OT: Engine advice

Some cars have oil/water heat exchangers and faults there can cause the fluids to mingle. If not then there must be an internal engine fault. Cracked block or headgasket probably.

Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

You find somebody to love in this world you'd better hang on tooth and nail - the wolf is always at the door. (Don Henley - In A New York Minute)

In any case, the first thing is to tear down the engine. It may be that you will have to stop by a local junkyard to find a new block. Being a rather cramped in the engine compartment, and probably so in the bottom end, you may not be able to pull the pan and see if there is any particular place that the water is coming from but that is a possible choice.

-- Bob May Losing weight is easy! If you ever want to lose weight, eat and drink less. Works evevery time it is tried!

Glenn,

Pull the waterpump and check the housing in the back for a pin hole...Most V6 engines have Alu. housings and thats the first place to look for water in the oil problem...

Eddy Wells Conroe, Texas

You beat me to it Neil, but you're absolutely right. They are notorious for leaking coolant into the oil thru the manifold passages.

Chris

Forget pulling the engine unless it is a real high miler. Just pop the intake manifold off and replace the gaskets. Be carefull to follow installation instructions to ensure the new one does no also leak. When you finish reassembling, do a rad pressure test before putting in oil and running the engine. If it is tight, put in some high detergent oil (rislone or Bardahl 1 - or I just use ATF) and run at idle long enough to get it warm, then drain (helps get the glycol out of the bearings and rings) then put in oil with Lucas oil stabilizer and run about 500 miles, and change again.

Ah hell, with all the metal in my legs, it feels good to win a race every once in a while. ;-)

There's access to the oil in the intake manifold???? Coolant I can see, but oil?

John

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Well John, I probably worded that wrong, but basically I meant to say if the gasket leaks where the coolant flows from the intake to the head, the coolant will get into the lifter valley.

Chris

The coolant does not seem to start flowing into the oil pan until the radiator is almost full. About the level of the bottom of the valve cover. Would that tend to confirm your diagnosis?

Checking further, this looks like a known design defect that has been going on for at least 8 model years!

Good golly, it's been so long since I've worked on a V-8 I forgot the intake was set up like that. For some reason I thought we were talking about a four cylinder.

John

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Sure, the intake manifold forms the top of the lifter gallery in most V engines. If the sealing of the manifold heat passage is poor, water can flow down into the lifter gallery.

I recently had the reverse problem. My new to me Dodge truck was using a quart of oil every 120 miles. Turned out to be a bad intake gasket which was letting oil be drawn up out of the lifter gallery into the intake air stream. I was thinking rings, valve guides, etc, but it turned out a simple gasket replacement was all that was needed.

Gary

Aren't you? Just two strapped together on the same shaft... ;)

TIm

-- In the immortal words of Ned Flanders: "No foot longs!" Website @

Actually, no. A 3.1 is 2 3 cyls sharing the same crank, as it is a V6, not a V8.

Ha, either I've got to stop reading so fast or read all the posts in the thread. First I thought it was a four banger, then V-8, now I finally find out it's a V-6.

John

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