VX L67 - Oil in Coolant & reservoir

[Raging Bull]

I checked my coolant and it was very discoloured, appeared to have traces of oil in it and after checking the dip stick from the reservoir it was covered with dark oily stuff especially at the bottom. I've read crappy Inner Manifold Gaskets can cause this or maybe the auto transmission tank has split inside the radiator since I'm not sure if its the engine or tranny oil but the car is running fine not overheating and the auto feels normal. Does anyone have any experience with this? Cheers.

[camtech]

i just pulled heads off mine cos of that and found cracked cyl head. put new yella terra heads on and good time to port out s/c housing while its apart. Is there a milky buildup under your oilcap and radiator cap?

[Raging Bull]

I checked my oil dipstick and oil cap and there's no signs of any milky substances the oil appears normal colour. I think it's fairly common for this to happen with the SC6 since the Inlet Manifold Gasket is a crappy plastic POS.

[camtech]

are you still using the genuine coolant with the tablets because it can get real messy with some age

[don0xer]

lim gasket... go to yella terra and buy a metal one

[Raging Bull]

So it's the Inlet Manifold Gasket then? Or more precisely the Lower Inlet Manifold Gasket? I'll pick it up from Yella Terra then, is there any special way to drain the system of all the oil? Cheers.

[vxcalais_01]

Intake manifold gasket for sure. Change it over, use Hylomar or Permatex on teh gasket and make sure you use the 3 GM radiator pellets in the coolant. These will help seal up any minor leaks.

[alien]

When changing over the gasket get Felpro gaskets. Those things are awesome! I know one that lasted 28 years in a performance vehicle, the only reason it didn't last any longer was because the engine was totally rebuilt.

I use felpro in my L67 when i did a head gasket and not one problem with the Felpro.

[Raging Bull]

I was gonna go to Yella Terra and ask them about their metal ones? Are those the best option?

[buzuki]

could be the radiator, my mates did the same thing in a vx, trans oil was slowly getting into coolant

[chargedvx6]

I was gonna go to Yella Terra and ask them about their metal ones? Are those the best option?

yes 100% imo

[alien]

Federal-Mogul - Fel-Pro Head Gaskets

They're the only gasket manfacturer i trust for my vehicle. Rocker cover gaskets were put on before i got the chance of choosing the ones i wanted on them! Was part of the RWC i needed by the next day And yes, i know they're more expensive than most, but definatly worth it.

[Scooter79]

Hey everyone. The same thing has happened to my car recently. I've noticed oil starting to get into the coolant. I've been keeping an eye on things and there's no milky sludge under the oil cap and the oil still seems fine. Transmission fluid is normal too.

Anyway I priced a new LIM gasket set through Holden at $165. New supercharged gasket is $45. I can get the metal LIM gaskets and s/c gasket them from the U.S for $90AUD (not including postage). Anyone got any prices from other suppliers that might be work looking at? How much are the LIM gaskets from YT?

Cheers.

[Raging Bull]

I just picked up the Metal LIM gaskets from YT for $150. They had the Supercharger gasket too for $60 but I'll get that later of a mate. I will change the radiator, thermostat, LIM gasket, Super gasket, clean out the reserve tank and clean out the intake/charger as much as possible this weekend. Hopefully all goes well.

[Scooter79]

I just picked up the Metal LIM gaskets from YT for $150. They had the Supercharger gasket too for $60 but I'll get that later of a mate. I will change the radiator, thermostat, LIM gasket, Super gasket, clean out the reserve tank and clean out the intake/charger as much as possible this weekend. Hopefully all goes well.

I called YT on Monday morning for a price on the Metal LIM gasket and was told $209 (incl $12 postage).

Hey Bull, if you don't mind would it be possible to take a few photos and post in this thread or the how too section? I'll be curious to know if the problem is the LIM gasket or if there's a problem with the radiator/trans cooler lines.

[Raging Bull]

Yeah mate I'll try take some pics with my phone. Oh and don't ever go to Repco or any of those places, they gave me the wrong thermostat, gasket and rad cap, went to Holden and picked the proper L67 parts which were even to my surprise way cheaper than Repco. I picked up the metal LIM gaskets at the Moorabbin YT store. You can also get them of Holden since it's a GM product, the supercharger gasket was $47 from Holden.

