Coolant in oil

[myfirstii]

My II has been siting in the garage for about 3 weeks or so due to the dahm salt on the road. So yesterday I started her up and ran her until she warmed up...pulled her out of the garage and parked it in the drive way...... while it was running I popped the hood and checked over everything the make sure I didnt forget mess with anything while it was sitting.. I reved it a few times not that high maybe to about 3000 rpms and as i started to rev it the 3rd or 4th time it made like a pop or smacking noise....(not like a back fire)...and died immediatly. I didnt know what happened so I restarted it and it fired right back up. I went and checked under the hood and I noticed coolant leaking from somewhere above the left side of the timing cover cause it was sitting in that little dip there. At first I thought It was from the thermostat housing but i checked that and theres not a leak....So automaticly my stomach drops at the thought that it could be some other gasket such as the head gasket. So i checked my oil and guess what!! Coolant!!!! Dahm . Does any one know what could of happened?? the motor has only 26000 original miles. I always change the oil every 1500 miles. I dont run it hard. So im clueless why it happened. Any one have any ideas??? Also what should i do i havnt driven the car but the oil is still siting in the motor. Is this going to ruin it??? Should i drain the oil? Lucky I just picked up a 92 H.O 5.o to put in the II ....but now i dont have a back up motor.....So any help would be great

 

[HaveII]

That really blows! Sorry to hear the bad news. With the coolant being in the oil the first thing that would come to mind would be a head gasket or cracked head. Maybe a cracked intake manifold could cause this. With internal and external leakage in that general area that would be my best guess. I don't have any ideas on how the pop or the slap noise was produced with this result. Did you happen to notice (assuming you have some aftermarket guages) what kind of oil pressure it had or how hot the motor got? When you restarted it did you hear any new noises?

 

[myfirstii]

I dont have any after market guages. The motor has a new Edelbrock rpm airgap intake and a new cam (about 2000 miles ago). I havnt noticed any new noises before or after it happend. I shut the motor right off and put it back in the garage i havnt ran it since. If it was a head gasket leak could the noise be made by the loss of compression or the leak of the compression threw that cylinder??
thanks for the help
Pat

 

[danimaltheanima]

Sucks to be you!

Dang brotha that sucks. Who installed your cam, intake, heads. Its very possible that the gaskets were not seated right and the parts just weren't torqued right. Looks like you have some work to do. Take everything off get a felpro gasket kit and re-torque everything down. I doubt your head is cracked with not many miles on it. And if it is cracked than you need a new thermistat cuz the one you have stuck shut and your motor over heated. If thats the issue, I hope you have some $ in the bank for some new heads. And a torque wrench if yuh don't have one.

P.S If you want stock heads I have some. They need new springs as the ones on there now float. But I'm not going to use the heads. They have been taking up space in the garage for way to long now. I don't know how I would get them to yuh, but for a VERY small fee I'd sell em to yuh. They just need a good cleaning. I'd even degrease em and clean em up for yuh if you really wanted them.

Good Luck.

Dan

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[HaveII]

I would think that if that were a noise caused by loss of compression that you would continue to hear noise, not as loud, after. I would guess it might sound a little like an exhaust leak at the header. If you put a big cam in it with a big lift or are using high ratio rockers like 1.7s and did not have screw in studs installed in your heads it could be one of the pressed in studs pulled loose that caused the pop. You might want to pull a valve cover on the passanger side where the leak seams to be comming from. Use a rachet to turn the engine by hand (I would not start it again or even use the starter to turn it over) and see if all of the valves open if you don't see anything after close inspection.

Unless someone can chime in here that might have had a similar mishap or some better insight I suspect you might have to start opening it up to find out what went wrong. Drain the coolant using the valve at the bottom of the radiator. I usually pull the bottom hose, the heater hoses, and then the upper radiator hose. I use a shop vac to suck out as much fluid as possible to keep the mess to a minium after gravity does all it can. Then pull the intake manifold, the rockers and pushrods on the offending side, and then pull the head. Check gaskets and look for cracks around water passages. I hope that it does not come to this and that some how I am overlooking something, but in my experiance coolant in the oil usually indicates a pretty serious problem. Let us know how it goes and what you find.

 

[COBRAIIW]

The last time i had coolant in my oil,i changed head gaskets twice believing that was the problem,didn't see anything wrong with them,but then after the engine stopped and wouldn't start again i found that i had a 6 in. long crack in my #1 cylinder wall.

 

[THE COBRAMAN]

I think the key here is the recent intake change. I'd be almost willing to bet that there is a coolant port mismatch between the heads/gasket/manifold. Coolant passages were redesigned several times, and too many parts counter jockeys think they're all the same. The coolant on the timing cover makes me think this even more, since it's right under the water ports.

It IS possible that the head gaskets have corroded, despite the low mileage, but I'd check the intake set first, since it'll have to come off anyway.

Get the oil out soon, and resolve the intake gasket question, should be OK if you didn't run it long.


Call me conservative, but I'm not a big fan of free-revving an engine to 3000 RPM. I think the pop and die is likely related to choke/cold air, and isn't really related to the coolant in the oil.

 

[cobraii351]

I'm with Cobraman, It's more likly that the water port on the intake is leaking than a previously sealed and running head gasket. Small block head gaskets "USUALLY" don't pop without help. If you know what I mean. Did you retorque the intake? Sometimes after a couple of hot/cold cycles the bolts will need rechecked.

Tim

 

[myfirstii]

Hey guys, I installed my intake and cam by my self. The cam isnt that big its pretty mild and i didnt change the valves, springs, or rockers. I torgued everything done as it was suppose to be. I had the car on the road for over 2000 miles before this started leaking. I would think that if the gasket wasnt seated right it would have leaked along time ago under harsher conditions. But on the other hand it has been awhile since i have retorqued the intake. Thanks everyone i feel alot better now. I always think that its the worse. Hopefully this weekend ill find time to pull the intake off and check ...
Keep your fingers crossed.
Pat