Oil in Coolant

[ngupton1]

Good evening,
Have a 1999 5.9 4x4 a buddy and I were looking it over today and happened to pop the overflow coolant tank and found it was full of oil gunk. Long story short flushed the radiator abundance of oily almost chocolate milk colored liquid in it, flushed it till it ran clear ran it flushed it some more. Flushed it till we were sure it was clear. Did 50/50 antifreeze water. Replaced the t-stat and t-stat gasket. Previous owner also had the coolant system flushed by a shop have the receipt for it. Not getting any white smoke and the new t-stat seems to have fixed my engine running on the cooler side. I guess my question is why is this happening? Leaking head gasket? I have no other problems except for that. Everything else is running fine. Pretty sure its not the plenum gasket as I looked inside the throttle body. So my question is what the deal is? Any input or advice would be great. Or any tests I can run to eliminates some thanks would be great! Thanks in advance.
Neil

 

[MagSport]

A compression test and a leak down test will determine if your heads are cracked or if the gaskets bad. Although usually oil in coolant = cracked head.

 

[ngupton1]

Wow, well there goes my appetite. How hard is it to replace the head? And the biggest factor what would the cost of that be?
Thanks

 

[preachp]

Hi ngupton1,

Do the comp test and look for a path from to the water jacket. Small block mopars blow head gaskets. Had a 318 with a blown head gasket and a 1 360 with a blown head gasket. Changing the head or the head gasket are pretty much the same work. You have to take the top half of the engine off. Sounds daunting but not too bad. Take your time and label everything and you will be all right. Remember to re-torque your heads in steps, you'll get a better seal and the heads will go down flatter.
Good luck and hope you get 'er sorted,

preachp

 

[dapepper9]

For about the same price as stock replacement heads get the odessa Clearwater heads. Pretty much a stock casting but are reinforced and won't crack

 

[dodge dude94]

Yep. Comp and leak down test. Also do a cooling system pressure test.