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I am trying to track down a new oil leak on my 7.3. It is below the front oil cooler mount but not the oil cooler. I attached a couple of pictures, the first two are before I cleaned up the mess and the last is after (sorry for the quality). I started the truck and let it idle for a bit after cleaning and I didn't see anything fresh so I would imagine it only manifests under load. I spent a lengthy time looking but only seemed to come up with leaking oil cooler. Any ideas?
Well, first guess is: you got it "the oil cooler". Even if I am wrong, if it has never had new o-rings, it is a good PM task. Better to do it when it is convenient for you. Be sure to purchase OEM o-rings. Dieselorings.com or Riffraff are great places get them.
Yes you did! Have you tested it under load? Well, can you clean more of the area above and around the cooler? Did you use Simple Green or another degreaser?
I just simple greened it, I didn't bust out the tooth brush as the sun was fading. I try to avoid the easy option (brake clean) for fear of doing damage to rubber parts and seals. I have not tested it under load. I will take it to work tomorrow and see if something develops. Either way I will get under and make it squeaky clean this weekend.
It could be the front cover starting to sweat a little. Hard to see behind the alternator/power steering bracket, but a good light and mirror might help.
Here is a shot of mine starting to sweat a bit, mine was on the passenger side though.
I read through your entire thread last night. When I came across that picture my heart sank a bit. I have zero desire to remove that cover. I am going to take the truck for a spin today so hopefully I can pin point it.
It's not very common so I wouldn't go straight to that, but wanted to throw out a possibility. Something else you don't want to hear is that it also could be the gasket from oil cooler bracket to the block, again I don't see to many of those. Best bet is to do what you are going to do and is clean it up as good as possible and have a flashlight and mirror handy. You could also put a die in the oil and use a black light (I think it's a black light).
Well no new oil today. But after some further cleanup I found a big chunk of gunk behind where the oil cooler attaches to the block. It came out like grease. Which is leading me to believe I do in fact have a leak at the front cover.
I wasn't able to do a great job on clean up because the only tooth brush I could find is my active tooth brush and I wanted to brush my teeth tomorrow..
Well... Embarrassingly enough it appears as though I didn't actually have an oil leak. Instead I had a pretty decent coolant leak where my coolant filter attaches to the water pump. Fixed it, cleaned everything up and it's been about 150 miles without a drop. I guess that grime on the block was left over from my oil cooler repair. Time will tell.
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