My son's 98 F150 5.4L oil cooler took a crap.......oil in the cooling system , what a freaking MESS !!!!!

Got a Smokin deal on a factory cooler from Silver State Ford. All is fixed except for the cooling system. I have flushed it 3 or 4 times....cold, hot and in between. Oil level in engine is steady (that is how we found the leak, oil level in engine dropped dramatically). Next step is liquid cascade dishwasher soap. Have been told to drain radiator, put in 16 to 20oz. of cascade, top off with tap water and drive for 2 to 3 hours at varying rpm's (short road trip) with the heater on high the entire time. Drain while hot (great) add 8 to 10oz of cascade, top off with water, and drive for 20 to 40 minutes with the heater blaring. Drain again, and fill with tap water (NO cascade), keep engine at operating temp with heater on high for 10 to 15 minutes and drain again. Fill for a fourth time with plain tap water and drive normal for a week or so watching level and amount of residual oil collecting in the degass bottle. If there is still a lot of oil, repeat above process.

Opinions please (other than don't use tap water. I will use demineralized water on final fill with coolant.). Thanks.

 

that procedure sounds reasonable to clean up the oil...I would go with that.

 

Make sure the Cascade doesn't have baking soda in it. got some for the wife and it trashed the dishwasher. Didn't have anything to wash my parts in for awhile.

 

^^^^ Tried that once. My mother bout near killed me.

 

Well I wanted to follow up with how the cleaning of the coolant system is going. I have filled and dumped the coolant (straight tap water with liquid dishwasher soap added) about 4 times, and am just now starting to see the oil "slime" start to break up and reduce/dissipate. I used wally world brand liquid dishwasher soap, it was the only one that listed it's ingredients and did NOT contain baking soda. My son has been driving it around town, and we have been keeping a close eye on the coolant and oil levels. I will report back when we get it all back to normal with true coolant in the cooling system. Be warned, this is taking longer than I thought it would.

 

I'm confused...if we're talking about an external oil cooler, how could that effect the cooling system? And I'm surprised that the suds from the soap didn't create any problems.
BTW...how did things work out for you?

 

Dishwasher soap don't make bubbles. The stuff you might use in the sink does.

 

he was talking about a cooler coil inside the radiator tank... did not say if it was an engine or trans oil cooler.

 

Ok. Thanks. That makes sense now.

 

In the second paragraph, he says engine oil

If his son's 1998 5.4L with towing package is engine-oil cooled just like my 1997 4.6L with towing package is, the engine oil cooler is a long aluminum casting on the side of the block. Engine oil in one side, coolant on the other. An integral setup.
Instead of an external engine oil cooler, like my Bronco w/towing has, which is mounted in place of the usual oil filter adapter, and coolant is externally plumbed in/out of it.

 

Wow, just happened to stop by and see an old post of mine . Let me apologize for not giving a complete follow up, but I will now!!!

Yes, this was/is an external, side of block mounted oil cooler as described by Torky2. It came on trucks with towing packages. It is an exchanger style cooler with engine oil on one "side" and engine coolant on the other "side". With this set up, the oil filter is mounted up under the drivers side front bumper with lines running to and from the cooler to the remote filter housing. The coolant arrives to the cooler via the lower radiator hose. There are two molded hoses off the lower main hose that hook up to the cooler, an in and out.

It took 5 separate washing "cycles" to get all the oil out of the system. Be sure to use a brand of kitchen soap used in automatic kitchen dishwashers, and with NO baking soda (bicarbonate soda) in it. Each washing cycle I would simply drain the system via the radiator petcock, add approx 8 to 10 ounces of the dishwashing soap, then top off with tap water. I would normally run it for a week or two, checking the level and oil saturation of the degas bottle. After cycle #3, I was beginning to think it would never clean up. Then between cycle 4 and 5 it REALLY cleared up.

After draining cycle 5 via the petcock, i let the truck idle and cracked the petcock with the nose of the truck pointed downhill. Nothing drastic, but you could tell it was pointing nose of the truck down. The truck was at operating temperature, and I was dribbling water into the degas bottle as the level would drop (water escaping via the cracked radiator petcock). Took about 20 minutes and very clean water was coming out.

Rounded up 6 gallons of demineralized water (kroger brand) and ford brand coolant, and mixed accordingly. Degas bottle has been oil free since late June 2015 and cooling system working great!!! Hope this helps someone clean their system after an oil down.

 

Just came across this. Sounds like it may have helped.

Oil Emulsifier
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