Another blown head gasket, or is it?
 

2003, f250, 150k miles

I was returning from a jobsight. I See a truck and horse trailer stopped with the hood up, so I stop and offer to help. She has been on the road 7 hours with two horses and has another 7 hours to go.

Puff of white smoke caused her to pull over and shut her down. She cranks it after a couple of minutes to move further of the road. I arrive and she turns it over and the batteries are shot, or its close to hydrolocking. I jump her for about 5 minutes and we try and crank it again. It turns 1/4 revolution and stops very quickly like the engine is in a bind. Is this a hydrolock?

I pull her to a good mechanic 5 miles away and pull the horses to my house to get them out of the trailer.

Mechanic notices the oil is over the full line and pulls the oil drain plug and gets coolant running out. He supects head gaskets, but I've seen some experts say blown hgs will not put coolant in the oil. Could it be hgs, or is oil cooler the prime suspect? The real question at this point is did she warp a rod when it hydrolocked while cranking? She was doing 70mph when it blew, but the hydrolock was only apparant when she tried to crank it a couple of times. If a rod is bent, isn't a rebuild the best option? If the rods are not bent, the worst it could be is hgs. Problem is, an engine tear down ($2500) is required to tell if she bent a rod.

I did all I could to help except loan her my truck so she could make the rest of the trip.

My question is, is there an easy way to tell if the hydrolock bent a rod or two without pulling the heads? How can you be sure the oil in the coolant is not a blown hg?

The real sad party about this situation is she had been driving it a while with it puffing white smoke at startup every day. But she says it cleared up and ran great after it warned up. She took it to the dealer, and had an ficm and degas bottle put on because it was puking. It hadn't puked since, but was puffing white smoke when first started in the mornings. I don't know if the dealer warned her that the egr cooler was ruptured.

If you see coolent leaking from one or more cylinders, driping on the side of engine I would say yes Hydrolocked and NOT to be restarted , bent rod is possible depending on how long she stayed on trying to start the truck, I assume the truck was over heating too, at this point a pressure test and EGR cooler would have to be looked at. Your a great dude for stoping and giving her a hand :-X22. also look in the Chapters section for another Quote for repair if Ford is to high.

You're just as helpful on the forums as you are in real life. You're a good man.

About the headgaskets, I've been through this, and just as quickly as someone will answer yes 'it's the head gaskets", I will answer no. I'm still holding out on her EGR Cooler. :)

I have read that it is hard to hydrolock a motor and bend a rod in these motors. I realy hope i works out for her!

Truck was not over heating. Tried to crank it only twice. The engine just stopped turning both times while cranking. Cranked it less than two seconds each time. The engine barely turned over each time.

It appeared to be leaking coolant from one passenger side cylinder. I assume this means hydro-locked and blown hg.

I believe in karma. Plus, God didn't ask us to help everyone, he asked us to help who we can.

First of all - I assume it is a 6.0L?

It is not hard at all to hydrolock our engines - can happen with fuel or coolant. Yes you can do damage with continued cranking - it should definitely not be cranked anymore if a hydrolock is suspected.

Head gaskets relieving will typically not send coolant into the cylinder - especially not while running. An issue with head gaskets relieving also does not put coolant into the oil (neither does a blown oil cooler). The issue is more than a blown headgasket if water is coming from the oil pan drain plug.

It could have started with a bad EGR cooler, but if so, it is more than that now. Additionally, the early EGR coolers are pretty reliable. I assume that someone looked at the coolant level in the degas bottle at some point after the engine shut down? Had she been adding coolant?

The round egr coolers are tough, but they do fail. That is the most likely cause of the smoke and subsequent hydro lock. I would bet a restricted oil cooler is the root cause.

Bismic, it is a 6.0. Original TTY head bolts. She added some water to the degas bottle whundue e shut it down. She said she had done that before. She had not added coolant for the previous 1500 miles of the trip.

The symptoms are: There is little doubt the egr cooler is blown. I assume that's how water got into the oil. Water running from the head gasket down the outside of the engine indicates the hgs are blown. It appears to be hydrolocked.

Questions: Are the hgs blown? How do you know the rods are not bent without pulling the heads and measuring the stroke? A bent rod our two makes a huge difference in the repair approach. If you know a rod is bent, you consider a different engine and you don't want to spend to much on proving it. How easy is it to bend a rod while starting?

The coolant is probably leaking out from between the exhaust manifold and the head. Most likely the rods are fine. They are pretty tough. The only way to know about the head gaskets is to replace the coolers and road test it to see if it builds too much pressure in the cooling system.

Sorry, I just re-read my post, the way I said it was confusing. "I read that it is hard to hydrolock AND bend a rod", I guess I should have said "I read that it is hard to bend a rod from a hydrolocked motor"

Duplicate post

Big, and others, do you really think there's a real chance the hg are not blown? I don't know enough about these engines to know. Is the chance good enough to risk trying to just replace the coolers and see if it will run? That's a big labor bill to have to tear it down again if the hg are blown.

Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure is to replace the coolers and re-test. It is a gamble, but if cost is a concern, then I would try the coolers first.

Every Piece can be Tested You will Submerse the EGR Cooler in Water and Air Test

also Pull the EGR Valve

SO you Been riden Horses Today and Taken care of things GOOD MAN !!LOL

Hey if she was Cute that Truck may Have Lots of things Coming up LOL be there a Day or Two

It wont be a HeadGasket unlaess it sat all night and was Hydrolocked upon First STart

Anything can Happen But HG is SLim IMO this time



I SHOULDNT Say that Cause the Force of the Hydrolock CAN and WILL Blow Heads Off

All I ment was the Head Gaskets wont be the ROOT CAUSE

Is the truck in the shop or your yard? try pulling EGR Valve look at the Intake for Wet, Chances of the cooler will be cracked and letting coolent in also need to check Turbo right away before it seize up. X2 on the Oil cooler