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Weird?

I thought this could be it, but if the oil pump was bad wouldn't I being seeing oil pressure problems across the board and just not at start up. Cruising the oil pressure is just around 50 psi which is pretty normal. It's just on start up that I'm having this issue.
 
Well today I was out cruising and accidently hit 4,000 rpms (breaking in clutch), but anyway at 4,000 the oil pressure dropped from 60 psi down to about 30. I proceeded to do it 1 more time to make sure it wasn't a fluke but sure enough it dropped down to 30 again. I drove it home and kept in in the low rpm's where the oil pressure stayed around 35-45. I drained the oil and found no metal particles but found the weirdest looking oil I've ever seen. This is after 40 miles,
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40 Miles of very easy driving. The oil felt like water. No viscosity at all. There seems to be a slight tint of green in it, which it kills me to say, is the same color as my coolant. Anybody have any ideas???
 
Jim, the level was not much higher. I agree there is no doubt about it, that's coolant. The coolant in the car seems to be unchanged. With that said, yes there is coolant in my oil, and yes this is causing the oiling issues that I'm having. Before I completely throw in the towel, is there any way of testing the system to see where the coolant could be coming from? Is there anything to do besides a complete tear down???
 
Well preliminary ideas from a couple CEG'ers are possibly headgaskets. They were bought brand new from Ford when installed but it's the most likely place to look besides a crack in the block or the heads. I don't know, part it, sell it, or keep it. This is going to be tough...
 
DyComet said:
I don't know, part it, sell it, or keep it. This is going to be tough...
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Don't give up! You have put so much time into your car that it would be a shame to see you part it out. Even if you have to tear the engine apart again. It is a shame to see all the problems that you are going through, but stick with it and keep us posted.
 
DyComet said:
Jim, the level was not much higher. I agree there is no doubt about it, that's coolant. The coolant in the car seems to be unchanged. With that said, yes there is coolant in my oil, and yes this is causing the oiling issues that I'm having. Before I completely throw in the towel, is there any way of testing the system to see where the coolant could be coming from? Is there anything to do besides a complete tear down???
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The primary test is simply a pressure test. You need a cooling system pressure tester that has the ability to replace the coolant cap and pump up the system to see if it can hold pressure.

Is there any chance at all that someone accidentally (or intentionally) poured a little coolant into the oil?
 
No chance at all. The oil looked like this the first time I changed it but I blindly overlooked it. Do normal automotive stores rent these types of testers or will I have to have it towed to a shop?
 
Autozone rents them, once I confirm that there is indeed a leak in the coolant system how do I go about locating its position?
 
Agreed, it would be nice to find the location of the leak though. Autozone rents the testers so I can return them for a full refund. I didn't plan to fix this engine anyway, with the damage already done to the crank I was just goign to scrap it regardless. I wanted to make sure there wasn't a coolant leak in the heads because I'd be reusing these heads since they are already port matched and welded. This would make putting together a new 3L easy and painless. I wouldn't be doing anything for a month or two anyway. I may be putting the car into storage and just driving around my Sable until the summer where I'd drop in the new 3L.
 
DyComet said:
Agreed, it would be nice to find the location of the leak though. Autozone rents the testers so I can return them for a full refund. I didn't plan to fix this engine anyway, with the damage already done to the crank I was just goign to scrap it regardless. I wanted to make sure there wasn't a coolant leak in the heads because I'd be reusing these heads since they are already port matched and welded. This would make putting together a new 3L easy and painless. I wouldn't be doing anything for a month or two anyway. I may be putting the car into storage and just driving around my Sable until the summer where I'd drop in the new 3L.
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When you pull it apart you can get the heads leak tested at a machine shop.
 
Alright, this may seem like a stupid question but I just read the owners manual about 3 times and I'm still confused. Where does the coolant pressure tester hook up to?
 
Well the pressure tester doesn't have the right kind of hookup to attach to the reservior. How much coolant would have to get into my oil to cause it to look like that? The reason I ask is because the coolant level in my reservoir has remain unchanged for the two weeks while I was driving it with this condition.
 
Yeah I would've thought that it would've showed a drop of some kind but there doesn't seem to be any at all. I've never seen coolant in oil so I'm not really sure if that's what it looks like anyway. I just kind of went off the assumption that it was since it was the most logical thing. I'm thinking about doing a little experiment. I'm going to mark off exactly on my coolant reservoir where the coolant level sits while the engine is cold. I'm going to go out and buy some new oil, which will be different than what I've used that past two times, and I'll drive the car. After I start to notice a difference in the oil pressure I'll do an oil change and also check where the coolant level is at. I mean what's the worst thing that could happen? I spin a bearing? The block is getting replaced anyway.
 
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