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oil in coolant

B

BrApple

No Life But CEG
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Dec 23, 2001
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Gales Ferry, CT
ok, swapping out the SE radiator in my contour today for a SVT one as well as changing the water pump and I found oil in my coolant. I have no evidence of coolant being burned in the engine. The waterpump was leaking from one of the weap hole so my coolant level has dropped alittle in the last month or so. It was slightly above the full mark and now its at the full mark. I see the ecidence of the leak on the front roll restrictor.

So it is my belief that the SVT oil cooler that I installed has failed and is letting oil into the coolant. I am going to hopefully either remove or replace the cooler today.

any thoughts?
 
The SVT oil cooler is oil-water, I'd swap/remove it and change oil and antifreeze and hope they stay apart:) Hope that is the problem.
 
well I think the oil cooler is the problem ....

I just changed the oil and antifreeze thats how I discovered that there was a problem :rolleyes:

so I couldn't find the threaded insert I took out for the oil filter when I installed the cooler so I ended up just bypassing the antifreeze lines on the cooler so no coolant would flow to the cooler. On the way back to my apartment I started to loose alittle oil pressure. I have it tapped on the head right now, I know I will be moving it soon, and at first I got my normal 36 psi reading after the car was warmed up. After the hour drive I was down to about 26 psi. No signs of oil dripping from the cooler and the antifreeze level didn't change. Car had the same power as always.

So I think it is safe to say the cooler is shot?
 
My opinion

My opinion

I'd run without cooler a while, and check for oil in antifreeze again. And antifreeze in oil (milky or smell).
 
You could try draining the cooler, then plugging one hole and applying vacuum to the other. It shouldn't lose pressure as long as your connections are good for testing. If you sucked oil out of the coolant lines that would prove your theory that its coming through the cooler...
 
well based on my oil pressure dropping on the drive home I will be pulling the cooler and will check if I get any oil out of the coolant ports ...
 
Oil pressure will drop when oil is hot, which is probably why the carmakers only give an idiot light for oil. The oil thins out.
 
FavoriteMystaque said:
Oil pressure will drop when oil is hot, which is probably why the carmakers only give an idiot light for oil. The oil thins out.
Click to expand...


yup I understand that, thats why I mentioned the normal pressure that i see as that is the pressure that is just about always constant after the car warms up ...
 
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