gumbiegumbie Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 My truck started something new today. About every seventy or eighty miles 100 at best my low water light comes on and I stop and fill it back up. I stopped on dry clean concrete and can't find any water dripping anywhere can't find any wet spots on the motor, radiator, or nothing else. Pull the oil cap off to see if it looks milky underneath are any steam coming out and found neither. Can't see steam coming out of the exhaust. Look down in the water bucket where the hose comes up from the motor looking to see if there were bubbles coming up like a hole in a sleeve or a head gasket or something like that and can't find anything. Any more ideas on where this water might be going? It's a 2000 etech 400. Doesn't have EGR cooler or nothing like that. Thanks in advance for any ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjh Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 If it has a trany cooler CHECK the trans make sure its no going there! Change the rad cap! Check the engine oil !Also quite common for water pump bolts to break! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 I put a new radiator cap on yesterday. It doesn't have a transmission cooler. The water pump bolts are all there and there's no wet spots anywhere around the water pump. I didn't see any milky stuff on the underneath side of the oil cap or on the dipstick or running my finger around the blow by tube. If I check the oil closer and find water are you thinking oil cooler or a sleeve? Looks like a sleeve would make the truck run bad and it runs good. It's not running hot as long as you keep water in it and it's not missing or stumbling or weak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatcity Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 just my .02.... you may have a leak at the water pump but the heat from the engine is causing it to vaporize quickly. Take a good look in the morning before start up. However, losing that much coolant that quick, it may be internal, as in not good 1 Quote Success is only a stones throw away.................................................................for a Palestinian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 How easy is it to rupture an oil cooler on the inside? I ask because the reason the radiator cap was replaced was because the rubber on the cap swelled up and got deformed and wasn't letting the pressure bleed off to the little weehole to the other tank and I blew a couple radiator hoses off. The radiator cap fixed that but now it's losing coolant. I'm wondering if maybe the oil cooler got ruptured and it's just letting water go down in the oil pan. I don't have any of the Milky stuff in my oil but it seems like I'm gaining oil on the dipstick. Going to keep an eye on it the next time or two putting water in and see if the amount of water I'm losing its close to the amount of oil I'm gaining. What besides the oil cooler could be putting water in the oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtymilkman Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 I'd pull an oil sample and send it off immediately. Could be liner cavitation, the motor would still run good. Could be a number of issues. Check your air tanks, your air compressor could have a bad head. Drop the oil pan and with the engine cold, pressurize the cooling system. You'll see if liners are leaking or find other leaks. Pressurizing the system is probably your best test. Oil coolers will usually put oil in the radiator if broke. I also had a bad air compressor once that kept pushing air into the radiator and emptying it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 I'm going to drop the oil pan tomorrow and pressurize the cooling system and see what's dripping. If the air compressor was doing it the water should be visible, coming from the coolant bottle or something. I'm thinking it has to be in the oil. Not sure why the oil doesn't look Milky with that much water in it but that's got to be it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSD501 Posted February 24, 2017 Share Posted February 24, 2017 Just had an oil sample come back water contamination but it was not at all visible looking at the oil. Turned out to be the air compressor. Dirtymilkman gave solid advice, send a sample out to eliminate any doubt. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 We live in a little hick town in the middle of nowhere Ville I'm not sure where to even begin looking for somewhere to send an oil sample? I've driven the truck somewhere around 300 miles today and have put over six gallons of water in it. I should be able to find water in the oil if that's where it's going I would think. If it's the air compressor does it put the water in the oil or does it put it in the air tanks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSCannon Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 if you are losing that much water and you don't have milky oil, I would suspect you are burning it. An easy check is too remove your exhaust manifold and look at each port. The port which is burning water will be much cleaner and maybe have white residue. You can also spot check turbo outlet to see if it looks too clean before removing manifold. 300 miles ~ 60 gals fuel ~ 6 gals coolant equates to 10:1 ratio of fuel/coolant, whew! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomastractorsvc Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Speedco or another heavy truck place should beable to test the sample on the spot Quote Robert"I reject your reality and substitute my own." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 Thanks dscannon! Didn't think of checking that and that really isn't that much work to yank the turbo and exhaust manifold. I don't mind fixing anything but I absolutely hate figuring out what to fix. If someone could just say , "hey you need a sleeve in #5 or your front head is cracked" I would smile and say give me a few hours. I never saw any steam out the pipe but maybe the weather is just not right to see it or something?? I'll try these ideas tomorrow and get it figured out. Thanks again to everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 Well I got the heads off and number 4 was the culprit. Chalky white all over the top of the piston. Not sure if the heads cracked or the gasket blew. I had that head off a while back to put a sleeve in and I'm thinking wrestling the heavy head by hand up under the windshield cowl I might have nicked a gasket or fire ring. The flip side to that is that would make me think it should pressurize the radiator like it did when the sleeve cracked that I was replacing and it would be blowing water everywhere out of The Purge tank up top. So that leads me to believe maybe the heads cracked and the water is coming from within the circle of the fire ring through a crack in the head. Have a machine shop going to check the head Monday morning for cracks and if it's good I'm going to clean everything up and slap a new gasket on it and hope for the best. I put a straight edge across the top of all the sleeves and they are all perfectly the same height. I say that because I questioned if I got the sleeve pushed in all the way back when I replaced it but everything does look good there. I'm going to rig-up an electric hoist this time so I can control the head a little better and guide it straight down onto the gasket and dowel pins. Last time between being aggravated and tired I'm sure I scooted the head around a little until it fell on the dowel pins and probably screwed a gasket up. I'll post Monday and tell y'all what the head man says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 Can anyone tell me if an E-Tech has water cooled injectors nozzles? The head man told me something about the injector cups cracking and letting water in. I know my old Cummins was like that but I'm not sure if these injector cups have water around them or not or if they just seal for compression? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtymilkman Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 It's usually easier to handle the heads if you bolt them together with iron and remove/replace them as a single unit. Make sure you check liner protrusion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjh Posted February 27, 2017 Share Posted February 27, 2017 (edited) Eteck injectors Bottom on the head casting NO Cups! Just sleeves! Coolant flows around the sleeves Edited February 27, 2017 by fjh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted February 27, 2017 Author Share Posted February 27, 2017 Got the head check this morning at the Machine Shop and it ended up being cracked from an injector hole over to an intake valve. Time for a new head 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjh Posted February 28, 2017 Share Posted February 28, 2017 CHECK THE LINER PROTRUSION As stated earlier Very important! 25 - 30 thou is good anything less than 22 not great at all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gumbiegumbie Posted March 2, 2017 Author Share Posted March 2, 2017 Didn't really know how to check that. Got that message after the truck was back together and running. I put an aluminum straight edge across all six cylinders and with a light behind the straight edge it was touching both sides of all six sleeves at the same time. I knew they were supposed to all be the same height but wasn't really sure how to go about it. It's back together though and running good and strong and not drinking water thank goodness! Thanks to everyone for all the replies and help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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