Coolant in oil and fuel in coolant

[av8orr]

My last four reports from Blackstone have shown steady increases in potassium and sodium. They are not sure if this is from coolant or my SVO conversion. I have been losing coolant at an increasing rate.

My coolant has been clean and has not had any oil or fuel in it until yesterday.

There is 1/2" of diesel floating on top in the degas bottle. I've read that injector cups are likely the problem.

Questions

Are these two issues related?
Head gasket?
Cracked head?


The engine has 220,000 miles. It has had an easy life with little towing until now. I'm currently on vaction pulling a 10,000 pound trailer for the first time.

More questions

What kind of damage would be caused by driving 100 miles back home?
-I know diesel eats the rubber hoses, but what else?

How much worse would it be to pull the trailer with these issues?

Thank you.

[klhansen]

You should get it checked out and fixed. What will happen if an injector cup is cracked is that the coolant will eventually fill with fuel and puke out of the cap. While that's just a mess, and shouldn't cause catastrophic damage, there's also the possibility that coolant will get into the fuel rail inside the heads and get sent thru the injectors. They don't like water or coolant at all and will be damaged (maybe not right away).

Coolant in oil is most likely caused by leaks at the oil cooler, although more serious problems, like head gaskets or cracks could cause that too.

Good luck with it.

[av8orr]

Thanks for the reply.

How does coolant get into the fuel rails?

[techkdb]

When the engine is running the fuel system has more pressure than coolant- fuel transferred into coolant system. When its shutdown the coolant system has more pressure than fuel system - coolant transferred into fuel system. They can exchange fluids via crack in injector cups common to both systems.