water in oil

[Blackened302]

so after new head & intake gaskets, and ARP bolts torqued to 75lbs, there is water in my oil--after only 30 minutes of driving.

it is a white, foamy substance that's showing in the dipstick and valve cover filler.

car has been in the shop for 2 weeks and it seems that now it has to go back.

the old head gaskets were blown/leaking and the car was overheating--supposedly due to us re-using the original head bolts during the engine swap.

radiator has been flushed, along w/ the rest of teh cooling system. fans are coming on (new ccrm), 2 new thermostats, etc.

what are we doing wrong?

 

[Blackened302]

ok, all the "oil" is definately very milky... i was hoping they would seperate overnight, but not--i've got milk for oil, now.

 

[urban96]

maybe the heads or block are slightly warped. i would get them resurfaced and checked for cracks

 

[tjh566]

yeah, something could the cracked, and check for flatness of both surfaces, as noted above

 

[Bosko5.0]

It could also be intake gasket is leaking alot.

 

[urban96]

It could also be intake gasket is leaking alot.

thats possible too but with the overheating and stuff...

 

[reddy351]

Dumb question: Did you drain the old oil after the new HG's were put on? Reason: The old oil prolly had water in it. I even ran a couple of gallons of kerosene through the lifter valley (with the oil drain plugs out) to rinse as much of the gunk as I could out of the pan.

 

[bimmertech]

Dumb question: Did you drain the old oil after the new HG's were put on? Reason: The old oil prolly had water in it. I even ran a couple of gallons of kerosene through the lifter valley (with the oil drain plugs out) to rinse as much of the gunk as I could out of the pan.

easy way to tell is if the oil level is way overfull.

 

[Blackened302]

heads were decked and the block was also checked w/ a straight-edge--checked out great. the oil was also drained.



just put on new intake gaskets (and siliconed the sh1t out of it) beause the old one was leaking right near the thermostat (which was also probably sticking) and cleaned up as much as we could. there is still a bit of water, but i'm hoping an oil breather (so the steam can evaporate out) and a couple oil changes will take care of the rest that's in there.

 

[mo_dingo]

Pressure test the coolant system to 15psi and see if there is a leak. Then good luck locating it.

lower intake manifold is more likely the source rather than the heads IMO. Also, your timing cover could be the culprit. Mine was so pitted it actually had holes in it. When I pressurized the system, I could see water spraying in the distributor hole.

If it is leaking, another good way to test it is to drain the oil in both sumps, and see where the water pours out. Front sump is likely the timing cover, rear is intake/heads/block.
Scott
Scott

 

[Blackened302]

thanks, Scott. got any more info on pressure testing the coolant system?

 

[Blackened302]

welp, just changed the oil and happy to report there was very little water in it, and it was no longer a frosty, white substance anymore. i understand it will take a few more oil changes for it to clear itself out, but i can only hope this is the end of this problem.


on another note: should the upper radiator hose be firm (ie, pressurized slightly)? it doesn't seem like there is too much pressure building up, but i do'nt know how firm is normal.

 

[Blackened302]

ttt

 

[cbarr300]

yup, sure should

mine is normally pretty firm.

On the coolant system pressure test: You can get a kit and it should let you know how to do it. Basically you're just pumping air through a custom radiator cap and it measures the pressure (you wanna go to your cap's rating...which is 16 iirc). Then you wanna see if the pressure drops off any substantial amount. If it does...then you have a leak, you'll also prolly hear/see it.

good luck

 

[Blackened302]

thanks, man--i'll pressure test it asap.

 

[cbarr300]

no prob, let us know what you come up with

 

[Blackened302]

forgot to mention that i am not running a thermostat.

i know it's ideal to put one in, but i've had such bad luck w/ the car lately, i don't want to change anything now that's it driveable.

any cons to not running a thermostat? the coolant temp only gets to the "N" before the low-speed fan comes on and cools it back down to just under the N (via the tweecer).

 

[cbarr300]

Can you run it? sure

would I? Nope

I would think that the main con would be the engine not getting up to temp very quick...which would result in poor fuel economy.

I don't know how true this statement is...but...I've heard some people say that since the coolant is constantly running through your radiator..it won't have time to actually dissipate the heat and you could start to run hot (from what you're saying this isn't a problem though)

It's a really cheap part and I don't think it'd do much damage if you installed a 180 degree thermostat. I've always drilled a small hole in mine just in case it happens to close up.

also, see what you can do to get an aftermarket water temp gauge.

hope I helped some

 

[Blackened302]

perhaps i've had bad luck w/ the thermostats (160*) because i've been using cheap ones from Advance.

can anyone recommend a good 160-180* thermostat that won't give out as quickly as the Advance ones? a Mr. Gasket, perhaps?

an aftermarket temp gauage is definately on the list!

 

[fordtech28]

I use the Mr GASKET 180 temp thermostat for 3 years with no issues its better than what they sell at the autoparts store