Working on a 2001 F250 7.3 CC Short bed, auto, 185K, 4x4, unknown tuner, Garrett Turbo, 4 " exhaust.

Owner advised he recently changed waterpump & thermostat and was driving along and noticed excessive white exhaust & rough running. He pulled over & engine died. He kept trying to start but no-go - he unplugged fuel bowl heater, checked fuses, changed cps, checked fuel filter, etc. and finally gave up and had it towed to a "Diesel Specialists" shop. They installed a new fuel pump and got engine to start. Advised him that there was coolant in oil and oil in coolant and that the engine needed to be replaced. He towed it to my garage and I removed the driver's side valve cover and found this:



And this in the degas bottle:



The exhaust is definately excessive white but doesn't smell like antifreeze. Engine idles rough. I dropped some oil out of pan into a bucket - no water but oil has a greenish tint to it. I also pressure checked at degas bottle and had no leak down.

Looking for suggestions/input/advice from the experts here. What do you guys think?? Cracked head, cracked block, blown head gasket, oil cooler, injector cups??? Thanks for helping.

 

I'd start with the oil cooler o-rings. Have you ever had them changed?

 

No, I don't think the oil cooler has ever been off.

 

Could be any of the things you mentioned. I know of one guy that cracked the block at #2 main IIRC and had coolant mixing with oil. Did he ever have an overheat issue?

I see you are from my old hometown. I graduated from EHS in 85'.

 

That dont look good.

 

Pull the water pump and see if debris pushed by the water pump hasn't made a hole in the block. Some people never flush their coolant system and the larger particles are accelerated at high speeds into the block material by the pump.

Mike
___________
02 F-350 DRW

 

10/4 Thanks for the advice, I was thinking that the front cover may have a cavitation issue. I'll pull the water pump and report back.

 

Removed water pump and front cover was clean. No signs of any cavitation. Still trying to figure out what to do next. I drained the rest of the oil from the pan & had straight water for about the first three seconds.

 

Not good????? Subscribing

 

You've already pulled the motor? Or did you jack the motor and cut the oil pan gasket to get the front cover off?

What about the oil cooler mentioned earlier? An o-ring failure there is not unheard of and can easily mix coolant and oil. Actually, that's probably the most common cause of oil coolant mix we see.

 

I keep wanting to say it could be the oil cooler as well. Any way to specifically diognose it? Possibly fill radiator up till it would be above the oil cooler but not the heads and then pressure test it and see if you get oil out of the drain plug. How bad off is this motor if it is just some bad orings? How would you ever get all that moisture out of the engine?

 

Here's some good reading, let's hope it's not ether one of these.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-now-what.html
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...y-mongo75.html

 

Subcribing,

 

This hasn't been mentioned.

Cavitation erosion from coolant jacket through cylinder sleeve. LINK

 

I haven't pulled the engine out yet, the area behind the water pump (front cover) showed no signs of any pitting, holes, etc.

Removal of the oil cooler sounds like the next step. I will work on it tonight and post pics. Could coolant get into the oil and oil get into the coolant (both ways) from a bad oil cooler? I've been researching about the cooler, most common issue seems to be oil going into coolant (due to higher pressure).

I'm mostly concerned about the coolant getting into the oil - and the resulting damage that could or already been done - bearings, injectors, turbo, HPOP. The owner advised that he kept having to add coolant after the initial fill up of coolant after he changed waterpump. I'll find out for how long he drove it and kept adding coolant and report back.

Here's a pic of the area behind waterpump:



And here's a pic of the truck and my helper: