Super 6 Water in the oil

[Adrian]

Not a happy tale I'm afraid.

My recently purchased Supercharged S Pack seems to have decided to leak the contents of the radiator into the sump for some apparent reason. Bit of an inconvienience to say the least.

Won't go into too many details to bore you but, dealer purchased, just over warranty period (3 months), travelled only 2900 k's since purchase, total of only 142k on the clock and this happens so I'm not happy.

Anyway's my question is.... anyone got a likley cause?
My first assumption was head gasket but I've been told that with steel block and heads they don't often blow heads and the cause is more likley a corroded valley cover or timing cover.

Engine still runs evenly, no bad missing or chugging that might suggest one cylinder down or anything. My next plan of action is to compression test it to see if it is heads or some other leak within the cooling system.

Only other unusual thing is there was always some water out the exhaust, assumed it was just condensation. Not having owned a supercharged car before I didn't know if the extra heating of the intake air caused more condensation or not?

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated, Cheers.

[Fr3ak+--]

is it running hot? using water? blowing water out the exhaust on acceleration?

all sign's of head gasket

[Thomas1]

It's probably the Lower Intake Manifold gaskets. The stock ones are plastic and have a tendency to fail. If it is the LIM gaskets make sure you replace them with the metal ones...as they outlast the plastic ones by a long shot

[Adrian]

Fr3ak+, Yup sure is using water, topped it up with about 2 litres the other day before I checked the oil and noticed the milky sludge. Only travelled about 10km with it in this condition before I noticed the problem.

And yeah, this loss of water is causing it to overheat, which was the reason I started to investigate the problem.



Thomas1, thanks wasn't aware of that one. Plastic gaskets sounds nasty, any way that you could suggest to confirm this or is it just a matter of tearing it down to find it?

Cheers guys.

[chargedvx6]

It's going to be the LIM to head gaskets imo. The headgaskets are pretty meaty and hard to let go.

Might pay to bleed the coolant system to make sure there isn't an air pocket somewhere. 3 bleed points on an L67 need to be done in sequence.

[Adrian]

Ok well that sounds like the first place to look.

I'm not too confident about doing it myself. If it wasn't for the blower I would probably have a go. Lots of extra piping and stuff running everywhere that I have no clue about.

Has anyone replace the LIM Gaskets on an L67? Is it difficult to do and any idea how much a mechanic would be charging to do it.

cheers

[Thomas1]

Here's a video tutorial on how to do it. It's an American car (they have the SC6 in a FWD config - so some of the accessories are in a different spot) but it's essentially the same as ours.

http://www.cpaclubgp.com/misc/lim-gasket.html

[Blown V6 Hatch]

Definately Lower inlet manifold gaskets. Holden V6's VERY rarely blow head gaskets......

Pretty simple job really!

[Adrian]

Great vid Thomas1 thanks for that. Not as hard a job as I expected.

I just hope that my intake manifold is in as good condition as theirs. So long as ther is no bad corrosion or anything going on in there. I also have a squeal form the S/C belt under even low acceleration, I suspect it's the front pulley bearing on the S/C. Good time to fix that one up while it's off. I've read somewhere that they are a bugga to get off cause they are pressed on so hard to try to sope people from putting smaller pulleys on them.

[genaero20]

how do u bleed a supercharged 6 mine is needing water heaps to and overheating no water in oil tho

[chargedvx6]

There are 3 bleed points. Bleed them in order once the engine is at operating temp. Drivers side one on the black water pipe near the alternator, under the Throttle body on the thermostat housing (engine cover needs to come off), under the charger snout on top of the water pump.

You might have to go around in order 3 or more times until they all bleed pure coolant without bubbles.

[genaero20]

thanks chargedvx6 no one has been able to answer this cause it keeps getting hot thanks a bunch