So you had foam too.

No disputing there is petroleum in there, it’s the foam that is throwing me. What I’m questioning is if they left a chem in there that compromised the oil cooler. But if diesel also causes foaming them there are more then just one possibility then a dealer FUBAR.

 

Yes, I had foam in the bottle but I caught it very early on. UCF had to get the heads to temperature and pressure them up quite a bit to get the cups to leak. I had less than 8psi coolant pressure at all times too, the head gaskets were absolutely not compromised, I just did heads and gaskets 5200 miles prior to this failure.

 

You could pressurize the diesel side of each head separately and at the same time you could put a pressure gauge on the water side to check if the pressure on the water side increases.
I would do it like you can see at the beginning of my video:

 

His second picture has a dark liquid floating on top the coolant (even though it is a small amount), and he said it had no fuel smell, but maybe there isn't enough to smell. Still it certainly could be diesel - the "foam" does look different than the typical oil/water emulsion (sludge).

 

I agree with you, Mark. Perhaps he could also drain the coolant and take a closer look. But with that stuff in his system, whatever it is, he's not gonna get around a cleanup. Putting pressure on it would be worth a try in my opinion to see if something is leaking.

 

maybe somebody really did put in a coolant sealant. My '84 Blazer M1009 6.2 Detroit Diesel had that stuff in it too...

 

I could barely smell mine even getting a whiff from the degas bottle right when I opened it up. I could only smell the diesel when I got some on my finger and rubbed fingers together and smelled it. I drained all my coolant into a translucent container and let it sit overnight to see how much diesel separated and floated to the top and it was not more than just a light sheen on top.

 

It was never overheated as far as I know, I ran a scanner about a week before I had this problem, the delta was about 10-11 going 70MPH and the overall temps were 180ish.
Everything looks fine under the cap
No additives have ever been added to the oil. However, I switched from conventional Rotella to synthetic last summer. Regarding the coolant, the dealer said that they use a mild solvent when flushing the coolant.
I took another sniff and dabbed it on my finger just to be sure, still smells like coolant (Maybe a bit sweeter scent than normal) but if it is fuel I can't smell it.

If my oil cooler did rupture what causes it to do that? other than it overheating and possibley hot and cold cycles. I'd be surprised if it did get clogged without me being aware of it since I check the temps and installed a coolant filter about 30,000 miles ago. Every coolant filter change I cut open the old one just to get a glimpse at what is floating around in the system. It's been fairly clean with some sand but nothing like I've seen in other users pictures.

 

These steps may help to somewhat identify the type of substance.

I would take a clean dark bottom wide mouth container and put clean water in it.
Take a dab of the stuff on the end of your finger and touch the water and see if you
get the rainbow effect from oil on water. Next thing to see if it a surfactant to take
a clean dish ow water and sprinkle pepper on it and then take a dab of the stuff
from clean soap free fingers and just touch the water. Dose the pepper move to the
enges of the bowl? If yes then it's likely some type of surfactant breaking the surface
tension of the water. Soap will do the same thing if you want to try.

 

Put it in a glass jar of warm water and shake it up then let it sit and separate.

 

Another thought: is it possible that someone has mistakenly filled the degas bottle with windscreen cleaner fluid?
I suspect something like that in connection with oil in coolant. Unscrew the cap of the oil cooler where the hose goes to the EGR cooler and suck some water out of the oil cooler. Maybe you can see something suspicious?
Is it possible that someone has filled in coolant from a bottle in which oil was previously present? That might explain the oil film, but not the crust on the degas bottle cap.

 

So here I am two weeks later back with a chem analysis from the local dealership and it is oil. They told me it's pretty what you guys already said. Oil cooler or gaskets. They quoted me a ballpark figure of $2700 for the tear down and replacement of the oil cooler and egr cooler delete. I told them I probably wouldn't need to do the delete since the existing one is from bpd.
So have are the questions I have for you guys:
Should I consider a delete or leave the existing egr in and possibly replace it with another from bpd. (deltas were at 11)
While they have it apart what would be a good idea to replace to help ensure reliability.
I've had the p0299 code for awhile so I've been thinking about getting the turbo looked at but the dealership says they don't service them and would just replace the entire unit. Should I replace it?
If you have any advice or suggestions for a 6.0 at 180,000 I would love to hear it.

 

Glad it’s not a head issue. I’d tear into the turbo and rebuild it, kits from KC Turbos are cheaper than buying a new one and you can learn for next time. The oil cooler and rebuild kit is easy to do and $290 from White Bear Lake/Tousley Ford.

 

Glad you got it identified - sure looked that way to me!

Personally, I would keep the BPD EGR cooler.

 

Getting to the oil cooler is not that difficult. You could save a lot of money doing it your self if you are capable. Where in Texas are you located?