Oil pan woes

[InspectahDEck]

Loss of pressure confirmed. I bought this block tester and the test came back negative, fluid remained blue. It's odd because the engine does not overheat, it sits around 208 deg. The coolant loss is minimal. I checked the dip stick and the fresh oil I put in has not became milky. There is no visible coolant leak externally I can see, I park in the garage and the floor there makes it easy to see if anything is leaking.

Could replacing the intake manifold gasket somehow cause coolant leaks? Not sure what else would cause this coolant leak to randomly start.

 

[mattbta]

On mine, I had Castech heads that cracked causing slow coolant loss that in the end turned rapid. To be sure (despite the milkshake on my valve covers) I added some dye to the coolant, popped said covers, and then pressurized the cooling system. With a black light I was able to see a small crack with coolant bubbles on one of the heads.

I got reman’d heads and in less than 500 miles one of those cracked. Yay.

Good luck, seems like the coolant leak might be internal.


P.S. our intakes are dry so changing gaskets would not create a coolant leak.

 

[InspectahDEck]

I hoped the heads wouldn't be cracked as I was under the impression the 6.0 did not have the defective castech heads. Bummer, think I will run out and grab some dye and do the same. Thanks for the help

 

[mattbta]

I hoped the heads wouldn't be cracked as I was under the impression the 6.0 did not have the defective castech heads. Bummer, think I will run out and grab some dye and do the same. Thanks for the help

Crap, I missed that detail. Yeah, IIRC the 6.0 hasn’t shown head problems.

But if you’re losing coolant and it isn’t holding pressure and you don’t see anything external lot sure seems internal.


Good luck.

 

[InspectahDEck]

I found the leak, no coolant mixing with oil luckily. It's coming from the top area of the valve cover, looks to be coming from the bolt? Unsure of what to address here if someone can shed some light on the issue... attaching a pic

 

[Blackcar]

Are you talking about rust spots that is valve cover should be any coolant on them. Might look higher at heater lines?

 

[MassHoe04]

Are you talking about rust spots that is valve cover should be any coolant on them. Might look higher at heater lines?

This ^^^
It does seem to line up with the location of hoses at the heater core... Certainly a good place to look. The rust stains could just be the valve cover bolt rusting after having slow leak dripping from above and probably not anything coming from the bolt itself.

 

[InspectahDEck]

Maybe not so coincidentally, 2 days ago I lost spark on this same cylinder, I noticed after driving and the engine started hesitating. P0300 code. Spark is fine from all coil packs except the one where that has the fluid on it. I have checked the hoses several times after driving and they are always dry, mysterious...

 

[Blackcar]

Can you smell anti-freeze.

 

[InspectahDEck]

No