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excessive blowby & gurgling in the overflow

A

allproroofing

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Location
rochester NY
I know I'm gonna regret this because this is probly a terminal problem , but heres the deal. This is my first diesel and bought it cheap so I have no regrets , but after the truck warms up to operating temperature , I pop the hood and have white smoke coming out of the oil fill tube and its pushing past the dipstick. When I shut the truck down , theres bubbling in the radiator overflow. The truck doesn't overheat , maintains about 170 on the temp while driving or idling. I have replaced the radiator cap (16lb) and the cdr. What am I looking at repairing here? If you guys think its head gaskets I'll probly repair , if its heads or cracked block then I gotta look at swapping in a good running 6.2 I have laying around and swap the turbo over. what do ya think guys?
 
You need to do the blowby test. Put a clear tube over the dipstick tube about 6' long. Run it over the fender and into a bucket of water with the engine at operating temp slowly raise the rpm to 2k and measure how far up the tube the water rises or not. I would do this before tackling the headgasket.
 
ak diesel driver said:
You need to do the blowby test. Put a clear tube over the dipstick tube about 6' long. Run it over the fender and into a bucket of water with the engine at operating temp slowly raise the rpm to 2k and measure how far up the tube the water rises or not. I would do this before tackling the headgasket.
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I'm not trying to hijack the thread, honest. :nono:
I've been following 6.5 posts from Page to Place to DTR to here at the Truck Stop and have never heard of this one. Very interesting and thanks. Please elaborate what this test is telling us if water comes up the tube. I have notice some blow by as well and I get the feeling that I wouldn't get any water coming up the tube but, if I added soap to the water, it just might blow bubbles. ):h
Back to listening mode.
 
Ok guys , my truck passes the water test. I let it come up to operating temp and revved the engine a little , The water draws up the tube a good 2". Now , every time I start the truck , my temp gauge will hit 250 degrees and slowly cycle back to 210 , then 250 then 210 a few times before it finally settles way back down to 185-190. Still getting the gurgling in the overflow after the truck is shut down. Every couple days have to empty the overflow and put it back into the radiator , won't drain back on its own. Heath diesel told me head gasket , cracked head , or maybe a burnt piston. Wouldn't any of these issues make me fail the water test??
 
Water test is only for blowby tells you the health of your bottom end. Basically let's you know if it's worth just doing headgaskets or if it's time for a complete overhaul. From the sound of it yours is in good shape so do those heads.
 
got a new symptom . decided before i tore it apart to throw some bars stop leak in the radiator , installed new thermostat and gasket. Took it down the road to let it warm up , did the same thing , 250 , then 220 , then settled back down to 190 eventually. Noticed while it was sitting there idling after bring it home that the heater was on , but blowing cold air.........give it a little throttle and it was roasting hot........let it idle again and air gets cold. Give it some throttle and roasting hot again. Could this be as simple as a water pump , or just add it to the parts list when I do head gaskets??
 
I am afraid you are grasping at straws. I did too. Then finally, I had new heads installed and the problems all went away. In fact, I have the high flow heads from Clearwater, and it runs 20 degrees cooler all the time. I hope to be wrong in this instance.
 
I have a feeling you're right Veg. I think I'm just gonna plan on pulling the old girl in the barn and yank the motor , put the 6.2 in for now. I'll rebuild the 6.5 in the spring and get everything done at once (new heads , IP , injectors....etc). I was hoping for the best , but I'm a realist , not an optomist. anyone know if the flywheel is the same on the 6.5 as it is on the 6.2? The 6.2 I have had a standard behind it , my truck is an auto(4l80e).
 
I would first try to bleed any air out and top the level up first as suggested. You might get lucky.
 
yeah , I've tried that about three times and every time I do , I run the truck and after running a while , all the fluid ends up in the overflow and the radiator is damn near empty.This is the first truck I've owned that firing the truck up cold and filling the radiator gets me spit on by the radiator. Other trucks I've owned , as the truck warms up the level will slowly rise then you cap it off , this one shoots water at you even when cold. Could this be excessive air trapped at the bottom of the engine or in the heater core?
 
Sounds like it probably is a gasket by your description. Do the 93's have an air bleed screw on top of the "T" stat housing? If it does try removing the air there with the rad cap on.
 
The only thing by the thermostat housing is the fuel bleeder on my 93. I just tried something though. When I bought a new radiator cap , I bought one of those that has the red lever on top to relieve the pressure before removing it. I just filled the radiator , put the cap back on (but left the red lever up to keep no pressure in the system) and fired the truck up. Warmed up to 195 , then dropped the way it should , then back to 195 and cycled as it should. Even the overflow only rose to the hot mark( started out on the cold mark). When I shut the truck down , no bubbling in the overflow and the fluid slowly drew back into the radiator. I'm assuming this for sure means I need head gaskets at a minimum , but as long as the antifreeze isn't ending up in my oil( which its not) , could I buy myself some time by drilling a couple 1/8" holes in an old radiator cap to let the pressure escape through the overflow?
 
allproroofing said:
got a new symptom . decided before i tore it apart to throw some bars stop leak in the radiator , installed new thermostat and gasket. Took it down the road to let it warm up , did the same thing , 250 , then 220 , then settled back down to 190 eventually. Noticed while it was sitting there idling after bring it home that the heater was on , but blowing cold air.........give it a little throttle and it was roasting hot........let it idle again and air gets cold. Give it some throttle and roasting hot again. Could this be as simple as a water pump , or just add it to the parts list when I do head gaskets??
Click to expand...

NO NO NO! Don't use that kind of gunk in your engine. It is designed to dissolve and then plug any small leaks coming from gaskets, etc. I have seen it ruin engines by going places it SHOULD NOT GO! It's like you purposely gave your engine a stroke by introducing a 'floating clot' in its bloodstream. I would flush the cooling system and attempt to get that trash out, once you're done with the head gaskets.

-Rob :)
 
Yeah , I'm gonna flush the radiator , decided to just yank the whole motor next week and swap in a good running 6.2 I have sitting in a parts truck and swap the turbo over till I can rebuild the 6.5 in the spring. The poor thing needs an IP anyway so I might as well just do new heads , IP , injectors and upgrade the cooling system while I'm at it. Just not in the budget to do all that right now so the 6.2 will do for now.
 
The last time I used Bars Leak I had to flush out my heater core with acid
 
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