fe390- retorguing heads and intake tonight and noticed what looked like condensation on the upper hose (rubber). Car has not been driven in about 3 weeks. The beads of moisture seemed oily, not like water. I did have a problem with oil leaking into the coolant but that problem seems to be resolved. Is it possible residue from oil in the coolant is purging itself from the system through the hose? Yess I have flushed the system several times to clean as much of the muck as I could...but a little still lingers. I do have a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and antifreeze. It's a garaged car and the temps have only been down to the low 30's outside at night and upper 50's during the day. Any thoughts? Thanks,

John

oil leaking into coolant....

Getting all the oil out is a big problem. Cascade dishwaser soap or dawn dish liquid is the best I've found. Years ago I had a BB scrub with this problem , and it took quite a few cleanings till I got all the oil out.
Oil floats to the top and adheres to everything, it take a grease dispersent to remove it. If you can run water with the soap it works better than a water antifreeze mix.

Just some thoughts--- Fergy

dishwasher soap. Drain system, dissolve 2 cups of Cascade in one gal. of HOT water, add to system, top-off with additional water, drive half hour or so and drain & flush at least twice with clean water and system will be cleaner then a Safeway chicken. This procedure is recommended in the Caterpillar Engine Service manual and I've used it many times in the shop and it has no harmfull short or long term term effects on cooling system and will successfully remove engine/trans. oil contamination from any cooling system. Two cautions; do not use if you have an aluminum radiator as prolonged contact will attack the aluminum and the solution will "spot" paint so wash off immediately if it contacts your paint. If oil residue still weeps thru hoses after flushing the cooling system with this method you still have a oil-in-water issue as John V. stated. Good luck.

When I first installed the freshened up 76 390 in my 74 F350 in the early 90`s, I had a rad full of oil in short order. (the guy that I bought the engine from had told me that oil was getting into the rad, but I ASSumed it was a head gasket issue, and did the rebuild anyhow.) It was only then that I discovered that my buddys machine shop had ran into this problem, caused by the now well known cracked oil passage in the block that feeds the rockers. I pulled the heads off, and did their "field fix" which consisted of installing a roll pin into each oil hole, with the roll pin just touching the backside of the cam bearings. I put everything back together, the oil problem seemed to be cured, or at least made 90% better, but I still had oil residue throughout the cooling system. I tried a couple of different coolant flush cemicals, but considering the grid like construction of the radiator and heater core, 100% removal of the oil seemed unlikely. I put all new hoses on the engine when I installed the 390, but they always seemed to have that "Just Armor Alled" wet look sheen to the hoses. If I drove the truck even semi regularily, there would be no visible traces of oil in the rad, but if I let the truck sit for a month or so, some black blobs would show up in the top tank. I would use a rolled up paper towel to "wick" up the oil thru the rad cap opening, and be good for a while, but I`m guessing that some of the oil is sticking to the top of the upper rad tank, and when the coolant gets hot enough, it either drips down, or the tank gets totally full when the coolant gets hot and expands, and swirls it into circulation. I suppose it is possible to still have a minor oil leak in my 390, but if so, it`s quite minor, and the truck runs cool enough in the summer heat, the heater works OK, and the engine runs so good, I`ll just live with it. I did change all the hoses , except the short bypass hose, about 4 or 5 yars ago, as the old hoses were feeling a bit spongey after about 10 years, but so far the new hoses are not showing any signs of sweating oil like before. I had thought of trying a dishwasher detergent to clean out the system better, but since the rad and heater core have been in there for at least the past 21 years that I`ve had the truck, I didn`t want to take a chance with a caustic cleaner causing possible leaks.

428 powered Fairmont drag car, Best ET:10.03@132.11MPH, best 60 ft: 1.29
59 Meteor 2 dr. sedan 332, Ford O Matic
74 F350 ramp truck 390 4speed

I too pulled the intake and heads, had the heads checked for defects and milled the deck surface flat. Installed a stainless steel sleeve with an epoxy sealant inside those oil passages in the block that feed the rocker assy. New head gasket, intake gasket, etc. I did flush once with some cascade dw soap and then a couple more times with clean water. If it's still getting oil in there it's a lot less than before but my hope is it is the residual still working it's way out. I rigged my shop vac with a 1/4" aquarium air hose stuck down about 2' into the big 2 1/2" hose with some tape holding the small hose in place but allowing plenty of air to bypass. This little hose is cut at about 60 degrees on the end and it will skim the thinnest layer of fluid off the top of my expansion tank. I have run the car through some heat cycles and probably driven a couple hundred miles and the coolant still looks pretty clean, not all brown and swampy like before. I'll continue to keep a close eye on it and consider replacing my hose. Thanks for your responses!!

John