Archived 97 3500

[CArnold]

Hello,

Need some help, 97 3500. Oil in coolant after 2 mins of running, will over flow coolant bottle. You can watch it rise. turn the vehicle off and the water will go into the oil. have replaced the oil cooler twice, headgasket once. Machine shop pressure tested the head said it was ok.

I am a tech at local dealer and have never had this happen to me. Am now stuck.

Thanks for any help.

Carl

 

[bmoeller]

Welcome to the forums.



Did you replace the headgasket first, then the coolers?



What comes to mind for me, would be a warped head or the block needs to be decked, poor quaility headgasket, the hg needed to be retorqued.



*** Oh, another thought-



Did you re-use the old headgasket bolts, or did you use new ones? I would've replaced them, if you didn't. They could have stretched enough that they are touching the bottom of the hole, unable to pull the head down like it is suppoed to, causing the leak.

 

[CArnold]

Thanks for looking,

I replaced cooler first, then headgasket. headgasket is cummins. Then replaced cooler again, As per boss. The headbolts were reused,but inspected before reusing,all were ok. Working on building tool to simulate head, going to pressure test the block. Perhaps I can narrow down the problem by splitting it in half.

Carl

 

[bmoeller]

Thanks for looking,

The headbolts were reused,but inspected before reusing,all were ok.

I mentioned it, since I ran into the same problem on my uncle's Allis-Chalmers tractor. Wound up needing to replace the headbolts. Can hold a gasket, now.



Does Cummins give a spec on the length of the bolts? Never looked, I haven't been able to locate my FSM for my Ram.

 

[CArnold]

This is out of the 2000 fsm, not sure if 100% accurate for 97 model year but gives you the idea. Also if bolts are put against a straight edge, you can see a dip in the threads if it were streched. In theory.

Having a plate built to simulate cyl head. Going to bolt that to block and pressurize the cooling system, see if it still leaks. Will reck the headbolts and sending the head to a differnt machine shop for second opinion, depending on results of block test.



If the bolts are not damaged, their “free length” should be measured using the cap screw stretch gauge provided with the replacement head gasket. Place the head of the bolt against the base of the slot and align the bolt with the straight edge of gauge (Head Bolt Stretch Gauge). If the end of the bolt touches the foot of the gauge, the bolt must be discarded. The maximum bolt free length is 132. 1 mm (5. 200 in. ).

 

[bmoeller]

Ah, OK. Learn something new everyday. Am curious of the results you get with your presure check. Good luck.

 

[rkressg]

I think it was for the 24v motors, but I seem to remember that there was a batch of defective replacement head gaskets floating around.

 

[tp0d]

Is this truck an auto? Possible atf in coolant, thru the heat exchanger there. . Have you got coolant back thru into the oil at all? Hmm. . a bad head gasket is possible. .



good luck



-j

 

[Joseph Donnelly]

Make sure you are using the correct gaskets between block and cooler, oil cooler and aluminum cover/filter boss. It is difficult to clean the fiber gasket completely off the block, don't just use a sander on it.

 

[Udaloy]

I am by no means a professional, but couldn't it also be a leaking sleeve? My buddies pulling tractor had lots of water/oil mixture, and that's what it was.

 

[bmoeller]

The B series is a parentbore block, no sleeves.

 

[CArnold]

Thanks for helping everyone,

This is a manual trans vehicle, should have stated that in first post.

Double cked the sealing gaskets for oil cooler, using only cummins parts. That appears to be fine. Pulled the head off again today,headgasket is fine. Going to send head to another machine shop for second opinion, test plate may be ready tommorow.

Have to go to tech school for two days, that will give brain time to relax.