Engine oil in my coolant... New head gasket???

[harryold]

I found engine oil in my coolant, which I understand means there is probably a need for a new head gasket.  Are there any other causes of this? I would love to do the repair myself, but I assume that it is a more difficult repair and I have very little experience.  I have a 91 jetta na 1.6L na Diesel. If anyone has any suggestions or helpful hints I would be very greatful.  Also, if anyone is near Andrews, NC and wants to help that would be great.

[Jettagli16v]

Look here:
http://www.vwdiesel.net/forum/index.php?topic=16699.0

Andrew is the man!
-Brad

[Jettagli16v]

And there are only 4 steps to replacing the headgasket:

1) Be sufficiently mechanical and well tooled (including all the specific VW tools, or equivalents)
2) Buy a Bentley manual for your car (http://www.bentleypublishers.com/isbn/9780837603421/index.html)
3) Read the headgasket and associated sections thoroughly
4) do as it instructs.

Pretty straightforward, really!

Seriously, though, the Bentley is the bible for watercooled vws.
The hardest part really is getting the manifolds (intake and exhaust)
out of the way.
Other than that it is a timing belt job and another few hours.
-Brad

[smutts]

Does the non turbo engines use an oil cooler? Big ally thing above the oil filter?

[Jettagli16v]

Probably.
(but Ive never had an NA)
But it is easy to spot,
and yes, it is the big square thing the oil filter O-ring seals against,
and will have a two coolant hoses going right to the water pump.
Certainly a good reason for water and oil to mix.
-Brad

[diesel smoke]

It could also be a bad oil cooler. They've been known to leak. The head gasket isn't too hard to replace. When I still drove my '89 TD, I had oil in the coolant and was loosing compression, I was 16 at the time and got it done in a day. It didn't fix my problem, (it turned out to be a warped head) but I did get it back together and running... kinda. It still started hard like before I did it, so I parked it and got the TDI. I got another head and plan on putting it back together sometime this summer.

[burnt_servo]

if it's not over heating and puking coolant , the head gasket either hasn't totally failed , or in fact might  be just fine .

like the other guys have mentioned , the oil cooler is more than likely the problem , as it can  leak small amounts of oil into the coolant over time .

[Syncroincity]

Just fix it soon, because oil will destroy all of your coolant hoses; they soften & fail, usually when it's extremely inconvenient

[rabbitman]

Does the non turbo engines use an oil cooler? Big ally thing above the oil filter?

My '82 NA rabbit doesn't have one