Blown head gasket?
 

Welcome to my nightmare! Driving at highway speed, around 70 mph, truck had been running fine all day. In a split second, I either heard or felt something wrong, looked in the mirror and saw grey smoke. Shut it down immediately and coasted to the shoulder. At that point nothing visually leaking as far as I could tell. Checked the oil and it was just a hair above full. Kept checking it and it kept rising (with coolant). Will a blown head gasket cause the coolant to leak or siphon into the oil at a very quick rate or could it be something even more serious? What makes this bad situation even worse is I was out of state, FAR, FAR from home late Saturday morning where it can't be looked at until Monday morning. If it is a head gasket, any ballpark ideas on how badly I might get soaked on the repair? If it could be something worse, what are the possibilities? Thanks in advance for all the expert knowledge and help that is on this site.

A blown head gasket is about as bad as it gets except for a busted head or block. BUt I would bet you have an injector cup gone bad. You need to remove the valve covers to find out. If you have a infrared thermometer you can check the temps of each cylinder (running) at the exhaust manifolds to determine which cylinder to start at. It will be the coldest one. There are 4 small welch plugs in the head that can let coolant into the oil too. Here's a link to a picture of the welch plugs:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...ease-help.html
Scroll down the page.

Thanks for the reply, cuda_Jim. Would a bad injector cup cause the huge amount of coolant to fill the crankcase that I got after shutting the motor down? The dipstick showed the level kept rising after shut down to ending up maybe 6 inches or more above the full mark. How can a test be made running? If the crankcase is drained of the mixture and refilled, won't it just shoot coolant back into the crankcase when it is started? I haven't checked your link to the welch plugs yet. Would a failure there cause the problem immediately and as quickly as I experienced? I'm at a disadvantage here because I had to leave the truck and it's 400 miles away. Any suggestions that I can communicate to the shop where I had to leave it are appreciated. I don't need him tearing it completely apart if he can check other possibilities first. Thanks again

At this point don't let them start the engine. This could hydraulic a cylinder and destroy the engine.

There a a couple place that would cause the trouble you described, and yes, just draining the oil and refilling ain't going to solve it.

Read the link I posted above. That guy has the same deal as you. He started with a missfire then discovered coolant in the oil. There a few places that will allow coolant into the oil.

1. Start by draining the oil pan and removing the oil filter. Fill the cooling system and Pressurize it. If water comes from the oil filter mount you have a leak in the engine oil cooler. If it comes out of the drain plug hole the leak is in the engine block.
2. Next, The valve covers need to be removed to determine if you have a bad injector cup or welch plugs leaks. Pull the glow plugs and inspect each cylinder for coolant too.
3. The water pump is the next culprit. If no leaks are found yet, the water pump need to be removed and inspected for pin holes.
4. If you got this far and haven't discovered the leak, you have a blown head gasket or a cracked head/cylinder block IMO, unless I forgot something??

Good luck and let us know what you find. I hope that repair shop doesn't rip you off. Do your home work.

Thanks again, Cuda_jim. I read the link you posted yesterday and your current reply is very helpful as to what I want to communicate to the shop in case he assumes a head gasket before exploring other causes. I really appreciate your help.

In worse case scenario of head gasket, cracked head or block, is there any known success with stuff like Thermagasket or others? They claim success with diesels.

I have had success with a product from Morosso. It a block sealer but I've not used it on a diesel.

Morosso block sealer is available in 2 types, water only (race engines) and antifreeze. It contains a ceramic that will seal a blown head gasket and/or cracked head temporarily. I do have 1 vehicle that had a head gasket so bad it was literally pouring fluid out of the tail pipe......It's still going after 4 years of delivering mail. I have used it in 4-5 vehicles with only 1 that needed a more permanent repair (head gasket). All my race engines get a dose of it from birth. (Water use only).

I am not recommending you do this just sharing my experience with a product that I have known to work in this situation. BTW: The cooling system needs to be spotless for it to work. Normal coolant flushes ususally don't work. I usually remove a couple freeze plugs to get the block clean, back flush the radiator and heater core until they run clear.

I cant wait to blow a head gasket! How many miles on the truck 97250towtruck? Any mods? Hope you get it fixed up good. To be honest if I was you I would call up Hypermax and have them send you a set of their high performance head gaskets. You wouldn't have to worry about this happeneing again, especially if your a stocker. Good luck

Cowboy Steve

the oil cooler could have failed also. it usually fills the cooling system with oil but i wouldnt rule it out.

cudajim's got everything else covered.

Possible internal antifreeze leak
 

I found this thread as I am looking to get 1993 F-350 with 7.3L diesel that has some sort of internal antifreeze leak.

If the guy keeps the antifreeze level just where the engine is content with the temperature - everything is fine. It starts, runs, doesn't put out clouds of grey smoke or nothing.

However, if he everfills the cooling sitem and runs the truck, after turning it of some antifreeze leaks into the cylinder (-s). Engine hydrolocks and won't start. If he turns the engine over with a wrench and allows the antifreeze to drain into exhaust - everything is back to normal.

It doesn't really sound like a blown head gasket to me. Any ideas? Could it be the above mentioned welch plugs or something?

Any help at this point will be greatly appreciated.

Iron Wolf,
You talking about a '93 which is an IDI and not a Power Stroke. Lots different between them, it's best to check with the IDI guys.

Just pull all the injectors yourself and look in the bottom of the hole for antifreeze. That's the best way to find a broken cup. If nothing is obvious then you can put a pressure tester on the radiator and pump it up to 2-3 psi. NO MORE. the cups will all leak above that with the injectors out. replace the leaking cups, or all of them and the injector o rings then flush out your oil and cooling system.

That would put oil in the coolant though...

It will if it's running but shut off coolant can go in the oil. Whichever one is lower pressure is where everything is going to go.

I wonder what the original problem was? nothing posted .....