Coolant in oil question?

[sharp67]

I pulled my intake manifold and saw a little coolant drop into the lifter valley, but when I drained my oil it seemed like there was a lot of coolant in the oil. So I am trying to figure out if I need to be concerned about this or thats pretty normal? Is there a way to check for head gasket issues without pulling the heads? Can a cylinder pressure test tell you if there is a head gasket issue? Thanks in advance for the replies. Jay

[Vegas69]

Did you drain the coolant first?

[TT302Z28]

ok, the best thing to do at this point is to get a hold of the tool that allows you to blow compressed air into the cylinders.

Remove the rocker arms and pressurize the cylinders one at a time. It is likely if you have a head gasket issue that you will get bubbles in your radiator after a few minutes on the affected cylinders.

The other thing is that you can get a exhaust gas tester for the radiator to see if there are hydrocarbons in the water.

The fact that you have coolant in the oil makes me think you have some other issue than head gaskets though. My experience (take this with a grain of salt) has been that water in the oil is not head gasket. Oil in the water is.

If a head gasket goes the water is pushed into the cylinder and combusted.

[sharp67]

I partially drained the coolant. Disconnected radiator hose, some coolant came out. However when I pulled the manifold i did see coolant off the back coolant ports get into the lifter valley. It did not seem like that much but maybee I did not see all of it? The engine currently has the manifold off and radiator removed ( cam and lifter swap) I was hoping there was a way to figure this out without pulling the heads off. I would hate to put it all back together and find out i have a problem.

[Vegas69]

Why did you pull the intake? My guess is you didn't have the coolant level low enough and once you broke the intake seal the coolant went in the pan. Are the valve cover milky?

[sharp67]

Inside valve covers and top of heads looked good. I think you are right that some excess flowed in to the valley when I took the intake off.

[Norwoodx55]

Was the water separated from the oil when you drained it? If water gets into the oil while running, it turns the oil a brown, milky color. If you have regular looking oil with water just floating in with it, I think you just spilled it in when removing the intake.

[sharp67]

When I drained the oil out of the pan, green coolant came out first, then oil followed. so they really were not mixed. does that mean it probably was not a leak? Otherwise they would have been blended together and turn a milky greenish color?

[Vegas69]

That's a good call by Norwood. It's from removing the intake.

[CarlC]

You can also confirm by checking the underside of the oil cap and valve covers. If there's water in the oil while the engine is running there will be a milky slime on them.

[TT302Z28]

Inside valve covers and top of heads looked good. I think you are right that some excess flowed in to the valley when I took the intake off.

Looks like I jumped too far ahead...

[sharp67]

Thanks for the replies guys. saved me a lot of work.

Jay