to 30 oil in water

I just bought a Ferguson TO30. It has oil in the radiator, but the oil in the engine appears to be fine, no water in it. The previous owner thinks it is a head gasket, and not a cracked block. I was just curious, have any of you guys seen this before, and if so, what was the problem? I am leaning to just pulling the head off and looking at the gasket. Is there anything else I should do before taking it apart? And how likely is this problem just a head gasket? I have never heard it run, the PO said it ran great, just got oil in radiator, so he stopped using it 2 years ago, and it has been in his barn since he quit using it. Thanks for the help...
 
It's possible the head gasket is leaking oil in the coolant. There is an oil passage up through the head
gasket that brings oil up to the rocker shaft.

A cracked block, (or leaking cylinder orings, and typically a blown head gasket) will go the other way,
water in the oil.

Once oil is introduced to the coolant, it is difficult to get it all flushed out. It tends to cling to
everything inside the radiator and block, and slowly make it's way up to the top of the radiator. Might
want to get it running, flush it out, fill it with water, see what happens. That will give you a chance to
see what other problems there are.

Who knows, someone may have just accidentally poured oil in the coolant!
 
Steve@Advance, Thanks for the reply. I think you are right, I probably should go ahead and get it running like it is. Then I can see for myself if it is pushing oil into the water. It should be easy to get running because the PO said it ran great till he stopped using it. I pulled it home without starting it.
It would be nice if someone did just accidentally put oil into the radiator. Thanks for the reply, I will post what i find.
 

It sounds like a head gasket issue. A good way to clean oil out of the cooling system is to drain it and fill up with water and add cascade dishwasher detergent. The powder kind and run it for a while. Then drain and flush. Lots of diesel shops do that when oil coolers bust and fill the cooling system with oil. Just make sure you get dishwasher detergent and not dish washing!!! Dish washer detergent doesn't suds up.
 
My son got the tractor running, and it ran good, with no knocking or clattering. He drove it around, got it hot to try and see if any more oil worked its way into the cooling system. He couldn't tell if oil was leaking into the radiator or not. There was definitely oil already in the cooling system, as there was black sludge in the radiator. When he was driving it, the oil pressure gauge would go to zero every couple of minutes and then return to around 30 psi. I hope it is just a bad gauge.
He decided to just go ahead and put a head gasket on this engine, just to rule out the head gasket leaking. He has got it back together but still needs to clean out the cooling system, he is gonna try the dishwashing soap in it, hopefully this will get it clean. Next a couple of questions:
1 Does the head gasket need re torqued after running, and if so do you run it till its hot and re torque while engine is hot, or let it cool down and then re torque with engine cold.
2 The rocker arm shaft will need to be removed to re torque all the head bolts, after removing will the valves have to be re set? or will they retain there setting?
 
I've done this a grand total of once (well, twice, actually, but that's a long story), so you'll probably want to wait for others with more experience to weigh in, BUT:

1. Fel-Pro says you don't need to re-torque their head gaskets. but I did anyway, after running it up to operating temperature several times. I had used the tractor for a while, so I removed fuel tank, etc.

I re-torqued when the engine was cold.

2. After removing and reinstalling the rocker assembly, I re-set the valve clearance, cold, using the "rule of nine" (Thanks John (UK), Jason S., and others.), then checked it again, with the engine running, using a temporary fuel tank.
 

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