it. He had the truck shut off on him while towing and he is in a small town in the middle of BFE. When he got out and checked he noticed almost no coolant in radiator and it was coming out his CCV mod hose as well. Pulled dipstick, oil was milky and a bit over full.

He is going to try and have it towed to a dealer about an hour away but wants to see if he can get a head start on the issue so he doesn't get bent over. So far all I can come up with is a massive oil cooler failure allowing the coolant to be pushed into the oil passage. Anyone else have some ideas for him?

 

thats was my first guess as well

where is he located? any RHN members nearby

 

Oil cooler would have been my first guess too. Plus that's the easiest and cheapest suspect to check out first.

The problem of course is how much damage was done running oil/coolant mix in the crankcase. A compression check may be in order here. It doesn't take long for an engine to wear the rings and score the cylinders when coolant gets in the oil.

 

He doesn't have a smartphone so I am waiting for him to text me so I can look it up for him and see.

 

I hope its not the intake gasket or anything serious like that. I hope he is ready to do a complete engine flush. That sucks, I sure do wish him the best of luck on this one.

 

just brain storming here...

with a failed oil cooler....

what are the pressures inside for oil and coolant? would it typically push the coolant to the oil or the oil to the coolant?

 

I wouldve said blown head gasket. I havent tore down a a diesel (yet) but have done enough gas and seen that.

 

Not to mention that main and rod bearings do not like water very much. I am on the oil cooler thought as well.

 

Clay,
Being that the oil pressure is greater than the coolant pressure, wouldn't it be more likely that the oil would go into the cooling system. I don't see how the coolant would get into the crankcase if the oil cooler was the problem. Wouldn't a leaking head gasket of a crack somewhere be more likely. Just food for thought.



Edit: Shawn beat me to it

 

That's my thought but a crack that will allow coolant into the oil is pretty rare, I haven't seen this situation yet. I guess it could happen that the oil cooler coolant passage got plugged badly and when it started leaking into the oil it had more than normal pressure behind it.


I think we may all learn something on this one, but I wish it wasn't at Danny expense.

 

On second thouhgt if it was leaking coolant into the oil with the engine was shut off. it could be a oil cooler, but you would think it would also have oil in the coolant. Did Danny say how low the coolant level was. Why would the truck shut off while driving, did it get hot?

 

I am saying oil cooler too. Not to much else would mix that amount of oil and coolant

 

I think on some trucks/cars, that if the oil pressure gets to low the engine will shut off to prevent damage to the engine. Its kind of a fail safe system.

 

I am wondering if it might be a scour problem behind the water pump. Danny has an e99, and if the sca's were not kept up with, then his water pump may have pumped all the coolant into the oil passages.
I have rebuilt a couple of oil coolers, and while I am not disagreeing with that diagnosis, the only thing I can figure about it would be that the first o-ring just completley let go.

 

Any word on exactly which BFE he's in? If its in the MT BFE, I am off the next 3 days.