Coolant in oil possibilities

mbruneaux said:

Other than head gaskets, bad block or intake gasket, is there any other gasket failure in the engine that could allow coolant into the oil?:dunno:

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I'm not sure the intake manifold gasket will allow water into the sump. I guess if the valley gasket fails or the manifold is very loose, water could get into the vee.

A cylinder leakage test will tell you if you have head gasket failure, and where it is. Leakage testers are fairly cheap at Horrible Freight and I find this an essential tool for troubleshooting engine problems; moreso than a compression tester.

A cooling system pressure test will tell you if you have a leak somewhere in the system, but will not pinpoint it's location.

All that said, if you have chocolate mousse in the sump, that is not a good sign and it probably does indicate a head gasket leak.

If the timing cover gasket blows between the coolant passages from the pump to the block then you can easily dump a lot of water into the oil pan directly. When mine blew it dumped about half a gallon into the oil pan in about 3 minutes
The valley gasket can do the same -particularly from the rear. The back bolts have a great ability to back themselves out.
Cheers
Barri

Do a coolant pressure test to verify a coolant leak and in the mean time, quit driving it before you do expensive bearing damage.

I don't have coolant in the oil but I'm nervous that I saw a little condensation on the filler cap. Could be a little moisture left pre-repair but I'm expecting the worst. I'm not driving it much. I'm also watching the coolant level.

Don't worry about condinsation in the oil fill cap, that is normal if you do lots of short trips and the engine can't get hot enough to burn it off.

I ordered a leak down tester just to be sure and to lower my level of paranoia..... At least if I have to put another engine I have one and I've already done it once so it won't be new.