Bad head gasket?
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Bad head gasket?
Well I towed for the first time in a while and going over the pass my truck was getting way hot and was blowing water and air out of the overflow tank. So I let it cool down and added more coolant to it to get it home but it blew the 5/8 T that was in the heater hose. Sooooo I fixed that, got it home and without the trailer and going over the pass it’s been fine but I just put a pressure tester on it and started it up like the instructions told me and the pressure was getting into the 20psi range really fast. So I shut it off cause my cap is a 16 psi cap. Then checked the oil and there’s definitely water in it. I’m guessing a bad gasket but a long time mechanic friend said once these motors get a bunch of antifreeze in the oil it’s real bad for the bearings and recommends a new motor rather than just do the bad head gasket or cracked head, which ever it may be. Any thoughts? Truck has 189,000 miles and runs very well otherwise.
Hotshot
Joined: Feb 2009
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From: Plankinton, SD
Antifreeze is bad on any motors bearings. If it hasn't been in long I wouldn't get real concerned. I'd pull the valve covers to watch and put a pressure tester in place of the Degas bottle cap and check that way. Where did you have the pressure tester at?
Hotshot
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 10,408
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From: Plankinton, SD
I misread. Has it gotten real hot? Have you kept up the sca levels in your antifreeze? You could have a cylinder wall with a pinhole or cracked too. What do you have for a pressure tester? You shouldn't have it running. It should be hooked to the Degas bottle or radiator, whichever you have. Then pumped to about 14 psi and see if it holds, which I'm sure it wont if you have water in the oil. Do you have any white smoke?
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No white smoke. I had not payed attention to the sca levels. The cap it had when I bought it was 16psi but I put a 13 on it. And I’m an hour the pressure (not running) went from 15 to 9 psi. It’s been a month since the issue and I’ve been driving it cause it’s ran fine and I thought it was a bad thermostat. So I replaced that but just checked the oil this weekend and that’s when I noticed water in it. So it’s been pumping antifreeze through it for a month now.
Tuned
Joined: Apr 2018
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Is the 7.3 the one that can leak through the timing cover or am I thinking of another engine?
A leak-down test might show up a head gasket leak.
Oil analysis might tell you if your bearings are wiped.
Did you say if you start it cold it builds pressure in the cooling system real fast?
A leak-down test might show up a head gasket leak.
Oil analysis might tell you if your bearings are wiped.
Did you say if you start it cold it builds pressure in the cooling system real fast?
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Tuned
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If you did a leak-down test you could do it with the coolant pressure tester installed. Maybe pressure would show on the coolant gauge.
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