[Powerstroker96]

My truck started overheating due to the radiator being clogged of oil.. replaced the whole cooling system. Radiator, water pump, hoses. And figured the culprit was the oil cooler. So I replaced the cooler and gaskets and did the oil change and new coolant. Fired her back up. Got a little white smoke from exaust. Smells like burnt oil. Sputters what looks to be oil on the ground also. There's no blow by. I took it on a 100 mile drive and when I got back my coolant was oil once again. I'm leaning towards a bad head gasket since I got oil in a combustion chamber since there's oil in the exaust. What other options are there? Oh and my turbo cooler pipes are full of oil also. It's a big freaking mess!!!

 

[cjfisher]

Welcome to PSN!

Oh and my turbo cooler pipes are full of oil also.

The crankcase is vented into the intake just before the turbo. Oil that makes it through the wire mesh filter in the "dog house" on the drivers side gets pulled through the turbo and ends up in the intake piping and intercooler. Is is most likely the reason you have oil in the charge air piping.

I'm leaning towards a bad head gasket since I got oil in a combustion chamber since there's oil in the exaust.

Typically a bad head gasket will allow coolant into the combustion chamber not oil. You end up burning your coolant or the cylinder pressures will force gases into the coolant and you'll see bubbles come out the coolant bottle. Not to mention - the heads on the 7.3 are dang strong. You have 6 bolts per head.

How does the oil in the crankcase look? It sounds like the HPOP is pushing oil into the coolant system somehow. You need pressure to push oil into the coolant especially in a hot engine.

Oil in the coolant... Have you done anything with injectors recently? The injector cups are a known failure point on these engines. Though usually you end up with fuel in your coolant and not oil. If you still have the factory fuel filter setup pull the fuel filter and see if the fuel is dark. This is an indication that you have bad injector seals and high pressure oil is being pushed into the fuel rail.

I have seen a cracked front cover leak coolant into the oil...

Please check you fuel filter and get back. We'll go from there.

Cj

 

[Hendy]

I agree with @cjfisher here I am leaning towards injector issues.

If you could read the codes and tell us what they say we may be able to figure it out faster

If you only have a basic scan tool it will not be able to read the codes, if you need a good scan tool

1. Get FORScan scanning software for Fords (free) and an OBDII reader. Greatest troubleshooting tool ever!

2. DO NOT throw parts at it . . . if you must, then make them Motorcraft parts. Ford diesels are quite particular about their sensors.

3. Come back with the codes. Lots and lots of smart people here!

 

[Hendy]

My cousin had an issue similar to this a little while back, the issue ended up being a bad oil cooler and it was just mixing the oil and coolant. There should be some tests you can to to figure out if it's bad or not, since I don't know those tests lets see if @Patrick Feeley knows or has them

 

[Powerstroker96]

I haven't messed with the injectors in like a year. The truck sat for 6 months because I blew the transmission out I just got it running again and now I'm having these issues. I've never seen a 7.3l just dump this much oil into the coolant. My theory is that my coolant had to go somewhere so.im guessing it may have gotten into the combustion chamber before it turned to oil? But I also don't see a blown head gasket pushing this much oil into the cooling system soo fast but I could be wrong. And yeah like I said I've got a new oil cooler on it. I've got no codes. It runs and drives good I have no loss of power I just took it down before something really messed up if its not already. It's got a little white smoke out the exaust and oil in the exaust. The more it warms up the more it blows white smoke out (thicker) (guessing it's from the coolant pressure building)? Could a cracked injector cup be the cause of this? I just redid head gaskets a year ago also when I did the injector work and haven't had any issues until now there's about 10k miles on head gaskets and Injector work. And yes I only use.motorcraft parts

 

[matthewd11]

You sure you didn’t fold an o ring or tear one putting the oil cooler together? Did you replace the cooler or just new o rings? I have never seen that much oil end up in the cooling system from anything expect the oil cooler. Did you use some restore from fleet guard and water to flush out the cooling system after the failure? It will be extremely hard to remove all the oil unless you did this even replacing every component.

 

[Powerstroker96]

Replaced the whole cooler and yes I flushed it. And no I don't think I folded the gaskets it went together smoothly.

 

[matthewd11]

It will take several drain and fills to flush it out completely. Did you do this?

 

[Bugman]

Flushing the cooling system with Cascade Dish washing detergent works pretty good to get oil out of the system.

Then you just need to deal with bubbles😁

 

[scotty.vincent]

Flushing the cooling system with Cascade Dish washing detergent works pretty good to get oil out of the system.

Then you just need to deal with bubbles😁

Simple Green gets the job done and flushes out easily, without the bubbly after-effects. Immersing the entire radiator, intercooler and parts completely, with a high concentrate of Simple Green would be recommended if possible.

Sorry for your issue, this is not going to be fun, but will be rewarding after you have it fixed.

 

[Jax]

My cousin had an issue similar to this a little while back, the issue ended up being a bad oil cooler and it was just mixing the oil and coolant. There should be some tests you can to to figure out if it's bad or not, since I don't know those tests lets see if @Patrick Feeley knows or has them

Yes, damage in the oil cooler can definitely mix oil and coolant.

As for your air cooler, is your turbo leaking into it? That much oil means your turbo may have blown, or it was blown in the past. Clean it out well, and make sure it is drained and dry!