2002 4.6L oil in my coolant

[Rudy123]

Hi, I have a 2002 Explorer 4.6L with 106,000 miles on it. I have noticed recently that I have oil in my coolant. I see about an inch or more in my coolant reservoir bottle. I have checked and replaced my oil/filter and have not seen any coolant in my oil. Does this sound like a head gasket failure? I do have an oil leak that has become increasingly worse from what appears to be my oil filter housing gasket. Has anyone heard of oil getting in with the coolant through a leak in the housing gasket? I searched and found posts of coolant getting into the oil but not the other way around. Truck has never over heated since I have owned it with 25k on it. Any help/advice would be much appreciated as I would like to take care of this before it gets cold out. Thank you.

 

[imp]

If engine oil (not familiar with '02 to know if trans. cooling is in radiator still), it surely could be a faulty head gasket. Depending on the location and severity of leak path, oil pressure is usually higher than cooling jacket pressure, where a pressure-feed to the upper head passes through a hole in the gasket can bleed oil into coolant, but reverse may not happen, or very little.

Doubtful that the filter mounting can have any connection to the cooling system. imp

 

[waskly]

the oil filter housing i think also gets coolant to it. if the housing is leaking its probably leaking also into the coolant. its been a while.

 

[coco944x4s]

its more than likely the oil coolier if it has one. Been a while since ive been under a complete explorer that model, but im pretty sure it has an oil cooler. It will be an additional "spacer" with coolant hoses coming to it that the oil filter screws on to.

 

[Rudy123]

I haven't taken a good look at the oil filter housing yet, so I am not sure if there is an oil cooler or not. I definately would like to change an oil cooler instead of the head gasket. I will post back after I take a better look tomorrow. Thanks for the ideas.

 

[imp]

I haven't taken a good look at the oil filter housing yet, so I am not sure if there is an oil cooler or not. I definately would like to change an oil cooler instead of the head gasket. I will post back after I take a better look tomorrow. Thanks for the ideas.

My statement regarding the filter mounting was based on every type of filter mount I have seen over the years, but I could be wrong, if some Joker Designer incorporated his wet dream into reality.

I am wrong 1/2 of the time, (depends on my dart board). imp