Oil in Coolant.. Please Help....

[emmanuelk]

Hi all,

I am quite new to the whole commodore thing, but purchased a 1989 VN a while ago and have loved it ever since.

Never knew they had that sort of low end power and acceleration!!

Eitherway the car is no longer running.

I noticed after a few months a few spots of oil in the plastic Coolant tank, but didn't really think too much of it as i hadn't experienced it before.

It been pretty hot lately and the car conked out just the other day and after opening the coolant there is a HEAP of oil now in there.

The car now turns and kinda starts but conks out after a few seconds.

Please help... what is the most likely cause?? Is there any hope for the car? Any potential additives that could save it or will it need some heavy repairs??

Any help would be most appreciated.
Thankyou in advance.

[azkwazere]

Do a compression test and determine the condition fo your H/Gasket.

Then, if all is good....

Take your intake manifold off and check condition of gasket...

V6's rarly blow H/G's under normal conditions but it does happen. INtake manifold gasket is most likely your cause.

aZk.

[emmanuelk]

I got the car toed by the RAA and he said its some PUMP or something on the front of the engine that Corrodes and seeps oil into the coolant... but i haven't been able to find any info on this.

Anyone ever heard of this?? Or is that dude just talking cr*p....

PS: Thanks aZK, i am getting a mate over on the weekend who knows a little more than me about cars, so i will see if he can do a compression test.

Can i ask a silly question though??
What will i see from the compression test to know the condition?? Like certain cylinders down.. (sorry i am very newb to engines)

[Tom_1569]

With a compression test you will see a heap of numbers lol. But its whether they are all down, only a few or just one. They should all be the same number give or take 5. If ones significantly lower then you most likely have a blown head gasket. If they are all downh then you may have some serious trouble, or again a very broken head gasket.

Oil in the water is a very bad thing, and should of been fixed as soon as it was noticed. Most likely you have done some serious damage as a result. Best of luck though.

[vxcalais_01]

Check your waterpump, but it still cannot allow oil into water. I had it on mine for 3-4 months. If yoru oil is clean, only thing it can be is intake manifold gasket. You cannot take the inlet off and check the condition of the gasket, thats just bu!!sh!t. Once you take the inlet off, you brake the seal and the gasket. Once you take it off you will see where its blown out. Like i said if your engine oil is clean no dramas, just change the gasket, only $80 for a ACL kit, and new oil and coolant. When you change the gasket, run straight water in in for a week or so, and before that flush with a cleaner. TO this day i have no more white stuff.

But i believe the waterpump was the reason it failed, as my waterpump i had to change, probably didnt cool the inlet manifold properly causing it to shear and break the seal. Its common on the v6's. There are a few write ups on how to change it. Much easier on VN than it is on my VX (less things to remove etc.)

[vxcalais_01]

Water in oil is bad as it can seize your engine, but easier to get out after(oil drains easier, naturally cleans). Oil in radiator is only bad if it blocks your radiator and affects the water to the extend that it doesnt cool your engine like it should. And its real hard to get all the **** out. Like i said though it boils out eventually.

[emmanuelk]

Thanks VXCalais_01 that is the most hopeful information i have heard yet.

My oil is definitely crystal clean, and honestly it didn't seem like it was very down on level from its previous level. (but i guess it has to be coming from somewhere)

Do you know of any good write ups on how to change the intake manifold gasket or any that you would recommend??

What's is the best way to verify if the water pump is operating as it should??

[vxcalais_01]

Thanks VXCalais_01 that is the most hopeful information i have heard yet.

My oil is definitely crystal clean, and honestly it didn't seem like it was very down on level from its previous level. (but i guess it has to be coming from somewhere)

Do you know of any good write ups on how to change the intake manifold gasket or any that you would recommend??

What's is the best way to verify if the water pump is operating as it should??

Emmanuel,

The write up is on another commodore site, the street commodores site in the how to section. Just type in intake gasket and you will see it there, with pictures and all specific to the VN. The waterpump i got the system pressure tested to see if it was my heads, and the water leaked out a little hole in the front of the water pump, which is where and indicator of when its gone. Get it checked and even ask on their opinion. The the white stuff has a slight reddish tinge to it, it could be coming from your tranny cooler if you have an auto. But i had this issue recently and definately turned out to be the intake gasket. For $80 for new gasket kit, $10-15 for some Loctite Blue Maxx Silastic to coat the surfaces, some gasket remover to clean the surfaces (dont get on ur paint), use a scraper to clean it down, sand paper etc. If you have really noisy lifters, now is the time to do it, and once the intake is off, you expose 4 bolts for the lifter retainers, really easy, just rockers have to come off as well. And you need a torque wrench, and needs to be bolted in a sequence. Get a Gregories manual from supercheap as well.

[markovr]

Make sure your auto cooler line through the radiator isnt broken and oil is auto fluid...very bad for your tranny

[emmanuelk]

Alright, i have since removed my radiator and replaced.. oil through-out.

The final diagnosis was that it must have been Tranny Oil from the radiator. But again on removing the Tranny Oil Sump there was no water in there at all. Although that's a good thing i guess i was told that there would definitely have to be water in there is it was leaking from the radiator!!

Now i am stuck... and to make things worse the Fuel Pump won't engage at all.. so i gotta touch that up too!

[vxcalais_01]

Did they pressure test it ? Before i did my intake gasket, i had a new radiator put in and new coolant, it took a month for the oil to start migrating back up to the radiator cap again. Tranny to radiator leaks are a problem as well as if water gets into the tranny its shagged. Put in some Holden radiator pellets to see if it seals things up.

[burnz]

Put in some Holden radiator pellets to see if it seals things up.

these allso give an apearance of brown rusty oil in radiator, but it's normal.

[vxcalais_01]

these allso give an apearance of brown rusty oil in radiator, but it's normal.

Thats right. Engine oil will go white with a slight tinge towards the colour of the oil when in the coolant.

[lazza44]

my engine was leaking a small amount of oil into my coolant. First I did a compression test and it came up fine. A few weeks ago I changed the inlet manifold gasket, which was in poor condition, and theres no more engine oil leaking into my coolant. The gasket would have been about 220km old so they don't appear to last very long. I also cleaned it thoroughly including the throttle body and it idles/runs way smoother now. It took me about 10 hours but I'm not very fast and a lot of that was cleaning.

[lazza44]

The oil in the coolant in mine was light grey sludge.

[lazza44]

To flush it all out use penrite rapid 7. Tectaloy does **** all. Then run it with just water for a few days to see if its fixed.