Uh, oh...... oil in coolant.

[westcoaster]

Would I be a little too optimistic to think my problem exists in the oil/water cooler?
Head gasket? or could I be dealing with something far worse?

Aside from gooping up my rad and heater core what could happen from running it as is?



I bought an '87 jetta as an engine donor for my suzuki samurai.
Judging by the number of empty antifreeze bottles rattling around in the trunk (two) and the fact that it was low on coolant when I bought it the coolant is disappearing somewhere. Add the oil in the coolant and I think may have a problem.

There were quite a number of bolts missing between the tranny and the engine. Either one or the other or both have been swapped out in it's past. Not that big a deal now, but for 383,000 km the engine appears to run pretty strong.

[arb]

I'd pull the head and check it for cracks / flattness. The gastket and studs will not set you back a ton, but will show you where you stand. You really don't want oil in the coolant as the hoses will fail sooner.

[Golf/Jetta]

i wouldn't use a FRAM oil filter.. buy oem or expensive

the filter is like a roll of towelette paper bent up
Fram ||||||||||
OEM ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
something like that

[Rabbit on Roids]

hey, i had the same problem happen.. its just oil in the coolant. no coolant in the oil tho right? if thats the case.. its your oil cooler. just try plugging the connestions and taking the cooler off and putting your oil filter right on the filter housing where the cooler used to be, then clean out your cooling system with lots of dawn soap in the water. i wouldnt run anti freeze again till i know it was fairly clean. ill tell you what.. it was some messy S*it. but its possible that its a HG if the coolant is going somewhere. did it over pressurize the cooling system at all?

[kaneb]

Its most likley your oil cooler. If it was the other way around coolant in your oil then i would be observing your head gasket and pulling the head.  I would first check out your oil cooler before pulling your head.  

Make sure once it is fixed you flush the entire coolant system a couple times to get all the oil out.

[Vincent Waldon]

Here's another way to look at it:  a breach between the oiling system and the cooling system is a breach.... be it oil cooler, headgasket, or cracked block.

The cooling system operates at 15psi, max.  The oiling system operates at 80+ psi.  So, the physics of the situation dictate that oil is almost always gonna be forced into the cooling system, regardless of where the breach is.

It can reverse, of course, if the cooling system is totally up to pressure and the engine is idling with thin hot oil in a worn engine (ie oil pressure less than 15 psi) or for a few minutes following engine shutoff (oil pressure 0, coolant still pressurized).... but in general it's gonna be oil -> coolant... pretty much regardless of where the breach is.  Other clues like the coolant system getting pressurized too early add to the story and help distinguish the suspect.

Obviously there are exceptions: weird forces come into play as soon as compression starts to leak in as well... and gravity might play a role in specific cases, but for your standard breach the system with the bigger pressure usually wins.  Or so Dr. Stephen Hawking assures me.:wink:

[westcoaster]

hey, i had the same problem happen.. its just oil in the coolant. no coolant in the oil tho right? if thats the case.. its your oil cooler. just try plugging the connestions and taking the cooler off and putting your oil filter right on the filter housing where the cooler used to be, then clean out your cooling system with lots of dawn soap in the water. i wouldnt run anti freeze again till i know it was fairly clean. ill tell you what.. it was some messy S*it. but its possible that its a HG if the coolant is going somewhere. did it over pressurize the cooling system at all?

Right, oil in the coolant but no coolant in the oil. but then again, I don't know when the oil was changed last either....
I don't have any history on this motor. I only ran it 60Km from Richmond to Maple Ridge. Coolant not showing in overflow tank when I bought it plus two empty bottles of antifreeze in the trunk leads me to believe it is going somewhere.

I know about the fram filter "problem" My truck has a cummins diesel and that is the one thing they hammer at on filters for those motors as well. Something about the fram coming apart and forcing filter bits through the lube system....

I need to change the filter housing to an angled housing for the swap (I happen to have a different oil cooler for that as well) I may as well start with that and see if I continue to have a problem.

Dawn dish soap in the rad....
Well I suppose, can't really hurt anything.

[Rabbit on Roids]

i swear to god.. dawn dish soap is the only cheap thing i could get that would cut all the greace. i mean c'mon.. if its safe to use on things we eat off of, then why wouldnt it be safe to put in your cooling system? i mean, its not corrosive or caustic. so its not gonna rust your block, eat your gaskets or seals, or make the head corrode. i just wouldnt run it in there very long. i ran mine with soapy coolant for about 3 days then drained it and filled it up with 'freeze.

[kaneb]

When we do in-frames at work on cat's and cummins when we put new liner's in we put a bit of dish soap on the orings to gently lubricate them.  Never used it for rad flush before though.  But if it works it works.

[Rabbit on Roids]

powdered dish soap works well too

[westcoaster]

Ok, since we are talking about house hold products that cut grease, Laundry soap seems to do pretty well. I have used that to clean the floor after a a bunch of oil had spilled on it.
Laundry soap also won't foam up as much as dish soap.


Hmmmmm.......



Hijacking my own thread. :roll:

[clbanman]

Cummins has told us to use washing soda for similar cases. (Fun cleaning out the coolant passages in an engine and the rad on a truck that someone filled the coolant system with hydraulic oil.) Drain as much coolant as you can, fill with water and add washing soda. Run up to operating temp (to allow thermostat to open). Drain, repeat until no sign of oil in coolant. Needless to say, this works best if you have the leak fixed first.

[westcoaster]

Cummins has told us to use washing soda for similar cases. (Fun cleaning out the coolant passages in an engine and the rad on a truck that someone filled the coolant system with hydraulic oil.) Drain as much coolant as you can, fill with water and add washing soda. Run up to operating temp (to allow thermostat to open). Drain, repeat until no sign of oil in coolant. Needless to say, this works best if you have the leak fixed first.

could you give an example of "washing soda"? brand name or similar?

Can't say I am familiar with that....

[starrd]

could you give an example of "washing soda"? brand name or similar?

Can't say I am familiar with that....

Look in your super market, Arm and Hammer makes it
 - see link below - super washing soda
http://www.thelaundrybasket.com/Our_Products/our_products.html

[clbanman]

Arm & Hammer is the brand we used but there are many available.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washing_soda