I have only owned the truck for about 40K. It had ford gold in it before but it was pretty fresh when I drained it. I did a fleetguard restore flush with probably 100 gallons of water. Then used 30 gallons of distilled water at the end to flush out the city water. I used shell rotella concentrate and used a refractometer to check my concentration, it was around 55-60% if I recall correctly. The crusty stuff appears to be the color of the ELC so I’m not sure it was the ford gold. None of the other water ports looked this bad. I think It could be combustion gases. I’ll get it back together and do more testing. Maybe try one of those combustion gas testers.

I put a pressure gauge tapped into my degas before and I only was able to get up to 12 psi after many WOT runs from 0-80. Usually I saw 4-6 psi just cruising around. My truck runs 190-192 consistently. Towing camper in the summer up large grades I’ve seen 215-220 coolant temp but it drops back down rapidly. My deltas have been under 15 as well. I changed coolant because I thought it would cut down maintenance of having to do a coolant change every 30k. I’m right at 250,000 miles. The cover is original and the gasket is original in my opinion. I don’t see evidence of it being removed before.

 

You've got a really weird one there. You did enough flusing that I can't concieve of anything left behind.

The diesel combustion testers do not work. Gas, OK.

 

It has puked a few drops of coolant out from the degas before (couple times during heavy load) It has not done that since I lowered the level down to the lower 1/3 of the bottle seems to be ok there. I think I’ll fix the surface this weekend sand it flat then seal it back up and put my pressure gauge back on for a bit and see what it’s doing. Thanks for all the help guys I appreciate the support.

 

 

That angle gives a better view of what there is. I thought the port had more erosion, into the gasket seal, which compromised the sealing surface more than I what I see there.

A very good RTV might seal and bond that, and maybe that's all you need. I would prefer filling the pits of corrosion, and letting the sealant on the front cover gasket be in full compression. That would mean taking some epoxy and with a straight edge of steel, wipe the epoxy across the pits. When dry, do some light sanding backed with something flat to level the epoxy.

This is one that may work well, there are others. McMaster has pages, you need water resistance and temperature resistance.

 

use a thin layer Reinzosil between the block and the front cover gasket. It will work.

 

That might be the really good RTV. Now we're kicking in my old career work. I'll try to explain better.

First, I find this situation unique and interesting. When you look at the surface closely, it corroded at the juncture of the silicone of the gasket in contact with the block - almost as though the silicone was corrosive, but that wasn't the reason. You have block areas inside the silicone contact that did not erode (mostly).

There are two areas where corrosion has developed channels, opening up the space under the actual seal of the gasket, compromising the seal, and where the leak was occurring. And it's at the top where combustions gasses would travel, although going along with the flow of coolant. Shut down; gases would collect there.

The erosion you mostly see is on the outside of the actual seal, in the area of the silicone that is recessed from silicone shrinkage when the gasket is made. These areas would have collected the leaking coolant and corroded secondarily, the initial primary loss of the seal was elsewhere.

As the erosion occurred, the compressive force under the silicone would diminish. And that is why I worry about using a compressive RTV to fill the pits. You are taking more of a chance due to the lower compressive force because the added flowable silicone would be displaced to some degree. It also won't bond well to the existing silicone of the gasket.

Now, you could still use the silicone and draw a blade over the surface to level it, then let it dry, so when the silicone-faced gasket is laid over it and compressed, the hardened silicone would create more resistance and obtain a higher compressive force. But silicone still gives; it's still compressible, it shrinks when drying, unlike the iron surface it normally interfaces against. You can see the srinking of the silicone in the images of the gasket, matching the interlock pattern cut into the aluminum to hold the silicone. I used to work with silicone often when I worked in the carbon fiber industry, using the silicone in molds.

For me, I'd rather spend the extra time and use epoxy to restore the surface to its expected height, and the silicone of the gasket has higher compression, where the arrows are is my main concern.

But that's me. And I've been known to overthink problems.

 

Well I got the cover back on. I put rtv around the pitted coolant port. Torqued the cover to 18 lbft.

the lpop gears were a tight fit into the cover. The old ones slid right out with a magnet. Maybe they were just worn out after 250k. I used a mallet to work them in. Is that normal ?

 

Finally back together

New front cover

No leaks after a few heat cycles feeling good

Fingers crossed this repair holds up for a while

 

How did you decide to handle the intake manifold donut oring seal? Did you loosen the intake manifold, it not?

 

great question, what I did was follow the diesel tech Ron trick. I used that ford orange heavy duty o ring. I applied some gasket tack to help it stay in place. Then I lubricatated it with high quality engine assembly lube. I used a putty knife also lubricated to wedge between the o ring and intake manifold receiving groove. This allows me to manipulate the cover and move it around to get on the dowels. Then when your happy with the placement of front cover slip the putty knife out. I think it’s not the right way to do it but it worked for me. I definitely would have felt more comfortable pulling the intake manifold partially but I rolled the dice.

 

I never would have thought of that. Isn't that oring under compression while you're moving the cover around? Must have taken some serious strength to push up the cover enough to compress that oring while aligning and installing the cover.

 

My interest would be about torquing the balancer bolts. I know how I've done it in-frame and on the stand.

 

i cheated, ordered new bolts because I read they were TTY. Got them all snuged down to about 70 lb ft evenly then hit them with the impact. I’m going to go back and retorque them this weekend. I think it’s 170lb then 90 degree?