BIG oil leak!!!!

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Last Sunday I drove about 70 miles and when I got out of the truck to get something to eat I noticed oil pouring out of the passenger side of the engine compartment. I shut off the engine and opened the hood. Oil was pouring out of the coolant reservoir overflow. Now, I noticed nothing while driving, no temp differences, no pressure differences. There was not any water/antifreeze in the oil. All of the oil was pushed out of the engine along with the water/antifreeze. The radiator is full of oil. I put oil in the engine and drove it on then off of the trailer. It starts fine, runs good, just pushes all of the oil out.

Since then the engine has been tore down. The head is fine, the gasket looked fine, except for a tear between the oil hole and the #4 cylinder on the top side of the gasket, which could have happened while I pulled that nice light head off.

I also have had the oil cooler checked and it is fine too.

Is there anything else I should check before putting ole' Stack'd back together, because at this point I can only blame the tear in the rubber part of the gasket for the oil leak and I hate to get it back together and the same thing happen. Thanks in advance.

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1998 CUMMINS Dodge Ram
that has absolutely NO modifications!

 

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Sounds to me like the gasket is the problem. If that is the only thing that seperates the oil and the coolant,I would think that as soon as the piston travels up and begins to create pressure, the oil will take the path of least resistance, and mix with the coolant. This is a total guess but makes sence to me. I'd replace the gasket reguardless to prevent any possible other problems that may occur(unless you enjoy removing the head to fix this later). Best of luck!

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94 4x4 SLT Geno's guages,TST 230/605,straight pipe from turbo,115,000 miles, horton fan clutch,RS9000 shocks, BD torque converter,valve body and pressure lock,Scotty air

 

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A friends 1st Gen had the same problem & it turned out to be a leak in the radiator inside the block. On his, Cummins put small 'radiator' in the block, in the oil, that circulates antifreeze. When it sprung a leak, the oil pushed out the antifreeze because the oil pressure is higher than the coolant pressure. Scared the h$%& out of him. Fixed under warranty. #ad


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Money Sink - 96, 5 speed, Injectors, 280/685 & AFC housing slid.
4" CAT back & CATless, 4" chrome turn down straight out back.
ISSPRO Pillar, Delvac 1 & Amsiol, K&N, Monicas silencer ring removed, Exhaust brake, Mag-Hytec, 3:54, 235s.
HX35s days are numbered, HX40-16 is here.
Un-Bombed = Boring

 

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This happened to my 92 at 85,000 miles. Cummins covers it under their 100,000 mile warranty. The oil filter housing has to be removed, behind it is a small cavity in the engine block that the engine coolant flows through. There is a small oil heat exchanger that sits in this cavity,when they start to leak the oil ends up in the coolant recovery bottle,also through out the engine coolant passages. After it was replaced the engine needed to be flushed with soapy water 4 or 5 times to get all the oil out of the coolant passages.
Gene
92 350 4x4

 

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Originally posted by GeneH:
This happened to my 92 at 85,000 miles. Cummins covers it under their 100,000 mile warranty. The oil filter housing has to be removed, behind it is a small cavity in the engine block that the engine coolant flows through. ...

According to my '98 SM, the cooler is still there. (It required perusing several sections of the manual to find strong enough evidence of this!) This looks be a *very* good place to inspect!

There is also an oil pressure regulator in the filter housing, designed to open when oil pressure exceeds 65 PSI, thus routing excess oil back to the pan. Should this regulator fail to open, it could cause oil pressure to overcome the oil/coolant heat exchanger; however, this is pure conjecture on my part - the actual failure could be anything.

Good luck!
Fest3er

 

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Thanks guys, the little radiater that you are referring to is the oil cooler that has been removed and checks out fine. The head is at a race shop being ported and polished and a new head gasket and bolts are on order, I guess I just put her back together again and hope it was the gasket. Thanks again for all of your help.

 

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Oil pressure is greater than water pressure cooler may have been fine -BUT- when you reinstall it you will use new Gaskets-- Now you will never know Or did they correctly pressure test the cooler in a jig?????

 

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When I had my oil leak the cooler was removed and tested. Never could get the oil cooler to leak during testing. The dealer went ahead and replaced it, have not had any leaks since.
Gene
92 350 4x4

 

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tdrmbramr, that's where it was tested. I guess the key to that is heating it up. I am going to question some of the methods tomorrow though. Thanks for the info

 

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It was mentioned above that the oil pressure relief might be a possibility. My experience is that if the relief fails the first sign is the o-ring on the oil filter blows out.

Mr. S&J'd, did you find any evidence of heat (cracks) on the head or distortion of the crowns on the pistons? We hope to take the head off Adam Force's truck soon.