[karwash]

Hi All,

Been reading the forums for a while now and unfortunately my first post is regarding a problem.

As the title says I have oil in the cooling system. On Thursday I checked the fluids prior to a weekend away, the expansion tank was a little dirty but nothing too bad. I drove for an hour to my destination, did a little driving while there and drove back yesterday to find the tank full of oil.

The car runs well, gets up to temp and holds half way up the guage as normal. I have noticed the heater does not clear the screen as well as it should but that would be the oil in the coolent I guess. My first thought was the head gasket, but I have spoken to some peaple in the trade who tell me that they are usually bullet proof. The car has only done 42500 miles and has been well serviced by ford since it was new, I've had it for 4 or 5 months and have only done 3000 miles.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks!

 

[justjake]

Do a compression or leakdown test and that will tell you which cylinder is leaking down. You can also check for exhaust in the coolant, that could tell you a lot. There's no other place on your engine that oil and coolant could mix. Unless you added an oil cooler to it.
Also check your oil for any coolant in it. That will take out your lower end real quick.

 

[karwash]

Many thanks for your reply,
there is an oil cooler on my engine as standard and others that I've asked have also said that it could be the problem. I've never been able to find a workshop I trust in my town and I've tried a few, but a friend of mine an hours drive away is picking it up tonight to take it to his. I'll lt you know how I get on.
thanks again.

 

[nomad327]

The oil cooler is a possibility. If it's the kind that has external coolant hoses, you could rig a bypass, so water doesn't enter the cooler body. That would isolate the potential source of oil into coolant for investigation. It would also be possible to do a small air pressure drop test on the unhooked cooler with the motor off, and see if when pressurized to 15 PSI, the air bleeds away (presumably into the oil system), or if it holds steady for a period of time.
It is probably easier to start with the compression or leakdown test as previously stated. If there is any water getting into the oil, the result will look like streaks of mayonnaise in the oil.

 

[karwash]

Well that didn't all go to plan but the car was picked up a week ago yesterday and returned last sunday.
It was diagnosed as a faulty oil cooler which according to my local Ford dealer is a common problem and the part has now been modified to combat this.
My friend who did the work said it was the worst he'd seen, cleaning every part of the cooling system individually after flushing the system many times, he's also asked me to take it back in two weeks so he can flush it through again.

 

[NJKen]

They must use the same type of cooler on the little diesels that they use on the 7.3 powerstroke diesel in my pickup. Oil cooler oring failure is/was fairly common on these too with similar results.
Ken