I'll cry ...

[ABBus]

I spent a lot of time and money into my engine swap. Chose a new engine to be sure it would outlast the bus. Finally sorted out all the electronic gremlins, and it now works amazingly.
And today. Almost one quart of oil in the coolant tank. It is grey-ish, and under it the coolant looks clean. Engine oil and transmission oil are clean. I removed the drain plugs of the engine and transmission, and clean oil here too.
I think it is engine oil. Where from? No clue. We were ready to go, after 6 months working full time on this bus. Exhausted and devastated.

[TJones]

That is reason to shed more than a couple tears. Sorry to hear of your problems. Good news that there is no coolant in the engine or transmission oil. Hopefully it's not to bad to fix.

Ted

[magnakansas]

Is this left over crap in the radiator from previous engine failure?

William

[ABBus]

Originally Posted by magnakansas

Is this left over crap in the radiator from previous engine failure?

William

No, the the radiator was clean.

[magnakansas]

Oil cooler, some sort of gasket failure, crack in a part. I think the oil cooler is the first place I would check. Find some one that is super familiar with that particular engine.

You have come this far, check and recheck. Don’t assume anything.

I think a quart of emulsified oil takes about 1/4 of a quart of oil to make. Is the level on the dip stick jive with what you see in the coolant?

William

[Rwnielsen]

From a marine viewpoint, it looks like a heat exchanger issue. An oil cooler?

[ABBus]

Thanks for the answers.
The oil cooler is new, too, it came with the engine.
But I guess maybe one of the seals or gaskets can be defective, or the unit has not been properly built.
Should I try to order a gaskets kit or a new oil cooler?
I sure hope it is "only" that ...

[ABBus]

Originally Posted by magnakansas

I think a quart of emulsified oil takes about 1/4 of a quart of oil to make. Is the level on the dip stick jive with what you see in the coolant?

William

Oil level doesn't seem lower, still around the top of the "ok" area on the gauge. Hard to read with clean oil.

[cadillackid]

did yopu flush your whole system? heater loops and all? are you sure its engine oil and not transmission fluid?



here is what I would do.. pressurize your cooling system and test for leakdown. if you have oil getting in the water chances are pressurizing the cooling system will emit a slow leakdown as well.. if the cooling system holds then I would make sure the complete system is flush down clean and clear.. heaters, EGR cooler, radiator, etc..



the other thing you can do is pressurize the transmission cooling loops in the radiator and make sure you dont have a transmission fluid leakdown into the radiator.. although a cooling system pressurization should note any leak in that loop as well.



oil cooler is most likely source to see oil in the water but not water in the oil.. a busted head gasket or cracked head thats dumping that much oil will also likely cause your coolant to blast out of the overflow as it over-pressurizes the cap.



same with a broken air compressor head.. youll get some oil but usually a lot of blow-out in the cooling system.



putting the oil cooler together is somewhat of an art and easy to have a leak.. pinching one of the o rings and you get what you have going on. the more I thiunk about it thats probably where I would start. unless oyu had not flushed the complete cooling system front to back.. the oil cooler is usually somewhat reaosnably accessible to remove

[ABBus]

I'll order a new oil cooler.

[Booyah45828]

After all you've been through with this,that's a bummer to hear.

I agree that I'd suspect the oil cooler first. But just so you know, if the cooler doesn't fix it, I know these later model dt engines had front cover issues.

To check it, maybe you can drain the cooling system, remove the water pump, and then run the engine to see if you get any oil out of the water pump bore. If you do, I'd highly suspect a front cover vs an oil cooler.

[flattracker]

I remember hearing about an old trick to test for blown head gaskets:
A mechanic friend told me about it. Take the vehicle to a place that does smog testing, have them remove the radiator cap, place the tailpipe sensor at the opening with the engine running and look for an emissions reading. Any gasses from within the combustion chambers of the engine that leak into the cooling system are detectable this way.

[ABBus]

Originally Posted by Booyah45828

After all you've been through with this,that's a bummer to hear.

I agree that I'd suspect the oil cooler first. But just so you know, if the cooler doesn't fix it, I know these later model dt engines had front cover issues.

To check it, maybe you can drain the cooling system, remove the water pump, and then run the engine to see if you get any oil out of the water pump bore. If you do, I'd highly suspect a front cover vs an oil cooler.

Thanks. !

[s2mikon]

I will say oil cooler. About 15 years ago I worked for a mine that had a fleet of Mack trucks with e-6 engines and the mental midget that managed the shop decided that extended life coolant would be a good idea to replace the old green coolant they had been using since forever and within a month all the engines had oil in the coolant. The tube bundles in the coolers were soldered together and the ELC attacked the solder and oil began leaking into the coolant under pressure but coolant would not leak to the oil side. I think your Navistar Maxxtrouble engine uses a brazed oil cooler so it is not due to the type of coolant. More than likely just poor quality control. Ford had the same problems with their iteration of Navistar engines. My son in law’s father was the lead tech at the Ford stealership and was a died in the wool Ford man and told me he stayed busy replacing egr and oil coolers in between head gasket jobs.

[Simplicity]

So sorry to hear this.

Sometimes something can seem devastating and turn out to be a $13 diode to fix it.

I get your desire to order parts and replace them, but maybe some of the testing the other posters have suggested to better determine the actual issue would be overall faster and cheaper to get you back on the road.

I'll be thinking positive thoughts for you.

Best of luck.

You WILL succeed!

[cadillackid]

I woulsdnt just order an oil cooler id probably take the old one off and inspect it / test it first

[ABBus]

I went to the International dealer yesterday, and spoke with one of their mechanics. He said 99% chance there was oil somewhere in the cooling system (but I know it is not the case, and the oil appeared after some hours). If not, his bet is 1. the oil cooler or 2. the front cover. For him, it is not an "internal" failure (block, head gasket, ...) because it would be very very unlikely on a new engine, and I should have coolant in the oil, too.
That's a good news, I guess (and that is what you guys said, already).
I ordered the gasket kits, and I'll start with the oil cooler, seems way easier to do.
About the front cover, there is two parts, "front cover gasket kit - front" and "front cover gasket kit - back". I ordered both (the back one was not expensive). Should I change both, or only the front part?

[cadillackid]

can you not go to the people who built the engine and say WTF? it leaks.. fix it

[ABBus]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

can you not go to the people who built the engine and say WTF? it leaks.. fix it

That would be great. But I don't think they would work for free on an engine built in 2013.

[CHEESE_WAGON]

From seeing your previous posts, OP, I take it you repowered a MaxxForce with something that was supposed to be better?