seelhammer

I need help with my 97 f150 with the romeo 4.6 . I'm losing coolant into the oil. the other day it started running funny loss of power and barely would idle. found a milk shake in oil. drained oil and had about 3 gallons of fluid/oil and coolant. I assumed it was head gaskets. I tore the motor down and had the heads rebuilt and tested. machine shop said that they passed the pressure test. I just finished putting it back together started it up and ran for 15 minutes. sounded great all was good. I drained the oil and it filled a 3 gallon pan. not good. I noticed that the coolant was low so I added about half a gallon and it came right out the oil drain plug. I'm completely confused where else could the coolant be mixing with the oil? my next guess would be where the lower radiator hose connects to the casting that is on the front of the block on of drivers side. this casting also has the remote oil filter hoses attached to it. has anyone heard of this same issue? anything helps.
thanks

Tractive55LS

There's a good chance your block is cracked, the same thing happened to my 79' F150. Possibly check the oil cooler.

TRD-Toy

There are two frost plugs inside the engine behind the timing chain cover. Bet one of those has failed.

seelhammer

I spent $1600 on head gaskets and all other gaskets new exhaust studs and machine shop fees for rebuilding and testing heads. I had bad feeling that it wasn't the problem. put everything back together. ran it for 15 minutes drained oil and had 5 gallons of fluid come out. water mixed with oil a milkshake. oh no same problem. I wanted to pour gas all over it an burn it to the ground. went on this forum and posted my issue. a couple of quick replies pointed me to the freeze plugs behind timing chain cover. I took the cover off and pressurized the cooling system. instantly a stream of water came out of a tiny hole in a freeze plug on the front of the block. found the problem. it ended up being a $2 part was the cause. I'm pissed that I spent a ton of money and time on the wrong diagnosis. I would recommend anyone with similar issues look here first. thanks to all who replied. this web site is priceless as far as knowledge goes.

Robert� Stevens

How can coolant get into the oil at a freeze plug,? That's a coolant passage. BUMP

Blckwlf

I'm confused here too...

Robert� Stevens

Are there freeze plugs behind the timing cover? Within the sealed oil system? My oil analysis showed coolant in the oil, not quite as drastic as previous references, it used coolant this past summer but is holding level now. I got the oil cooler oil filter adaptor gasket, seems like an easy place to start process of elimination.

1968dave

Happened to a Mustang I had. Head gaskets.

TRD-Toy

I think I saw the first of this problem @12 years ago at the dealership. Heavy line guy already threw head gaskets and oil cooler at it. Still had milky oil. Asked for my help since I had so many apart for the oil leak problems in '99-'00. I had since moved to gas/diesel driveability. Mostly diesel. I remembered seeing plugs in behind the covers. So, he checked there. Jackpot, pinhole! Funny the tech had both heads off and never checked them. Machine shop either. Needless to say, the tech only replaced the one! I personally would have covered my butt by doing both.

MossyOak5717

Where is your oil filter? If it's back behind the engine, then it's your oil filter gasket. The part only costs about $10 but it's a pain to get to because you have to lift the engine to replace it.