so i just did my head gasket with headstuds and o-rings. went about two hundred miles and it was fine then all of a sudden started burning coolant. took a valve cover off and it was covered in milk. ten times worse then before i did my head gasket. so now my truck is just sittin. do i do my oil cooler first or could i have really blown another head ggasket? yes i tightened the studs down right and my block was spotless when i put the new gasket on all that stuff. please help. and what exactly do you do when you do an oil cooler?

 

outch

To clean the cooler you should remove it and use shop solvent to clean the inside

 

i would check that oil cooler

 

wheres the oil cooler even located?

 

pass/side middle of the moter

 

Right behind the oil filter......that housing there is the oil cooler. The thing tanks under the exhaust manifold is the trans heat exchanger.

 

my oil cooler is fine. so now idk what im gonnna do. i guess start over on the head gasket. what are the chances i have a cracked block? its only got 170,000 miles on it.

 

very god chance a crack somewhere. You deffinatly shouldnt have blown a head gasket unless your orings just werent seated right or poped out of the groove when you set your head down.

 

What was the protrusion of the O-rings?

It sounds to me like either one of two things happened here.....

1-You had way to much O-Ring protrusion and the head never sealed correctly.
or
2-You did not run a couple of heat cycles and retorques before you took it out and pucnhed the loud pedal.

If the O-Rings are out to far the gasket will never seal the combustion chamber and your doomed from the start.All a scenario like that does is create alot more work as now you have to flush the entire cooling system out also.

If the proper retorques are not done after you run a couple of heat cycles through and you take it out and boost it even a little more than it make want you will have happen what you found.I highly doubt its a cracked block but stranger things have happened.Its always a good rule of thumb to run your cyles and first retorques after the initial start up then easily drive it for a wek or so and retorque it again BEFORE you think about throwing big boost at it.

Your going to have to pull it again no doubt but just relax and take your time with the next one and consider this a learning experience as many of us have been down this road also.BTW,do not fret the oil/coolant mix right now,just drain the system completely for now and do the work needed.Once the truck is back together and torqued the first time you can clean the oil mess out every easily.2 cups of powdered Cascade into the cooling system and then fill with water and start the truck.Run the motor until the thermostat opens and then shut it down.Drain the oil/water mixture in the radiator and do your retorque then refill and do it again.Each time you do this it will draw more of the oil out and after about 2-3 flushes you should be good to go to add your good coolant mix.We use a large solid laundry basket as our catch pan as it would hold more than a normal drain pan and made for less trips dumping it........Andy

P.S.-Make sure you change the oil to before you restart the truck as if oil is in the cooling system then you can rest assured its in your oil also.

 

thanks hammer.