Went to leave work today and saw an EPIC puddle under my truck! Looking around I found the overflow bottle full of oil soup! The engine oil, although low, only had a small sign of white foam. Not sure where to go from here?? I see there is an oil cooler but where and how does it work? I ask because it looks on my alldata like its part of the filter housing??? It it testable?
Any help would be great!! If it IS the head gasket are there any suggestions as to what to replace it with??

 

It very well could be your oil cooler, but in 99 there was the dreaded block casting 53. That casting number was prone to cracking. If you cracked an oil passage to water passage you could be screwed...

 

It IS a 53 block. It has 170k on it though and has been flawless so far... From what I read less the 10% of people actually had failures???

 

You shouldn't get any water in your oil since the oil pressure is higher then the coolant pressure. The oil will always go to the coolant. Unless it leaks in while its not running..... an oil cooler is kind like a small lines full of collant running through oil. Or vise versa. I know for caterpillars and other bigger diesel engines you can get them pressure tested to find if its leaking. I would just replace it if you take it out. Then you wont have much down time on your truck.

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I will try that. Can anyone verify the location of the cooler? I can't believe my program doesn't cover that more.
All I can do is plan for the worstr but hope for the best!

 

It is your oil filter housing. You'll have to drain your antifreeze and oil, disconnect the turbo oil line, drop the oil filter, and pull the cooler. I don't know of anyone in the aftermarket that carries them, so you'll have to contact Cummins, or check e-bay..

 

So if it is the WORST case $cenario..... A cracked block... Where do I go from there? Any vendor suggestions? I saw one from "The Horsepower Shop" for 6200$ that is said to be 400hp 880tq. I reeeeeally do NOT have 6200$ though!
Dammit!

 

IT IS NOT YOUR OIL COOLER. IT IS NOT THE DREADED 53 BLOCK CRACK

now that i said that, the oil cooler is very very unlikely to crack on a cummins, it happens but ill put money on it aint the problem. it aint the 53 cracked block, because they didnt crack internaly, the crack on the outside of the block on the pass side behind the turbo and only leak antifreeze.

now on to whats causing it, u popped your head gasket bud. time for some studs. i just had to do the exact same thing on mine, same exact thing, filling cooling system with oil

 

Yeah, there is no coolant leak... I looked more into the 53 block thing and saw they were all external blow outs.

So since your probably right about the gasket... What gasket should I buy??? Should I ring the head?? Where should I get studs from? WHY studs not bolts?

 

head bolts work fine for a stock truck, but they will stretch once u started adding more boost. studs are made out of better material, and when your torqueing them, ur not turning the whole shaft like on a bolt, which will also weaken the bolt.

the head gasket, i would go with a genuine cummins gasket.

i would o-ring the head while u have it off. if u have a shop that can do it close by, it shouldnt cost to much to do, if u have to send it off to have done, shipping will raise the price of haveing it done.