Okay I have a 1989 ford 7.3 IDI that (I'm told by unreliable sources) has a cracked sleeve (yeah right) or a blown head gasket. I haven't got any water in the oil, but I have a fair amount of oil in the anti-freeze (actually it is just water now). The motor runs fine and will idle forever, but if I hold the RPMs up over about 1200-1400 for long it promptly blows all of my cooling fluid plus oil all over the engine compartment in the form of grey pudding (really nasty stuff, hard to clean off too, very thick) that I call emulsified oil (water and oil pressure blended). Like I said, she runs fine, no water in the oil, everything else seems to work fine. I'm very experienced in gasser repair and whatnot, but not so much in diesel repair. I'm planning on pulling the motor in the next week or so, and currently have three other 7.3 IDIs sitting in the barn for parts or full replacement. One is a runner (out of a 1990 with a bad tranny) and two are questionable (wrecking yard motors, hey two for the price of half of one is hard to turn down :o)). So my question is, honestly, what should I be asking? I was planning on doing a striaght up engine swap with the "runner" and using the "bad" motor as a learning tool. Is there a better way that I should be going about this? What should I do to the motor while it is out of the truck? I was thinking pan and cover gaskets at least, but is there more I should be doing? Are there other things I should be checking before she goes in? She got a new clutch last year, so.... What do you guys think?

 

Hello North county sar From what you have posted I belive you have a leak in your oil cooler. the oil is at a higher pressure than the water when you rev up the engine the oil moves into the coolant and makes a big mess. rebuild the cooler then retest. it will be alot less money than complete teardown of the engine.

 

I'm gunna lean towards head gasket or cracked head because the pressure off of your pistons is what is causing the pressure in your cooling system and blowing the water out. If the oil cooler went out then yes you would have oil in water but not enough pressure to blow the water out. I'm going through the same thing right now on my 96 cummins. First I pulled the oil cooler and checked it and then pulled the head of sure enough you could see a blown head gasket and the damn head was cracked. So idk. Good luck


Brandon

 

Your o rings on the oil cooler are shot. You can fix that problem without pulling the motor.

 

not enough pressure? 60 psi of oil pressure into the cooling system isnt enough pressure to blow it open? hm.... interesting.


i too am gona say oil cooler. go back a few pages, i made a thread with detailed instructions and pictures on how to rebuilt the oil cooler.
i would rebuilt the new engines cooler and new crank seals. never put a gasket on the oil pan. from the factory the just use GOOD RTV. gasket will seal for a bit, then start leaking. just reseal the pan with RTV like RightStuff.

to remove the oil from the cooling system, use dawn dish soap and water. a few flush and refills with that and it will be clean.

 

Yeah but he said it's blowing water out of the radiator. So oil pressure is not enough to do that then it's going to be something else. Mine and a buddy of mine did the Same thing and it was head gasket letting oil pass through to the water jackets and allowing oil and the pressure needed to blow water out. I could be oil cooler but he would have to have some high oil pressure. Is it blowing water out when the engine is cold with the radiator cap off or when it warms up and overflowing out of the overflow resivor?


Brandon

 

60 psi of oil will push the coolant out of the max 13 psi system. but who cares. he has a new motor to put in it.

 

You make a good point. After you find out what it is let us know.


Brandon

 

Thanks everybody for your input and suggestions, I'm starting repairs (and finishing them) today and will let you all know what I find.

 

Yep, that was it. Thanks every one for your input. Does anyone know if there is a better aftermarket one avalible?