Went to change oil this morning on my 82 240D, Drained oil last night and let the car sit in the garrage over night to drain. Went to fill it back up this morning and noticed that there is green colored antifreeze laying on top of the head in little pools (while looking in through the oil filler hole on the valve cover". I suspected that my oil felt a little thin last time I checked it on the dip stick. I changed my thermostat the other day (wasn't over heating just fluctuating on the needle a bit) and adjusted the valves about a month ago, other than that no changes. Car has 55K miles on it. It's manual trans. Car is running nice and cool (a little over 80) and has good oil pressure. Everything appears normal. Oil looked black but a little thin when drained out. I don't see any sludge build up, I think whatever is causing it just happened pretty recently, when I adjusted my valves 1500 miles ago there was no sign of glycol inside the valve cover. When I changed the thermostat out I re-used the rubber gasket around the thermostat, I don't now why that would have caused any problems. There is a little hole in the rubber gasket that sits right beside the thermostat, is that a coolant bypass port? Any ideas?

Head gasket?
Cracked head?
Pressure test the cooling system and see if it holds pressure?
Somthing I'm missing? Somewhere else it could have came from?


Thanks in advance for ideas.

Hodakaguy

Coolant in oil is nearly always a cracked head in diesels, sorry to say.

It's either a head gasket or a cracked head. Impossible to say until the head comes off and is pressure tested.

FWIW, I had the same situation on the SD. I did replace the head to finally fix the problem. New exhaust valves and prechambers at the same time. It was worth the effort. The SD runs like a top.

Don't be planning on driving it much in that condition. Bearings are quite intolerant of antifreeze.............

Glycol in the lube oil is a BAD THING, hard on bearings. On wet-sleeve engines bad O-rings on the sleeves allow coolant to leak into the base. But not on a dry-sleeve engine.

Sorry about your 240. Cracked heads are not a common problem with these 616s an 617s, If the car truely has only 55K, (or even 150K ), you would have to abuse it pretty seriously to crack the head. Where did the car live before you got it?

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Sometimes I wonder about that.

The casting is fairly thin directly above the combustion chamber and a decent overheat might set the wheels in motion for a small crack to begin.

Naturally, we conclude that the aluminum heads are more prone to this behavior, but, I'm not so sure that the iron heads are all that durable if the head is severely overheated.........which can occur PDQ if the belt is lost.

The car was a local car its whole life, in eastern WA. I bought it from the original owner that bought it brand new in portland OR. Its a true 55K mile car. Without owning it since new I have no idea if it ever was ever overheated or not, It hasn't since I've owned it but that hasn't been all that long. I will pull the head off the car and have it pressure tested to see whats going on. I'll hope for the best (head gasket) and expect the worst (head cracked or I hate to say it, even the block). I'll let you know what I find out. In the mean time I will order all the gaskets ect that I will need anyways.

Is it possible it could be leaking from a pre-cumbustion chamber?


Thanks for the posts.

Hodakaguy

That's the proverbial problem. We never know what the PO's did to the vehicle. If they maintained it and replaced the belts before they broke, then all is well. If they waited until the belt broke, they are probably the type to drive it to the next off ramp...........way too late to prevent damage on a turbocharged diesel.

The block, most assuredly, is fine.

There is no coolant in the prechambers, so, they won't cause the leak that you've observed.

If you're pulling the head, consider reconditioning/replacing the valves. The performance is markedly improved.

I really cant think of of any head problems that I have incountered since I've been messing with these cars, 4 or 5 years. I have bought a least four 240Ds
with broken engines due to running low on lub oil tho, and the heads were OK. Not too many 616 head problems on this forum since i've been around
So I would conclude the heads are pretty tough.

__________________


1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

I had two 617 engines in the last 10 years and one of the heads cracked. So, I'm batting 50%. Can I conclude that the durability of the population is about 50%?

Probably not.

LOL, I guess YOU can conclude that, I can conclude a different number with the amount of 616 that I've had in the last four years, that would 100%

__________________


1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

I have bought/recieved free, 6 MB 617 powered cars, and two of them had cracked head/blown head gaskets. that's 66% good 33%bad, right? anywhoo, the cars are nearly indestructable, providing it is not run out of coolant/ or driven with a bad belt.
John

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I agree, you do not want to risk damaging a 55K mile engine by running it with coolant in the oil. You just need to pull the head and find out if it's the gasket or the head that's leaking. If you are going to do the work yourself, the gasket replacement will be very cheap. Let us know what you find.

The car is parked in my garrage and won't me moen untill the problem is found. I will be doing all the work on it, I'm going to get the gaskets ordered and dig in to see what I find. Hopefully nothing major! I'll keep you updated on what I find.

Tom C.
"Hodakaguy"

Well the head is off and at the shop. I talked to the shop today and he said it has no leaks. He hot tanked it, pressure tested it, and checked it for flatness. It's not warped. The head only has 55K on it but since its out I'm going to have the valves reconditioned and new valve seals installed. At this point I must assume it was just a head gasket. I removed the emissions equip from the manifolds while everything is apart and cleaned all the carbon out of the intake, cleaned up the pre-cumbustion chambers ect. I will re-assemble the car next week and see what happens. I bought a Victor Reinz head gasket kit, Hope its a good one! I'll let everyone know how it comes out.

Whats a good way to get all the traces of glycol out of the engine, change oil real often for a while?

Thanks in advance.

Hodakguy
(Tom C)