Blown head gasket

[CATCRACKER]

do i have a blown head gasket?



have an 3204 cat that has alot of what appears to be blow buy but it really looks like steam not white smoke. now i took off the radiator cap and it had about 1/2 inch of oily brown goop stuck to the bottom.



what is the danger of running and engine with a blown head gasket.



this is a throw away engine so i dont want ot have to pull the whole thing just want to do and inframe is it possible?



what should i do?

 

[CatManTom]

If you continue running the engine the engine the oil will start cutting down the coolant circuation around the cylinders and cause alot of damage and plug the rad too. The best way too check if the coolant system is too pressurize the system with a radiator pressure tester,you may have a bad oil cooler [is it a D3?]

 

[CATCRACKER]

yea its a natural asp. d3b. the oil cooler would be a good thing to check. could it be the transmission cooler? transmission uses sae30.



i change the oil 3 weeks ago it was not milky. can a blown head gasket put oil in coolant and no coolant in oil?

 

[C. Harlan]

Well, typically, the oil displaces the water, due to the higher pressure properties associated with an oil system, as opposed to the cooling system. If you are running 60 psi oil pressure, and your radiator cap has a 15 psi pop off valve on it, you know for sure that the oil will wind up in the cooling system and not the other way around. I hope this makes sense.



-Chris-

 

[CatManTom]

The transmission has a cooler built into the bottom of the radiator. If the radiator oil is black it would be engine oil,or creamy in color it may be trans oil.

 

[CATCRACKER]

i talked with a guy today and said these engines are bad about cracking blocks. he said they crack in such a way that you cant tell its where its cracked until you tear into it. he also said they have to go through several blocks to find one that not cracked in order to rebuild.



what would be the potential drawbacks for running the eingine like it is?



FWIW they want 5200 for a new longblock.

 

[David Oxland]

Potential for trouble while running with oil in contact with the Jacket water side of the cylinder is high.

Oil is an thermal insulator and if it starts coking onto the jacket even more so. This leads to the chance of ring and wall overheating and lubrication failure in this area. IMHO