A month ago, I did the head gaskets and replaced the heads on my van. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...he-engine.html So far the engine is running great, and I'm getting some pretty decent boost numbers.

Everything went well, and once the engine was back together, I drove the van nearly everyday. While driving it, I tried to remove all the accumulated oil that was still in my coolant system. I drove it without a t-stat and used some strong emulsifier (L-11) to purge the oil. I replaced 2/3's of my radiator hoses, and some of them had almost 50% plaque of oil inside of them.

After weeks of purging the oil with emulsifier, only today did I see a reduction of oil. I had such a bad oil contamination, that it took a dozen flushes to finally remove all the oil. So I think I finally got most of the oil out of the block, heating system, and radiator. I reinstalled my t-stat and filled it up with water. I finally have clear water in my radiator. Well.. not really.

Now that I have a t-stat in, I have to wait for it to open to fill up coolant system fully. While I was waiting for the water level to lower, I noticed that my clear water in the radiator will turn cloudy once the tstat opens. At first I figured this was just steam since I'm just running no coolant (100%water), but then I got concerned that it is combustion gas. I do not notice any bubbling or smoke. It's just steam, or looks just like steam. But my coolant water is unmistakably cloudy.

Here's the problem. it could be a lot of things. I can't figure out what is going on.

1.) The L-11 emulsifier turns cloudy when it converts oil to milk. I might have pockets of the engine block that still had remnants of L-11.
2.) Also prior to the t-stat installation, my engine never really got up to temp, so maybe with the engine up to temp, the L-11 is finally getting its chance to work.
3.) I may have gunky oil throughout my heater core circuits (XLT van with front and rear AC and heaters, so lots of room for oil to hide), and this cloudiness is from that oil.
4.) I have been flushing my coolant with tap water. Maybe the city water is reacting with my circuit and making it cloudy. I know tap water is a no-no, but honestly, i have flushed this van a dozen times in the last month, and there is no way I could do it all with distilled water.
5.) The contaminated coolant water doesn't smell like anything. It doesn't smell like diesel, or exhaust, or coolant, or emulsifier. I just smells like water and steam.
6.) Last night, I took the van to test the boost (did some fuel screw changes) and up a hill I got 10psi with only 3/4 throttle. When I got home, I squeezed my top radiator hose, and it was TIGHT. Not enough pressure to activate the radiator cap pressure release, but it was tighter than normal.
7.) The vapor that emits from the radiator is not like exhaust. It is like steam. It doesn't billow out, like in youtube videos I've seen, but rather just steams out of the cap. It probably is just steam, but the water is so cloudy that my mind is racing that it is exhaust gas in my coolant.

The final thing that leads me to believe this isn't combustion gas is: When I pull a cup of this cloudy liquid with a turkey baster, it will steam in the jar for several minutes thereafter. I would expect combustion gas would exhaust from the radiator only, and not "dissipate" from the fluid for minutes. But I don't know about that, it's just my hunch.

However, I'm worried it is combustion gasses in the coolant, which would lead to a possible leak in my head gaskets I literally just replaced. Hypermax recommends using a Preston Head Gasket Stop Leak in their system. Awful recommendation, but I'm willing to try anything to finally finish this HG job.

But before I resort to the stop leak liquid, I wanted to post all my info and see what you all say. A friend said I should do a pressure test at the GP ports, to see if one cylinder is failing. Anyone have a DIY method for checking cylinder compression? If I was losing pressure to the coolant system, I would think it would idle funny or not give me the best performance of the van's life. Any help would be appreciated.

 

after I did mine I ran it for a few weeks with straight water plus a cup of simple green. After that I flushed including block drain plugs. filled with 50% water and 50% fleetcharge and havent looked back. When I did have combustion leak prior to the head job It was blowing coolant out of the reservoir cap or straight out of the top of the radiator if the cap was off. was also overheating quickly. If you're not having cooling issues and not blowing coolant I would run with it and see what happens.A buddy of mine who is a Dodge/jeep dealer mechanic told me it was normal to put a little stop leak in new cars from the factory. So probly doesnt hurt. He said however that this was for weeping of the headgaskets. I didnt use any in mine because I didnt feel I needed to.

 

I'm now running just distilled water. It's looking clearer. I'll run it for a few days, and see if that clears up. If yes, then that is pretty shocking of the stuff in the city water.

 

Uh DO NOT run straight water beyond an immediate flush in a diesel engine ever. You will immediately start oxygen pitting cylinder walls. Your city water could have high chloride content which will oxidize steel rapidly, with just water and no corrosion inhibitors in it you are making iron oxide and flushing it away then making more. You basically have a bare steel surface you're spraying with a garden hose.

Distilled water is very agressive too, it is completely false that it does not cause corrosion because its non conductive. It begins disolving all dissimilar metals the second it enters your engine and becomes conductive.

Do no put simple green it it, the high pH with zero corrosion protection can damage your aluminum oil cooler, your copper oil cooler bundle, and your copper radiator.

 

Whenever I install a thermostat, if it doesn't have a bleeder fitting, I will drill a 1/8" hole in it to allow air out. Any effect on warmup time is not at all noticeable, and makes filling so much easier.

 

It's also quite easy to do this on our engines. When you have the thermostat housing apart, there is a 1/4" ball bearing held in by the gasket(it's in the piece you remove, the top piece). Remove the ball bearing completely. It opens up a nice little bleeder passage, which works great. I think it was supposed to be a little air bleeder, but having the passage completely open is better. Never had warm-up issues, and I never have to worry about bleeding; just keep adding coolant until full then drive it.

 

Ugh, I hate the thought of miracle in a can stop leaks.
Sorry, not too helpful I know.

 

i know about the cavitation risk with tap and distilled water. these are not long term solutions, but I'm still purging all the oil in my system. I don't have the budget to keep throwing Fleetcharge at this. Water will have to suffice.

I ran distilled water today. After it warmed up, it still got cloudy. It's about half as cloudy. And half as vapor-y. But still cloudy. My theory is that I have more emulsifier in the coolant system somewhere, and it's just slowly dissipating and dissolving.

I have a big trip in 2 days. I'll drain out the distilled one last time, then put in a full load of fleetcharge and cross my fingers this ordeal is finally over. I'm not going to use the stop leak for this trip. If I see more problems after the trip, then I'll reluctantly try that Preston Heavy Duty Head Gasket Stop Leak. Ugh.

 

Ok, I think I found the problem. The smokey-vapor that is coming from the radiator was the emulsifier plus distilled water. It must have a lower boiling point, so the vapor was mixing with the emulsifier and making it look like smoke.

I purged it with one more flush with distilled water, then flushed it. Then put in Fleetcharge. The smoke is almost all cleared up. I think it's good.

 

Here's hoping! You've been fighting this for so long you're overdue for a break!

 

Yep. I did put off the HG job for a half year. But the last several weeks have been a lot of work in this van and engine. I'm planning a big trip in a few days, and a much bigger trip (probably 6-8000 miles) in a month. So hopefully everything will be in order.