Thread: 300tdi oil cooler -- stuck in kalbarri

Replacement radiator sounds like the way to go. How much oil did you lose? The oil cooler has sprung a leak in the radiator.

Oil pressure is greater than coolant so it is more likely to find oil in the water than the other way around.

If you lost too much oil you may have damaged the engine, you should have confidence that the engine is ok before spending too much on the vehicle. You could try bypassing the cooler in the radiator, you will have to block the oil line to stop the radiator from leaking coolant back out through the unused oil lines.

Whyatts in Geraldton would be where I would start

correct me if i am wrong but i would have thought this to be one of the symptoms of blown head gasket. dont necessarily need coolant in oil for that. have you gone through all the other checks for head gasket i take it?

Thanks for everybody's input.

I did have oil in my coolant on a trip back in 2012 and was advised by a LR mechanic that it could only be oil cooler if no coolant present in oil, and after replacing the radiator (thus also the oil cooler) never had an issue until a few weeks ago when again some oil appeared in coolant overflow tank.

I'm not sure what else to test for re HG... And sincerely hoping it's not for obvious reasons. But please do let me know what I should look for.

Many thanks!

Originally Posted by Fausto79

correct me if i am wrong but i would have thought this to be one of the symptoms of blown head gasket. dont necessarily need coolant in oil for that. have you gone through all the other checks for head gasket i take it?

I bought my old '97 back last year with a badly blown head gasket between cyls 2 and 3 , it had not a trace of oil in the coolant or vice versa. It was just rapidly pressurising the coolant system and ejecting the coolant out the top of the coolant tank. Cylinder compression greater than coolant pressure, oil pressure greater than coolant pressure.
Discovery-94, maybe a way to check if your oil cooler circuit is leaking would be to somehow loop the hoses from the engine to and from the radiator, top up the coolant and run the engine to check for coolant coming from the radiator oil cooler connections.
just out of curiosity are you using the Red type long life coolant? Gaz

Thanks gaz.
Not using red type, got nulon green stuff in it 50:50 with distiller water.

I ordered a new radiator, overflow bottle and pressure cap. Will be sent out hopefully by tomorrow, got to head back to Perth by Friday at latest....

Think at this stage plan of action will be to somehow drain all the oil out the coolant, replace bottle and cap, bypass oil cooler hoses and refill oil.

Hopefully it will run fine with some mild hissing out of the oil cooler when warm, potentially some coolant spilling. This will in theory tell me that there is a crack in the oil cooler, then I will rip the radiator out as well as I cannot afford to get half way back to Perth and have all the coolant come out of the oil cooler (if I drove with the oil cooler lines bypassed..)

Should it turn out there is a HG prob after all I'll have to find a more drastic solution...... 😓
Lets hope for the best!!!
Simone

pressure test the cooler by removig the top fitting and putting 60 psi of air on it with the expansion tank cap off, bubbles equals blown cooler.

Hi Simone,

I'm heading up to the Pilbara for a week, leaving early on Friday morning and overnighting the first night in Carnarvon. If you are still there Friday and desperately need anything, give me a hoy and I can drop it off on the way.

Cheers,

Cripesamighty