OIL IN COOLANT SYSTEM!!! Head Gasket or Heat Exchanger?

[bigjoncoop]

Make / Model: 2007 Ford Explorer XLT V6 4.0 (Ironman Edition

Miles: ~175,000

Problem:  BROWNISH /ORANGISH OILY FEELING FOAM IN COOLANT SYSTEM !!!

Rite to the point: (full story below)
The cooling system has tons of this substance in it. Upon checking the oil there is no traces of this substance in it at all and the oil level has not dropped whatsoever.

Is it possible that this could be tranny fluid and and not oil since I believe this vehicle has the transmission cooler inside the radiator? Is there any way to determine if it's oil or transmission fluid? For some God forsaken reason for decided to put a sealed Transmission in this vehicle so I cannot check the fluid...

Tonight I'm going to do a complete flush of the coolant system.

Any ideas or thoughts or suggestions?

FULL STORY:
The other day I had stopped at a store and when I turned off the car I could hear gurgling and bubbling and noticed that my temperature gauge was reading about 3/4 which is hot since my truck never goes over half on the gauge.

When I opened the hood the lid of the plastic coolant reservoir was blown open and a brownish / orangish oily feeling substance was bubbling out of it... Which I am assuming is oil mixed with water, since I have been using straight water in my coolant system lately.

(A couple months ago when I had to replace my thermostat housing and a few blown hoses, I DID notice a small amount of the same substance at that time as well. At that time I had assumed it was stop leak or something that the prior owner had put in there.)

So after finding all that foam bubbling out of the coolant Reservoir I took a manual transfer pump thing and sucked all that crap out of the coolant reservoir and pops off one of the hoses going to the heater core and flushed as much as that s*** out of it as I could. Started the car a couple of times to get it hot and circulating and flushed it multiple times. Obviously I wasn't able to remove all of it but I tried as best I could....

WHEN I CHECK THE OIL, THE OIL IS PERFECTLY FINE AND HAS NO TRACES OF THAT ORANGE SUBSTANCE IN IT WHATSOEVER... THE OIL LEVEL HAS CONSISTENTLY STAYED THE SAME & HAVEN'T NOTICED IT LOSE ANY OIL WHATSOEVER.

So because of that I'm thinking maybe it's not oil and maybe it could be transmission fluid? As far as I know on an 07 Explorer the radiator and transmission cooler are one unit correct? But I have not noticed any issues with the transmission yet like it was low on fluid.

(FOR SOME GOD FORSAKEN REASON FOR DECIDED TO PUT A SEALED TRANSMISSION IN THIS VEHICLE, SO THERE IS NO WAY TO CHECK THE FLUID TO SEE IF IT'S LOW OR CONTAINS ANY WATER FROM THE COOLANT SYSTEM!!!!!)

After doing that I have been able to drive the vehicle without it overheating, but when checking the cool system I see more of that orange foam...

Now tonight I am doing a full coolant system flush all of that crap as I can.

Does anyone have any ideas of if it could be tranny fluid or do you think it's oil? Also is there any way to determine which it is or.... and what should be my next step?

 

[donalds]

4.0 and iron man don't go in the same sentence LOL

Flush the entire coolant system

Sounds like maybe 2 different types of coolant were used
I've seen that before a few times where kind of globbs up

And look And look for leaks around that thermostat housing

If your transmission was full of coolant it would have been long gone already you wouldn't have been able to drive it that far in my opinion

 

[bigjoncoop]

4.0 and iron man don't go in the same sentence LOL

Flush the entire coolant system

Sounds like maybe 2 different types of coolant were used
I've seen that before a few times where kind of globbs up

And look And look for leaks around that thermostat housing

If your transmission was full of coolant it would have been long gone already you wouldn't have been able to drive it that far in my opinion

Thx for your reply!

Yeah that's what someone else had told me to, about two different types of coolant being mixed together... if that's the case I will be one happy camper! It just seems unlikely though since there was less of this crap in the cooling system when I had changed the thermostat housing and some hoses a couple months back. And since then I ran straight water and no coolant.

But with that said I'm still going to do a complete flush tonight with a engine degreaser and multiple flushes with water.

Oh and you mean that the 4.0 is definitely not a "IRONMAN" huh? LOL

 

[Josh P]

Post pictures of the fluid.

 

[donalds]

Yea pictures please