[Scooter79]

Yeah mate I'll try take some pics with my phone. Oh and don't ever go to Repco or any of those places, they gave me the wrong thermostat, gasket and rad cap, went to Holden and picked the proper L67 parts which were even to my surprise way cheaper than Repco. I picked up the metal LIM gaskets at the Moorabbin YT store. You can also get them of Holden since it's a GM product, the supercharger gasket was $47 from Holden.

Awesome. I'm looking at doing mine in the next few weeks. Hoping to order the LIM gasket set, yellow o-rings and s/c gasket from ZZ Performance in the US. Just a matter of working out shipping costs.

You're right about REPCO being expensive too and their staff don't seem to be as knowledgable as they used to be. Last year when I asked for a thermostat gasket the manager kept trying to tell me the only gasket was the rubber o-ring. I said that already came attached because I had a new genuine GMH thermostat. I just wanted the paper gasket and he kept telling me it didn't exist. Then I said "well what was the s*** that I had scrape off the thermostat housing?"

I've actually found Autobarn to be quite reasonable for parts prices.

[Raging Bull]

Gona do it this Saturday. My mate reckons to make the most of it and get some Mr. Muscle oven cleaner and clean out the manifold to it's nice and prestine along with the throttle body and everything else. I just have to find out the torque settings for the manifold when putting it back together.

[chargedvx6]

Don't forget to change the $8 coolant u bend hose that adjoins the thermostat housing. Don't want to go back for that baby later. Too much shit in the way lol

Oh I forgot, you have to slot a cam in it too since you're already half way there

[salty]

Hey so my car blew it's heater tap the other day and pissed fluid out all over the road. Wasn't nice, and I was towed to my mechanic who replaced the tap.

Now...The liquid that was all over the road was oily as anything and I thought at first that I had some sort of transmission fluid leak or something because it wasn't thick enough to be engine oil and it didn't look like bright green coolant.

Is this likely to be what I'm having happen too? Oil leaking into my coolant? I've had head gaskets go on cars before and had the old milky crappy oil thing, but that's not happening here.

I've noticed that when my car shifts the last few days since it happened that it seems a bit rougher, but the trans fluid level seemed ok when I checked it.

My mechanic had said to me that some gasket was leaking and that 90% of commodores they see in there are leaking oil from there and didn't seem to think it was that big a deal. I'm pretty sure he said it was some sort of manifold gasket.

So is it likely that that leak is what's getting into my oil? Or could it be transmission fluid? When the heater tap blew and the liquid was squirting onto the engine it STANK when it was burning off.

How huge a job is it to replace that gasket if it's needing done?

Man my car just seems like it's going from worse to REALLY worse lately

[Raging Bull]

Yeah just check your coolant reservoir, once the oil gets in there it stays down and forms a brown sludge, it won't get back into your cooling system since it's quite a bit heavier than coolant.

I first also thought that possibly the tranny oil is mixing with the coolant but my auto seemed ok. Today I took off the supercharger and the manifold and pulled off the old gaskets and to my surprise they looked ok with only one edge on the gasket that looked suspect, what caught my attention however was how loose the bloody manifold gasket screws were, this could have caused the oil to mix with the coolant galleries. I can clearly see sludge inside the coolant galleries now too so the oil definitely got in there, I guess it only takes a bit of a gap and it comes in.

I'll have some pics of the gaskets up soon but I'm very confident that it was the loose LIM or the gasket that caused this, I'm changing the radiator anyway so there's no real way to find out but after seeing all the sludge on the galleries after taking the LIM off I'm convinced it was the gasket despite the fact that they didn't look too bad.

It's a decent job, took us 2.5 hours to get the throttle body, supercharger and LIM completely off. Tomorow, we'll clean it out nicely, clean out the throttle body, LIM and everything else around it, torque everything to precision, fill up the coolant and drain it. Also changing that U-bend and the thermostat while I'm at it. Pictures might be a tad crap since we were working on it at night but tomorrows shots should be better.

[Raging Bull]

I have some pictures that I'll put up as soon as I find my phone cable.

[Scooter79]

Any update on those pics?

[Raging Bull]

The pics came out pretty bad cause my phone sucks but you can clearly see where the gasket gave way.

[Raging Bull]

My coolant is clean as now.