[merc81]

No, I don't know the answer yet. I'm pretty sure what the problem is, but I don't really want to hear it. I'm hoping someone else will come to the same conclusion I did.

I thought the idea about the oil cooler was pretty good, I'd considered it before, but decided that wasn't very likely. Last night I pulled the cooler off the block and rigged up two hoses on the water outlets of the oil cooler. I put the whole thing down in a bucket of water and pumped it up to 50psi. No bubbles, no leaks, nothing. As far as I know, its still at 50 psi since I left the thing in the bucket when I left.

Getting current status of the engine, I installed the new gaskets as I said but the leak came back on the first highway trip. I've pulled the engine for a 2nd time and removed the heads (again) and taken them to a good shop. The shop tells me that they find nothing wrong with the heads in any way and there is nothing that could cause the heads to put oil in water jacket. I've still got to go back and pick them up, but at this point I've ordered a new (rebuilt) engine for the van.

I'm still trying to determine just how the oil gets into the water, and I can't figure out a way to find that pathway. Any ideas?