1987 FOR 555B Coolant in oil.

[Lostfisher1]

Hello Everyone,

I had just bought a 87' Ford 555b. With the 3 cyl 201 diesel engine. Unfortunately after doing some service to the unit. I had noticed some milky grey discoloration in the oil. There appears to be a antifreeze leak into the oil. I have let the tractor sit overnight and opened the oil drain. The oil was milky but there was no heavy amounts of antifreeze in the oil. I also believe that I am burning antifreeze as well. I get a white smoke out of the blowby and exhaust on the engine. coolant level went down 1/2 gallon after an hour of so of running. Another weird thing that happens is I get these gelatinous globs that come out of the blowby as well. I intend to replace the head gasket. Please let me know what you think I should do and where I should start. Any tests I should run before tearing into the engine? All advice would be appreciated. I do have a service manual coming in the mail. I hope to have pictures as well to better help you guys see what i am talking about.

 

[RickB]

Dollars to doughnuts you have a porous block. You can drop the pan and pressurize the cooling system and verify. Front axle has to be separated from the block to drop the pan. If you remove the head first you can't do this test.

 

[Lostfisher1]

I had started to get her ready for pressurizing the coolant system where I ran into the problem of not being able to drop the pan. Which is why I am here. Thanks to 2 bolts. I wonder if I could get in there with a gear wrench. I wonder if I could just do it with a boroscope through the drain plug.

 

[RickB]

IDK. its a safe bet you're gonna split that front axle before you are done.

Fast, Cheap, Good. Pick any two.

 

[Lostfisher1]

Well I took the valve cover off to see what she looks like. I am not to happy with the results. I removed the oil drain plug for the oil and about a quart of coolant had come out. So I put a pressure tester on the cooing system. It managed a rapid drip to come out of the drain. I waited about 1/2 hr the system had gone from 15psi to 11. When I took the pressure off of the system the drip slowed down considerably. I have attached photos and a video in a zip file. Hopefully this will give you guys some insite as to what is wrong. I guess I am going to have to remove the oil pan which I will get started on next week when my service manual shows up. Could it still be the head gasket?

 

[RickB]

Could it be? Yes. Is it likely to be? No.

This is not an exact science. If I could diagnose with 100% accuracy from here, I'd have your credit card number before now.

 

[Lostfisher1]

Do you say this because a porous block is common on these engines? What is the next step if a porous block is indeed the issue? Will I most likley have to pull and tear down the whole engine?

 

[RickB]

Block porostiy is not uncommon to these engines. If a block has a pinhole bore, the bore must be bored, sleeved, and honed or bored back to standard size. Usually all cylinders are done as a preventative, usually this involves stripping the block and taking it to a machine shop familiar with the process. Given a shop with the proper equipment and skill, it can be done in the machine. Keeping the crankshaft clean is a challenge.

 

[fried1765]

Hello Everyone,

I had just bought a 87' Ford 555b. With the 3 cyl 201 diesel engine. Unfortunately after doing some service to the unit. I had noticed some milky grey discoloration in the oil. There appears to be a antifreeze leak into the oil. I have let the tractor sit overnight and opened the oil drain. The oil was milky but there was no heavy amounts of antifreeze in the oil. I also believe that I am burning antifreeze as well. I get a white smoke out of the blowby and exhaust on the engine. coolant level went down 1/2 gallon after an hour of so of running. Another weird thing that happens is I get these gelatinous globs that come out of the blowby as well. I intend to replace the head gasket. Please let me know what you think I should do and where I should start. Any tests I should run before tearing into the engine? All advice would be appreciated. I do have a service manual coming in the mail. I hope to have pictures as well to better help you guys see what i am talking about.

Before you tear into your engine you might try using "Bar's Leaks" (added to the coolant system)..
It is a product that has been around for many years, and has been known to be successful.
I know that it sounds a bit hokey, but I have personally had good success with it.
My package of Bar's Leaks is quite old, but the product is still widely available.
The manufacturer is shown as being in Holly, Mi., and the phone number I have for them is: 1-800-345-6572
Will cost you less than $20. Available at many auto parts stores, Walmart, and Amazon.
Why not just try it? May need a double batch for the engine size you have.

 

[Lostfisher1]

I was thinking about using the headgasket sealer or something like that. I wanted to know if I could pinpoint the problem before I tried that. I have changes several headgaskets in cars and am confident I could do the same in the diesel. I do not like the idea of doing a full teardown and rebuild on the engine.