Radiator filled with engine oil...FAST! Took about 15 minutes to empty half my pan. Ran just fine. NO LEAKS in the oil cooler. Could an oil cooler gasket fail enough to allow that much oil into the water jacket?

Did you pull the oil cooler and look for leaks? If it blew on the inside you would not know it except for the oil in the radiator. Could be a failed head gasket too.

That does suck  I have no idea what it is I've never dealt with it fortunately

Oil cooler is out and pressure tested. No leaks. No water in oil. I found a small dimple in the lower right corner of the opening for the oil cooler. I picked at it with a very small wire and the wire passed 2 inches into the dimple and hit nothing. Is this a weep hole or something OR did I just find a casting flaw? 1 minute video posted below.

I don't think that's suppose to be there.  That may be a hole in an oil galley.  It's under higher pressure when the engine is running than the coolant pressure so it pumped the cooling system full of oil.  Clean the area real good and see what you have to work with.  If you have enough material to work with you could drill and tap and seal with a small NPT plug.  

Classic oil cooler failure. 40-50 psi oil pressure vs. 15 psi coolant pressure so oil always wins. See it all the time on class 8 trucks. My recommendation is remove oil filter housing and oil cooler, pressure test oil cooler submerged in a tub of water. If you get bubbles from the core of the oil cooler then the oil cooler is junk and needs replaced. At minimum you will need the 2 gaskets for the oil cooler and oil filter housing. Acidic coolant is the likely culprit of failure.

 

After oil cooler and housing is back on I recommend flushing cooling system about 3 or 4 flushes with Cascade dish washer soap and water, then keep flushing with water until no further evidence of oil in the cooling system. I recommend Cascade dish washer soap because it is cheap and it will not sud up as much as most degreasers and soaps. 

Agreed. Tap, plug, epoxy. That would certainly empty an oil pan pretty quick!  Anyone else have an opinion?

7 minutes ago, 04Mach1 said:

Classic oil cooler failure. 40-50 psi oil pressure vs. 15 psi coolant pressure so oil always wins. See it all the time on class 8 trucks. My recommendation is remove oil filter housing and oil cooler, pressure test oil cooler submerged in a tub of water. If you get bubbles from the core of the oil cooler then the oil cooler is junk and needs replaced. At minimum you will need the 2 gaskets for the oil cooler and oil filter housing. Acidic coolant is the likely culprit of failure.

 

After oil cooler and housing is back on I recommend flushing cooling system about 3 or 4 flushes with Cascade dish washer soap and water, then keep flushing with water until no further evidence of oil in the cooling system. I recommend Cascade dish washer soap because it is cheap and it will not sud up as much as most degreasers and soaps. 

 

 

Sorry, somehow this didn't post when I meant to hours ago. 

 

O4Mach1: Oil cooler tested good.

Its probably because the silencer ring is still in that turbo.

Kidding but I've yet to see one of those oil coolers fail personally. I have sold plenty of those gaskets though. In fact I have a pair of those gaskets waiting for me to get the motivation to change them.. Mines leaking oil all over the place. No drips and coolant/oil are fine with mine but the sludgy oily mess says otherwise.

As far as checking/testing the factory says to apply 70 psi to it after cleaning the sealing surfaces. I'll copy and paste it here. This is literally the only thing in there about the oil cooler.

"CLEANING AND INSPECTION

 

Clean the sealing surfaces.

 

Apply 483 kPa (70 psi) air pressure to the element to check for leaks. If the element leaks, replace the element."

Oil gallery plug should be there.  I am betting it will become apparent when you get it cleaned up.   Looking for more pictures,but look at this one (I circled it in red).   I just don't know if it was a threaded hole or a peened ball. 

 

 

HTH

 

Hag

Not sure I agree with you? Blow air through it and i can hear it in the radiator. I was guessing a bypass or vent for the water pump. It does make sense that if it is an oil galley it would empty the pan in a hurry!

Well the hole doesn't appear to be an oil galley. It is a direct passage to the water pump housing. Next idea?

Don't agree with me.  I am taking a total wag at it.  I just found it interesting that a picture from another engine shows something machined in that area.   I cannot find a really good oil or water flow schematic that really shows what is going on exactly near the oil cooler like that.  

 

Get it cleaned up, I hope it will be blatantly apparent what the hole was for. (maybe no plug and it is supposed to be there....)

This looks like a 12v motor but that hole looks machined and no plug.....(but doesn't look like water got on it either....) 

Ok  so your new question then, is why did it appear to have oil "flowing from it" .    (the oil didn't originate there, or did it?)

Edit  (the crazy forum keeps pushing these replies together.....)

If you are worried that there is a crack you will need to pressurize that orifice and see if you get air coming out of the oil gallery.   There should be no communication of the oil gallery to the water jacket.   (you may have to remove the water pump and or the elbow just to the right of the area you are working to stop the flow of air there to get pressure in that passage.) 

 

Otherwise it has to be oil from the oil cooler. 

 

HTH  Hag

Sorry Jack,  it keeps adding these to the other reply I just made.  lol

Edited September 18, 20186 yr by Haggar