Need to find out where the water came from...... if the engine is still assembled enough, put a pressure tester on the radiator, and run it up to 16 pounds. See if anything obvious presents itself.

 

Where can I get a pressure tester? Also the engine is totally assembled including the oil pan so I wouldn't be able to see coolant leaking there. Would I be able to just run the pressure up and watch to make sure it holds pressure?

 

Should be able to pick one up at the parts store.

Yeah, just run the pressure up, and watch..... if the pressure bleeds off, need to find out where it is going. Since it appears to be ending up in the oil pan....... that points to an internal leak, which is going to be difficult to find. Dropping the oil pan might give you a better idea of where it is coming from, just from where it is dripping into the pan. (Don't hold out a lot of hope for that though......)

Pressure bleeding off SLOWLY isn't unusual. The seal at the radiator neck isn't always perfect.

 

I'm hoping the water is a result of too many short trips with it. As I told my dad earlier if I really thought about it I could probably recall all the 10min+ trips I have made in the past year, so I'm thinking it could be a possibility that this is a years worth of condensation build up. I try to take it on longer trips from time to time but due to gas prices they are few and far between. Due to my 180* t-stat it takes a long time to really warm up 30min or so, and the last time I went on a trip that really brought it up was in January and I was hauling a trailer.

 

How much water was in there? Did your oil look like a chocolate milkshake?

 

There was not a ton of water, I had no clue it was even there when I drained the oil and I always check it for any signs of water. When I dropped the oil pan there was a thin coating on the bottom of the pan. I dont know how much water it would take to make this much milky oil, but I'm guessing not a lot? About half of the volume of milky stuff, or something like that?

 

I would almost be tempted to have that analyzed, to see if it even IS coolant...... if the rest of the oil wasn't the same..... not sure there even is a problem... That said, if the engine gets up to operating temp, it should boil that bit of moisture out..... should.

 

I was afraid you would say that lol I already wiped the oil out and put it back on. I guess I could dig the rags out of the trash to check them....
Seeing that the truck rarely gets up to operating temp, except when loaded or on bigger hills, Im going to chaulk it up to condensation. I'm tempted to put the 195* t-stat back in so long as the ping doest come back to make sure the engine is getting hot enough to boil the moisture out. This is the first winter I have had the 180* stat in and after I blocke of almost half of my radiator it did run a little warmer but still only around 170, so I think it may be a matter of fine tuning for winter driving since it was fine in the summer. I wonder if there is a way to add in a Y at the t-stat housing and put in two different stats with a valve so I can select which one I am using without swapping them out every spring/fall...

 

Oops, wiped the oil out....stupid iPhone

 

I pulled the dust cover off and checked the torque converter bolts and they were all tight, but I did notice my flex plates had shiny spots all around it so I went back to the crank position sensor. I pulled the sensor out and put a couple of sheet metal shims behind it, put everything back together and PRESTO! No more knocking! After the truck ran for a but I did hear somthing knocking that sounded about the same but it does not speed up with the engine when it goes away. I am pretty sure that that noise is an exhaust shroud or something rattling, that goes away at higher RPM. Just in case once I get moved and settled in I am planning on putting in a new high flow cat and a cherry bomb muffler (no emissions testing in Maine!!)