My dad has a 1993 Turbo (yes, it's a factory turbo but I'm sure it's an IDI motor) farm truck that has ailments and I would like some opinions. He has only had it for a few months, so we don't know much history. It has about 175k miles and is a 4x4 5 speed.

1. It has antifreeze in the oil and oil in the antifreeze.
2. it seems to be pressurizing the water system when running but not 100% sure about this
3. the first symptom was that it would not start as if hydro-locked.
4. when we got it started, it smokes and runs very rough.

I guess my initial thoughts would be cracked head or block, blown intake or head gasket, but I didn't know if there is another scenario that could cause this problem. My truck is a 2003 7.3l so I'm not that familiar with this motor.

Is it worth tearing into. or is he looking at big $$$ regardless? If so, he'd rather just part it out before spending the tear down money.

Opinions needed.

Thanks

 

Coolant and oil mixing could happen in the oil cooler.


When you say would not start as in hydrolocked, do you mean the engine would not turn over at all?

When an engine is hudrolocked it will turn over till the cylinder with water in it gets to the compression stroke.
As soon as that cylinder starts to compress, the engine stops turning over instantly.

 

I actually didn't see it in that situation. My dad just said it would not turn over- he thought the motor was locked up. After the tow truck driver started to pull it on the roll back(he noticed it freed up after pulling a foot or two), it started and will now run (we have only run it for a minute).

As for the cooler, are you talking about a cooler in the radiator? If so, it doesn't have one as far as I can tell (no lines to the radiator).

Thanks

 

hi john, the engine will hydrolock when there is water in one or more of the cylinders. It wont compress and locks up the engine against the starter.
this could be caused by a bad head gasket, cracked head or sometimes erosion in a cylinder wall.
the oil cooler is located beneath the driver side head and is about 2 inches round tube looking deal. Inside that is a radiator looking deal that passes water thru the tubes to bring the lube oil down to a cooler temp - this tube is made up of 3 sections, the main tube and 2 end pieces. the main tube has 2 o rings on each end to seal the cooler form leaks. usually what happens is the orings become brittle and crack allowing the lube pressure (around 10-45 psi) to leak into the cooling system. this brittle o ring may also allow water to go into the lube system too.
I did notice that dave asked if the engine would crank at all when your dad tried to start it. If it went only so far and stopped spinning with the starter, you probably got water in a cylinder and wont compress.
Its up to you and your dad as to how much time, effort and dollars you want to spend on the repairs.
if the truck sits a while, you could remove all the glow plugs and then turn it over by hand and see if water comes out of the glow plug hole - a good sign of head, head gasket or cavitation erosion.
hope this helps ...gabby

 

My experience with hydro locking was always with a cracked block.

When the engine was running it ran like normal.
But when you turned it off, the pressure in the cooling system would fill a cylinder with coolant.
Then the engine would not turn over.
After several hours sitting after the pressure had been eliminated, the coolant would drain to the crankcase through the ring gaps.
After that the engine would crank, start and run just like always, the only difference was the pressure going into the radiator.
I did test it once, 30 PSI in the radiator with the engine running for 15 seconds.

When the engine was hydro locked after turning it off, you can remove the glow plugs.
When you crank the engine over, the coolant will come out the glow plug hole of the cylinder that has problems.
Word of caution if you do this, the coolant will exit the glow plug hole with considerable pressure.
Saftey glasses are a must if you are close to the engine bay.

When you know which cylinder the problem is with, you will know which head has to be removed.

If the engine is hydro locking, you can eliminate the oil cooler as a problem.

Most common causes for hydro locking are a blown head gasket, cracked head, cavitation, and cracked block.

Head gaskets and cracked heads are the two cheapest ones to fix.
Cavitation and cracked block would both require a salvage yard motor if it were mine.

 

If it is cavitated and has low mileage I would sleeve the engine (8 holes).. cracked block would be different......continued starting attemps with a hydrolocked engine can bend a rod or snap the starter off the adapter plate.....

 

I'm not going to tell you that you CAN'T sleeve the engine but I will say there is a low success rate and you will end up with a dropped sleeve or bad seal around the fire ring of the head gasket.

For the money freshen up a 6.9 for years of service and less worry.

 

oh ya man its the oil cooler im changing mine now cause i have no oil pressure find one at a wrecking yard because ford will charge you $370 for just the rear header found that and another cylinder for $50 at a local wrecker. by the way im changing that cooler tomarrow, if yall know how to get that cylinder off i would like to know im about to check my haynes manual though. also be sure to drain the coolant first otherwise it will all pour out of the cooler (happened to me).

 

if it's like the oil cooler like on the '90, i think the only major thing that the ford mechanics did when they re o-ringed and gasketed mine is they had to break the motor mounts loose and jack the engine up a bit to get to it easily. good luck with the wrenching!

speedrdr

 

OK so if there's water in there, he's either got a head problem (fix) or a block problem (scrap) ... now how does he tell the difference without taking the head off? Is there any way? A guy would hate to go to all the trouble of pulling a head and lugging it down to a machine shop only to learn that the dang thing's cavitated and just needs to be melted down into tomato juice cans.

Cheers!

--Finn

 

Thanks man its raining today and will rain tomarrow shouldve finished last night. my problem is that i can not get the cooler to seperate from the header of course im sure that the seal is preventing me from it.

 

No way to tell where the problem is for sure untill it is apart.
Cracked heads and cavitated blocks I have seen on stock build engines.
Cracked blocks I have only seen on sleeved engines.
Blown head gaskets I have seen on all engines.

To remove the oil cooler, unbolt the drivers side motor mount.
Jack the engine up as far as you can and insert a wood block between the motor mount and frame.
Drain the coolant, remove the oil filter and allow both to drain.
Unbolt the oil cooler, you should have enough room to slide it out to the back.
When you break the cooler loose from the block, there will be both oil and coolant drain out, so be expecting it.