coolant in oil

[joe64554]

I'm new here and think this site is great. I'm not a mechanic but have decent ability w/tools. Anyway my daughter had a upper radiator hose blow. She parked it and I went and towed it to my house and found coolant in oil filler. I immediately thought head gasket so I tore it down. This was not easy for me, I can't believe all the stuff. Hope I can get it back together:O
The head gaskets look fine but there was water on pistons on both sides. My daughter said she stopped driving pretty quickly after she noticed the temp guage skyrocket. Could the heads warp from something like this since it sounds like she did stop driving right away. Thanks for any suggestions and I will probably be needing a lot more help putting all this back together.
Joe

[robvandam]

What type of engine? How many miles? I know that the 3400 motors are notorious for bad lower intake manifold gaskets. A bad LIM gasket could put coolant into the oil. If you have the head off just tear down the motor a little further and check the LIM gasket. That's prob. The issue.

[RazorDX]

If it overheated, it's possible that the heads could have warped. While you have them off, I'd clean them up and take them to a machine shop so they can check them.

What you have sounds like a lower intake manifold gasket. I could spout out some information about it, but it is an alarmingly common problem with 3100 and 3400 engines; there are hundreds of threads regarding it with more information than I can recall. If you replace the gasket and I believe the bolts as well, you will be fine.

[robvandam]

If the machine shop says the heads are ok and you do replace the LIM gasket make sure you change the oil. I did mine and changed it twice just to be on the safe side. The intake manifold gasket is around 50 bucks plus bolts and oil change. I used the same bolts and mine has been fine. Keep us posted.

[Big Joe]

If you have the head off just tear down the motor a little further and check the LIM gasket. That's prob. The issue.

If he has the heads off already he wont have to tear the engine down anyfurther. The LIM sits on top of the heads and you would have to take the LIM off long before you take the heads off.


As for your problem, it does sounds like a LIM Gasket leak to me. I bet thats your problem and not the heads.

[robvandam]

True... My fault. Ifthe heads are off you definitely have access to the gaskets...

[joe64554]

The LIM makes sense because these gaskets cracked when I took them off. I live in the country, closest machine shop is about 40 miles. The heads look good and gaskets were in very good shape but of course I can't guarantee them but the LIM gaskets were brittle and cracked. Is the concensus here I get the heads checked or reworked? If so anyone know about the cost for this? Also here is a complete head gasket set, http://www.autozone.com/R,APP712231/vehicleId,2581002/initialAction,partProductDetail/store,1899/partType,00528/shopping/partProductDetail.htm. Is this a good idea when puting all of this back together?
My daughter says the odometer is around 120,000 miles and she doesn't know any repair records. I know I would need to take more stuff off but would others think I should do water pump, timimg belt...anything else?
thx, joe

[RazorDX]

The heads aren't going to be your problem, but if you have it off then you need the whole set. Your point of failure is the lower intake manifold gasket, which is included; but seeing as you have everything else off it'd be wise to replace the gaskets as you reassemble it. I wouldn't recommend changing timing or anything else so long as it isn't faulty. The water pump should be fine, but search around a bit more and you'll find a good deal of information.

[gandolf77]

early last year I had my upper & lower intake gaskets replaced because i had coolant in my oil & i thought that was the problem. well, i kept seeing small puddles of coolant in my engine bay. finally, just within the past couple months the coolant got low & my car overheated a bit so i had it checked out & those gaskets were still good, but i had a bad head gasket. i got the heads machined & the head gasket replaced (also had the intake gaskets replaced again) & i still keep checking but i haven't seen any coolant in my engine bay anywhere since. so now i'm happy with that.

[joe64554]

gandolf now I don't know what to do. You say you saw small puddles on the garage floor...did your oil get contaminated w/coolant or just saw puddles on the floor? A visual inspection of the gaskets and staring at the channels on the heads it really shows no sign of breaks in gaskets or coolant that migrated through coolant channels on the heads. I know visual is not the same as a machine shop but it would cost me $200 plus for recond. heads not sure of how much it would be for a machine shop to rework them but as I said it would be 2 80 mile round trip plus rework cost to take to machine shop. If nobody thinks I should do water pump and timing belts then this will only cost me my time and gasket set plus new oil and coolant. But I really don't want to go through all of this and it not working since my mechanic skills are being pushed to the limit just tearing this down to this point. I guess it's just a gamble to not do the heads but it would be nice to save the couple of hundred.

[Warbeaver]

i had a bad head on mine. they got me a refurbished head and had it shaved down. they also replaced the gaskets. the gaskets should fix the prob if they cracked like that. if not, I would check the head for any cracks if you didnt already. that can cause water and overheating.

[gandolf77]

just to clarify, i didnt see coolant on the ground. i saw the small puddles actually on the engine. looking into the engine bay from the front, it was on the right side of the engine, about halfway down, there was a dark blue-green puddle only approx 2-3 inches across...another thing that happened is i had the milky lookin oil cap.

[eric99gt]

Actually gandolf sounds like you had a LIM failure as well. Changing the head gasket probably fixed it because they had to replace that in the process.

[gandolf77]

i did have just the intake gaskets replaced early last year, but shortly after i was still seeing a puddle of coolant in my engine bay...but since i got the head gasket done not too long ago along with the intake gaskets (again) i haven't seen any puddles at all...i'm just sayin it's a good idea to make sure the head gaskets aren't bad as well because the engine would just end up having to be taken apart again & all those gaskets would have to be done again...that's just from my one experience...