Temps After HEad Gaskets & Oil Cooler

Donnie1 · Jan 3, 2013

Recently had the head gaskets and oil cooler changed along with installing ARP studs. The heads were also decked. There was signs of seepage from the gaskets. A year prior to this I changed the oil cooler and did the EGR delete and also added a Sinister coolant filter along with a flush with restore and Cat coolant installed.

With exception the second filter, all have been clean. The second on was full of gunk.

I have an SCT tuner set on the performance tune.

This morning the temps are the worse they have been since having the work done to it.

The first pic is just after getting to temp.
The second pic is 30 min later after running 20 miles on the highway at 65 mph. The ambient temp was 20 degrees. The coolant temp never went above 189 and the oil temp kept gradually going up until it leveled out where it's at.

Could this be a faulty temp sensor or thermostat? I find it hard to believe that I have clogged another cooler especially with me having fkushed the sytem and with the system being emptied again for the head gasket repair.

Fordguy100 · Jan 3, 2013

I hope its something else, but my guess is something dislodged and ended up in your oil cooler.

Mixedbreed · Jan 3, 2013

With teh cooler temps (30-38) here, my oil is higher than coolant after a while, but not that high. i bet the cooler is going south like fordguy said.

Big Angry Hillbilly · Jan 3, 2013

Do you have a winter front on the truck?

Mdub707 · Jan 4, 2013

What kind of coolant filter do you have? I've seen some people accidentally put a "charged" filter on, and it sends a whole bunch of junk through the system.

jdc753 · Jan 4, 2013

I would hope it might be a thermostat issue.

My truck after getting the treatments (oil cooler, EGR delete, studded, etc) starting showing big variants in temps, similar to your first pic, cooler ECT temps but normal EOT temps. However your second pic the oil temp is high and that I don't like. I consider 190-degree EOT to be the norm for most driving conditions (not towing, not motor troubles)

I would try some simple fixes first to see if there is any improvement, change out the thermostat and then if that doesn't do it, maybe just flush the system one more time to be sure maybe the shop didn't mix in something by accident when they studded it. But sadly it seems the oil cooler is at fault with those temps.

Donnie1 · Jan 4, 2013

When I replaced the first cooler myself is when I did the flush with distilled water, restore and restore +.

It is a Sinister coolant filter setup which I put on and use NAPA 4070 non charged filters.

No winter front either.

I am going try a reverse flush on the oil cooler and see what happens.

After sitting at work today for 7 hours and the ambient temp was at 36, before starting it the ECT was 52 and the EOT was 50. After driving 20 miles with cruise at 65, the ECT ended up between 185-189 and the EOT was as high as 213.

I just find it hard to believe that after all that has been done that I have trashed another oil cooler.

RescueF250 · Jan 4, 2013

Those numbers are off it shouldn't be that high regardless. I did a run at 75mph 2100 rpms ECT 189 EOT 192 temp outside was 40F, even at WOT to 90mph ect 191 eot 196 then back down to crusing speeds it leveled off to ect 189 eot 191.

Snake · Jan 4, 2013

I'd have to agree with those who have said a clogged oil cooler. I had something similar happen, decided enough was enough, and bought an oil cooler from Bulletproof Diesel.

Donnie1 · Jan 5, 2013

What really sucks is that I just dropped $4500 less than 3 months ago on the Head Gasket repairs which included another new oil cooler.

range91 · Jan 5, 2013

I would bring it back to where u got the work done if u had oil cooler issues before proper flush procedures should have been done to keep this from happening again at least so soon anyway jmo

Snake · Jan 5, 2013

Thing is, even with a proper flush prior to replacing an oil cooler and the incorporation of a coolant filter, there's still no guarantee that the new oil cooler won't clog.

range91 · Jan 6, 2013

Snake said:
Thing is, even with a proper flush prior to replacing an oil cooler and the incorporation of a coolant filter, there's still no guarantee that the new oil cooler won't clog.

So you think that when an oil cooler gets replaced at a dealer or other rebuttable shop that 3 months later another clogged oil cooler is ok... If properly flushed which i including block plugs pulled and stat there should be no reason why it is already showing these symptoms. If I were you Donnie 1 I would go back to the shop that did the work and see what they will do for you. JMO

amarillo250 · Jan 6, 2013

if you got the work done at a dealer, there is a warranty on it.

Snake · Jan 6, 2013

range91 said:
So you think that when an oil cooler gets replaced at a dealer or other rebuttable shop that 3 months later another clogged oil cooler is ok... If properly flushed which i including block plugs pulled and stat there should be no reason why it is already showing these symptoms. If I were you Donnie 1 I would go back to the shop that did the work and see what they will do for you. JMO

No, it's absolutely not okay. What I meant was that it may not be the shop's fault. Even when the cooling system is flushed as thoroughly as possible, there's going to be sediment, rust, etc that doesn't come out. That stuff will come loose over time and potentially clog the cooler again. It could take 3 months or 3 years. And since coolant filters are on a bypass circuit, they don't filter 100% of the coolant that's going through the oil cooler.

There are countless threads across Powerstroke forums where folks have had this exact same thing happen. Sorry about the confusion - I should have explained myself better.

Donnie1 · Jan 6, 2013

Thanks all. I'm going to give the shop a call and see what he has to say. After doing the EGR delete and oil cooler myself less than a yr ago and just having dropped the $4500 on it, I don't have the money to do it again.

And trust me, the wife is not going to be happy.

Mdub707 · Jan 7, 2013

Isn't it usually the coolant that gets really hot when the oil cooler plugs? Why would the oil be getting that hot? Can the oil side clog too? What am I missing?

jdc753 · Jan 7, 2013

I've only seen the oil be hotter than the coolant, when the coolant side plugs, there is not enough "cool" coolant running through the cooler to take away the heat from the oil side.

Hottest I have seen in my truck was 230° EOT with 200° ECT, running 80mph through some hills in CT with ambiant around 90° I had to back the truck down to 65 to keep the temps reasonable 210° EOT and 195° ECT till it eventually got the whole package including an oil cooler.

Snake · Jan 7, 2013

Yep. Coolant doesn't get crazy hot, but the oil temp goes through the roof. When my oil cooler was clogged, I was reading 205* ECT and 246* EOT running 65 mph on the freeway.

Mdub707 · Jan 7, 2013

Ok gotcha. I'm still on my original oil cooler @ 110k miles and I think it's still fine. Always used Ford Gold, put a coolant filter on around 75k miles if memory serves...