[Nyghtryderz]

Ok so some may know my truck is broke down and under repair in my garage/shop with driveshaft, ujoint, 4wd extension housing repairs. Before the truck broke down I was on a 2200 mile move hauling about 3000k lbs of household goods in my living quarters area and hauling four horses in the middle of winter. Every fill up I checked all fluids and everything was good and there was zero oil in coolant that I could visibly see. I had an issue with a leak at the fuel filter and fixed on the road. Had truck towed to my cousins house where it sat for 6 months and didn't ever start it and took batteries home to keep good.

Finally got the truck towed to my place about a month ago, so truck has been on two flat bed tow trucks after it broke down. A week ago I decided to look at the fluids (don't know why but I thought I would look at them) and noticed a fine amount of oil in the degas bottle floating on the top. I was like ok and put the cap on and went on with my business. I still haven't tried to start the truck because it isn't fixed yet, but tonight I thought I had a mouse in my vehicles and went and put traps on all my vehicles and looked at my degas bottle in the dark and it looked as there was a crap ton of oil in the degas bottle and couldn't even see the coolant below (was night time so will check again during daylight). How does oil get into the degas bottle without the truck ever being started? Thanks everyone for all your help and seems like my baby is going through a rough time and want to get her all fixed up and back to her glory days and running like the beast of a girl she is.

 

[Tack_Box]

Either head gasket, front cover seal....maybe oil cooler seals? Can't remember if oil cooler has any oil/coolant seal separating the two.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

Oil in the bottle is most likely the oil cooler.
It's at a lower elevation than the coolant bottom. Oil floats it's way up to the highest point.
Hey, look at it this way, your flush job will be a bit easier as the bulk of the oil is probably right there and has not gone thru the blender yet.

 

[Tack_Box]

And if its any good news I'd much rather pull an oil cooler and reseal than my other 2 options.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

^^^word

 

[Nyghtryderz]

So looks like we are on an agreement that it is the seals on the oil cooler? Sweet only $75.00 vs new cooler at $250.00 oh and however much it costs me to flush the system.

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

Be extremely careful removing that cooler, do not do any prying. Have assistant hold cooler while you remove bolts. You want no hang weight on that aluminum front cover the front bolts to.
Not sure ask

 

[Gator5713]

How many miles on the truck? I don't remember from the other thread.... the reason I ask is I rebuilt my cooler about 8 months ago and broke my filter housing getting it apart and noticed that the cooler itself was showing signs of pitting and now am starting to see a bit of oil in the degas so am thinking I need to replace the whole thing now...

 

[Maryland dieselnick]

How do you eat up a cooler in Texas? Are you in Galveston on the beach?

 

[Gator5713]

Poor maintenance the first 150k before I bought it and a very hard life for the last 175k miles that it's been mine...

 

[Nyghtryderz]

I only have 165k on the truck. I don't know if it's the really cold weather that screwed the rubber o rings up and caused it to leak or what but I'm glad it's now when the truck is down and out as I need it this winter. I'm really pushing it as winter is pretty much here. Thanks for the advise on cooler.

 

[Nyghtryderz]

So here is my list of repairs and things to do and isn't listed in any order:

Drain coolant
Flush coolant
Replace cooler o rings
Fill with new coolant
Drain transmission fluid
Check transmission parts and see if any debris in fluid
Replace transmission gasket and put pan on
Remove trnasmission cooler
Flush transmission lines
Put new transmission cooler on
Add 4wd extension housing with new gaskets
Drain transfer case
Put transfer case onto extension housing
Add/flush transmission fluid
Add new rear driveshaft
Replace ALL U joints
Put skid plate back on

I think that's it.....

 

[Gator5713]

Make sure to use proper coolant. Rotella ELC is great and requires basically no maintenance!
IIRC the original trans pan gasket is likely better than the replacement one that you will get as it is metal. Also, there are 2 different trans filters, one has a long pick up tube and the other is short. Make sure to get t h e right one.

 

[Nyghtryderz]

My transmission fluid has been changed before and is a rubber gasket for the last 8 years and then I bought a new pan because the pan it had on it was worked on before I owned the truck and they had somehow warped it and wouldn't seal that great. Now it has a new one and hasn't leaked a drop. Thanks for the filter heads up!!