Here ya go guys. Any of you done this? I just built and installed a new motor in my 91 coupe and in the process of getting the ECM happy with the new motor. Checked the fluids after the first start everything looked OK. Looked again after the 4th start and both the high fill reservoir and the crank case have milk shake. Before anyone leaps of into the head gasket pool... it's not the head gasket! My first thought was the oil cooler so I pulled it off, plugged one port put a long hose on the other and tossed it in a bucket of water. I then applied 19 PSI to the long hose... the cooler started bubbling like Alka-Selzer. The cooler has to go. Last test I have done is to tie the hoses together that went to the cooler on the car, refilled and pressurized the cooling system to 16 PSI. It dropped 1 Lb in 9 hours, I'm kinda thinking that is pretty good and this isn't a head gasket, head or block problem. What I'd like some ideas on now is cleaning the cooling system and lubed parts of the motor. I have drained and refilled the cooling system 3 times and I don't have any of the milk shake floating in the high fill reservoir now. Probably take the hoses off the radiator and flush it too just to be sure there is nothing in there. I'd like to get as much of this stuff as possible out before starting again. If you have done this successfully please share what you did, especially the internal parts of the engine without tearing the whole thing apart. I have the valve covers off and I have a tool to spin the oil pump without starting the motor. The motor did seem to be running OK when I shut it down. Feel like a jackass for using the old oil cooler on this new motor!

 

Do you have both oil in the cooling and coolant in the oil?

 

Yes but I'm not asking for troubleshooting help my car has the oil cooler option and the cooler was leaking internally, all I want are suggestions for getting as much of the milkshake as possible out before starting again. When I replace this cooler it will not be one that has the oil and coolant flowing in a common enclosure.

 

Cooling system oil and rubber isn't good. Take cooling system apart including water pump flush or clean with dawn dish or similar degreaser soap. I never tried to use it while running engine.
Oil system multiple oil changes. Drain oil overnight. Replace filter 3 quarts of thrifty oil 2 quarts of rislone. Use priming tool to run oil pump for 10 minutes. Change oil and filter.

 

I would get some cheap thin oil from wal-mart and run the pump post haste. Thin because it will be cold and you just want to force it through the system and flush out things - especially bearings. Coolant on the crank bearings is a very very bad thing. Do that a couple of times then run and drain. The mix of oil and coolant may also react and clog the filter so get a couple of supertechs while you are manually circulating oil.

What other choice do you have short of disassembly.

 

Really not much Ed. It took me a year to do all this crap and I really don't want to do it all over again. A word of wisdom to others based on my experience, don't put anything old on a nice new motor. The first time I started the engine ran like crap... used the injectors off my old engine... 3 were not functioning. Used this oil cooler off the old engine... and this disaster happens. It wouldn't have cost that much more to replace them with everything else.

 

Kevova your comments are timely. I have seen what certain fluids do to rubber and its usually not good. I'll be doing a good bit of cleaning. Thanks

 

wow i feel for u.

pls keep us posted on how you sort it out.

fill and drain with hot oil?

grab a 5 gallon pail and a wall plug style heating element and put it in the pail.

then u could run engine for a minute and drain again. repeat.

 

Drain the oil and water as you have already done and refill it an move on. Oil in the coolant won't hurt a thing. Water in the oil is not good but after you drained and flushed it it will be fine. Waterver damage, if any, is already done so trying it now will not cause any more issues.

 

Thanks guys I appreciate the comments. I did the Walmart oil and filter thing. I have the valve covers off so I poured the oil over the rockers and let it drain through the drains in the heads down into the liter valley then into the pan.After that I used my drill to run the oil pump til oil was coming out of the rockers. On the first pass when I drained the pan it still looked like milkshake but not quite as bad as the original drain. I just finished the second pass and it looks great. There is oil coming out of the drain and the filter looks great as well. I still have a container of oil and another filter so may do it again just for good measure. On the cooling system side I can still see a bit of gunk floating in the high fill tank so I guess I'll keep flushing until I get rid off all of that. Haven't driven this yet or put any heavy load on the bearings, all the running has in neutral in idle conditions so hopefully whatever damage there may be is minimal.
Oh, I have a story to tell, went to Walmart today to get the third jug of oil and a filter. I got them and came home. When I took the jug in the garage I noticed it was leaking from the cap. Hmmm, that's interesting. Well, I took the cap off and there was no seal on the top as there had been on the previous two jugs. Additionally, the oil was BLACK! Someone apparently had gotten themselves a free oil change! Fortunately The Walmart I go to is only about a half mile from my home and only about 15 minutes had elapsed between buying it and returning for an exchange. They didn't give me any grief but it might have been interesting if I'd waited til tomorrow to return it. The customer service rep said " I guess we'll have to start taking the lids off when these are returned from now on." I relate this just to say, when you buy oil anyplace check that cap!

 

Another test I did just to satisfy myself was to put a vacuum rather than pressure on the coolant side of the oil cooler and drop it in the previously mentioned bucket of water. That sort of simulates the situation in the car when the motor is running and there is oil pressure in the cooler. I came back a bit later and my Mity-Vac had water dripping out of it. Yep, for sure that oil cooler is toast! Be careful using one on a new engine!

 

thnx for reporting back

 

I was having trouble getting all the crap out of the oil pan from this ruptured oil cooler. If you look carefully, the C4 oil pan slopes lower than the bottom of the drain hole as it goes forward, if you have water in there that is where it wants to stay. The way I finally got around this was simply to lower the back of my Kwik-Lift, that was enough to get the low point of the oil pan above the bottom of the drain hole. If one is not in the fortunate position of having a Kwik-Lift the same effect can be had by simply jacking up the front of the car. That makes it easy to get all the gunk out of the oil pan. Probably not a big deal with a normal oil change but with water and milk shake ya probably want to get rid of all you can.

 

A coolant intrusion in a transmission causes the opposite problem - Fluid in the cooling system that is difficult to remove.

It does float on water most of the time, and you can "float" most of it out of the highest point in the cooling system.

So, can you do the opposite? Like completely (as in completely) fill the engine with cheap oil and have the water end up in the bottom?

Would that work, or cause more problems than just flushing it all out with clean oil?

 

The nut in the bottom of the pan allows for maybe a cup of oil in bottom after oil is drained. There is a "gizmo" used on marine applications to suck oil from pan through dipstick tube.

 

I think you have the right idea on how you are going about this. Cheap oil and filters is a great way to flush out the engine. I would do the same. Way cheaper than a teardown. I bet it will be fine with all you have done. Dan

 

Hey confab, with this cooler failure I had both. The cooling system and the oil pan both had the emulsion in them. I guess the higher pressure oil went into the cooling system when the engine was running then when the engine was shut down the pressurized cooling system blew some of it back into the lubrication system. Not going to use that kind of cooler when I replace it.

 

I am glad to see you have it sorted out! I would still do one oil change after getting it in running condition and letting the engine run a bit. Just to be sure it's all out.