Hey all. I've searched around to find some info about my problem but haven't come up with anything definitive. I've got a 2000 F150 2WD 4.6 that seems to be leaking oil into the coolant. Coolant is a milky brown color. Doesn't appear to be any coolant leaking into the oil. Now my first impression is a head gasket which would completely suck, but I've read that it's possible that it's the oil filter adapter gasket. Any body have any more info on this and/or what the likelyhood it is that instead of a head gasket? The truck runs fine and has no other engine problems. Thanks for any help.

 

Worth checking the filter adapter first. They do leak. It's a single gasket with only about 1/4" of material separating oil and water. No idea why they did it that way. Seems like kind of a poor design to me.

The part isn't very expensive. Think it was around $25 when I got mine but it's a later model. Don't know what somebody might charge for labor. Not hard to do just a pain to get to and kind of a messy job.

 

Thanks for the reply. It was my understanding that the reason the filter adapter was made that way was so the coolant could cool the oil a bit, but I could be mistaken. I guess when I get a chance I'll look into it.

 

Similar set ups that I've seen usually are intended more to help to get the oil up to temp faster. That part I understand, just not real big on Ford's way of doing it with nothing but a little piece of gasket between oil and water. It's a decent reinforced gasket but all it takes is a leak around one of the o-rings and over the gasket and you've got a problem.





But, given the alternative, hopefully that's the problem in your case.

 

Thanks for the pic, but I've already seen the gasket. Man, that space between there is tiny, isn't it? My local AutoZone has the FelPro gasket in stock for around $11 so as soon as I get time I'm going to replace it along with the oil, filter, and coolant and see how it does. I actually think it's been like this for a while now, I've just never noticed. The truck's still running fine so I'm not too worried about it at the moment, although I probably should be. But the way I see it there's no sense in worrying about something I can't do anything about. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that it's not a head gasket and if it is, that it'll hold like it has been for a while because I just can't afford to have it done and I don't have the time to do it myself... Oh, life.