Hi,

Just bought this one a few weeks back out of the LA area. The only thing I forgot to check was the coolant. The reservoir walls are coated brown, like rust and since we were looking at an imminent freeze, -12 here in Wisconsin I bought a coolant tester. The coolant sample it sucked up was so thick it was impossible to see the protection level. I took it to one of those quickie oil change places for a coolant flush and they managed to extract quite a lot of what really didn't look like coolant. A thorough spring cleaning is in order on this one, radiator out, new hoses, the works.

Looking back I should have saved a small jar of it for further investigation, let it settle. I will still do this later today to see what the precipitate looks like. Hoping it isn't oil, but there is no milky residue on the dip stick. I'll try someone else's suggestion of pulling it out and tapping a hot exhaust manifold to see if it sizzles or smokes. Has anyone else seen this sort of coolant issue? Lots of rust? Head gasket?

I'm willing to do my own head gaskets when the seasons change, any suggestions for now, just keep driving and flushing?

 

You definitely have coolant in the oil and vice versa. I'm afraid you have made a bad purchase.

 

I'm not too worried about a bad purchase with this one, it's a completely rust free long bed from New Mexico. Compared to the worthless stuff at $8k I was finding locally with missing fender lips I'll take an engine rebuild any day.

Question: What is the best way to determine if it's a head gasket issue, cracked head casting, or cracked block?

 

Well, that sounds a lot better. In looking the thread over again I saw that I had made a mistake - you said there is NO evidence of coolant on the stick, and I read it the other way - that is a really good sign. With no coolant in the oil, what you might be looking at is a coolant problem from mixing coolant types and using tap water to mix instead of distilled. You might be able to put that truck on the road with a total coolant flush.

 

If it is a creme to light brown slick goo like stuff, it's the west coast answer to overheating radiators or "renewing" the coolant with cool down additives as opposed to flushing and putting in new anti-freeze, if they used antifreeze at all. Quick silver, BarsLeak and other coolant additives and l.A. means salt air exposure = rust scale.
It may just need boiled and rodded out. But, since you don't know the history of it, Ken's idea for the tester is really not a bad idea.

 

Watching a car-build show I saw an engine that was completely full of a gray, hardened mass which was some kind of 'stop-leak' - evidently they just kept putting it in until the whole cooling system was jammed with it. Maybe this one is a combination of mixed coolant types, tap water and some kind of stop leak or cooling system treatment horribly misused.