Okay he put a new radiator in it and it drove fine last night and this morning. Now driving it home from school today it quit running and he says it looks like there is water in the oil and won't start any suggestions??? He mentioned that when they were putting the radiator in that one of the oil lines got pinched a little bit.

 

how many miles are on the truck.. how much water is in the oil??? droplets? is the oil line STILL pinched... does it still crank fine ??? did you happen to notice any white smoke from the exhaust( more than normal) before it died????

 

169,000 not sure how much water he said the oil looked milky but it looked fine last night, i don't believe the oil line is still pinched, it will try to turn over but won't start, no white smoke before it died

 

hmmmm where did you get this radiator from??? I wonder if its possible theres an internal leak to the radiator... forcing it into the engine oil cooling lines....first thing I'd do is check for anythign i might have knocked loose when putting in the radiator... then if nothign is found... I'd check the plugs... see if any of them look clean.. if it cranks... crank it about 3-5 seconds then pull the plugs and see if they're wet.. if they ARE..then I'd say coolant is spraying on them.. ( water in the oil) you could do a leakdown test to confirm where..it could also be a leaky intake manifold gasket... a head gasket.. (either would explain the milky oil) or more damage could have been done from the overheating and it could have warped/cracked the head... but as i'm sure you've read on here you need 3 things for combustion

fuel
spark
compression

missing any of those will make your car not start... do you hear the fuel pump priming... can you test fuel pressure....

do you have spark from the plug wires....
(if plug wires are getting doused with coolant they won't exactly have good spark)

can you test for compression from each cylinder..

i know it sounds like alot.. but no start can be cause by a bunch of things..

 

Okay I called the place I got the radiator from and they are positive it isn't the radiator, I can buy another one and they will send it back but if it is fine then I have bought 2 radiators. This is what I think I should do next. Put the radiator back on, change the cooler lines to the radiator, check compression, and go from there. From what I have seen I can do the intake manifold gasket myself, but if it is head gasket I am not sure I want to attempt that. First thing I need to find out is if it is the head or intake manifold. Does this sound like the right plan for me to take. I have read all the posts about intake manifolds and I would be to guess that is what the problem is, just can't figure out why the oil looked great one day then the next it is milky. Oh well yea once I figure out what it is I better do an oil change too How do you do the leakdown test??

 

i know its for motorcycles but SAME principle....

http://www.motorcycleproject.com/mot.../leakdown.html

and you can do a compression test but a leakdown test is MUCH more comprehensive and will help you pinpoint where the issue lies.. you could throw parts at it for a REALLY long time and eventually it'll work.. but it's ALOT cheaper to find the problem...

btw ANYONE who sold you a part is ALWAYS 100% sure its not their part that is causing a problem.... Autozone was 100% sure their spark plug wires werent bad..

they have a life time warranty but they had no problem selling the previous owner anohter set 6 mos after he bought the first one.. and then i replaced them 4 months after he bought the second set and 1 month later.. I went back in the denied it was there cabels even AFTER i showed them where it was out of spec. and the wire was burning... so yeah dont believe ANY seller when they say its not their part.. do your own research on the part... btw what kind of radiator is it...

please let us know what you find...