kev211

i just did a head gasket because of water in oil and white smoke like crazy.. NOW my truck has no white smoke...runs beautiful with more power than ever.. but now my oil looks like chocalate milk and theres oil in my coolant. I shaved 12 thou of my head and had it pressure tested ...everything check out good. im pretty sure its not the head gasket job as its running amazing and the white smoke is gone...why is my oil full of water and vice versa? this is stressin me right out,, thnks so much

bigwhite59

did you ever flush the cooling system and change the oil at least 2-3 times? When the headgasket pops, there's nothing to keep the oil and water from crossing over systems.

PoorMansCat

cheap way to flush cooling system is to get a box of cascade dishwashing detergent, put about 1/2 box in with straight water and run it for a day or two, then drain. If there is still any oil in it, do it one more time. This really works well and its cheap.

woodrat

here's a couple of good articles. I used dish soap and it took about three or four cycles plus rinses to get it basically clean. I also pulled the radiator and flushed it well and ran pressure through the heater core and blew out a bunch of sludge from there before putting things back together. I still get a few globules near the radiator cap every now and then.

It's no fun!

http://thepowershop.com/index.php?pr=Relief
http://thepowershop.com/index.php?pr=Disaster

Valv

I wouldn't run your truck anymore until you find the problem, water in oil is very bad for your motor, also antifreeze will damage crank bearings really fast.

You can check the oil coolant behind oil filter housing, or you might have a frost plug problem under the tappet cover on left side of motor (a witch to fix).

woodrat

mine was a leaking oil cooler. And when I pulled it out, it was not obviously broken. It took a pressure test in a bucket of water to see the leak.

brockdieseldude

Sound like it could be a oil cooler. I would change the oil and flush the cooling system then recheck but don't drive it very far till you know your problem is gone or it will take the crank bearings out.

rattlerbob5.9

Did your truck run bad before you changed the head gasket??? Did you inspect the old gasket when you removed it ? You may have had a leaking oil cooler all along and never fixed the actual problem with the headgasket change.

kev211

i did the head gasket becuase it was puffin white smoke like crazy and i was loosing coolant...my truck runs amazing now but i think your right....i think i had 2 problems happing at the same time...im just loosing coolant like crazy and oil and water are both contaminated...im gona pull the oil cooler tomrow....any pointers for pulling the oil cooler off>>>????

woodrat

I just did this job and I am still doing it actually. I put a used oil cooler in the first time and it just kept dripping oil. I've r and r'd the thing four times now and I still can not get it to stop leaking, so I am going to Cummins today to purchase a NEW oil cooler and hope that that solves the problem. The used one had some pitting and irregularities in the surface and I think that was keeping it from sealing properly. So my advice at this point is to cough up for a new oil cooler. Dodge wanted $412 for it, Cummins wants $246.

here's the whole sorry saga of my oil cooler replacement, with lots of pictures. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be back on the road with no leaks. But I've said that before...

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ght=oil+cooler
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ght=oil+cooler
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ght=oil+cooler
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ght=oil+cooler
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ght=oil+cooler
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ght=oil+cooler
https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...ght=oil+cooler

kev211

okay one more question....i have way more water in my oil than i do oil in my water..there is definatly oil in my coolant though and DEFINATLY lots of water in my oil...does this still say oil cooler???

kev211

oil doesnt have passages in the head....the only place water could get in the oil is through the head gasket to the push rod holes...is that correct??

woodrat

in my case anyway, bad oil cooler meant lots of oil in coolant, but very little coolant in oil. I don't know if that is always the case, but it makes sense that it would be generally that way, since oil pressure is so much higher than coolant pressure. But a big rupture in the oil cooler would make a mess in both directions. Mine was a small oil cooler leak, but enough to overflow my cooling system with oil.

Pulling the oil cooler by itself is not a huge job and then you could pressure test it to see if it leaks. Cleaning all the sludge out of the cooling system is a pretty big job though...

Valv

I had a '97 with a problem like this, I could drain oil , leave plug open then fill radiator and after few seconds water was flowing out from oil pan hole.
Tested cooler and was fine, new head gasket, etc.

Only solution we came up with is a busted frost plug under the left engine tappet cover, which is right behind injector pump.

I sold the truck to somebody else, repair would have been cheap but A LOT OF WORK to get to it.

PoorMansCat

Kev, before you get REALLY drastic, go to Napa and get a cooling system pressure test kit. All u need is a regulator, a cap adapter, a ball valve or pinch valve, maybe a pressure guage inline, a local radiator shop might let you borrow most of the stuff. Pressurize the cooling system and listen/watch for leaks. Drain all the engine oil out and leave the plug out. You might have to pull some valve covers to find it. Also, when it starts running out the pan, see if the left over milky oil that was in the cooler comes out with it. Just a thought.