skukunin

Hello. It's more a theoretical question, because I'm almost decided to take off the heads, but anyway.

I bought C4 with problems with cooling system. There wasn't coolant, so I added water. I was able to drive maybe 50 miles no problems, it didn't overheat, the temperature was about 210F without raising.

Then I decided to change oil, and dirty oil with coolant (thick and white blames), obviously with traces of coolant there. I flushed it, and replaced. My car is not running currently for other reasons, but I started engine and made it work for about 20 minutes. The oil is clean without any problems.

Also, I checked the radiator and there are no gases (with a glove), so I guess the head gasket is intact. Coolant is clean as well, no oil there.

I'm pretty new to SBCs, I checked for oil cooler but there is no such. Are there any other places where coolant can go into oil?

I understand that I need to drive and observe, but decided to ask in advance.

Thank you

Kilobuck84

It helps if you tell us what year the car is.

There's a coolant crossover in the front of the intake manifold where the thermostat housing is, and coolant ports in the heads at the back that are all sealed by the intake gaskets. That's a possibility.

You may want to look into a cooling system pressure tester. It can help diagnose leaks without having to deal with hot coolant or a running engine.

skukunin

oops, sorry. it's 1984 CFI. Yeah, I need to get a pressure tester, but so far I used just a latex glove over the filling cap. If it inflates - prepare $ for new head gaskets. But not in this case. No matter what revs were there, the glove didn't inflate. Actually, got a little deflected (vacuumed) on high revs, probably because the pump worked faster.

Good to know about the crossover in the intake. So, if the gasket is leaking, could it make coolant mix with oil?

Thank you

ex-x-fire

Are you sure its not extreme condensation?

2011KLR

Since you asked..."checked for oil cooler but there is no such. Are there any other places where coolant can go into oil?"

In a totally different engine, an overheat situation put a slight crack along one of the valve rocker bosses. Coolant was spitting through there. This was after a HailMary JB Weld fix-fail.

I hope yours is a gasket fix only.

skukunin

hm, can it be? I towed my Vette 1k miles on a one-axle dolly (reversed ofc) during very rainy day. A lot of puddles, rains, humidity etc. It had moisture everywhere, and the car didn't start for a couple of days before got dried. Do you think it could cause condensate mix into oil? Honestly I thought I killed distributor, but then it started working.

nice to know, thank you. I'll be replacing intake soon, so I'll check heads too

Red86Cfour

When you say cooler, I assume you mean a heat exchanger oil tube in the radiator? If you determine its a leaky head gasket, or even a cracked head, you may try the head gasket in a bottle concoctions out there. I have a 2002 5.3L Tahoe with almost 250K on it and best I can determine the passenger side head gasket has partially failed, or the head has cracked which is a common failure. As this seemed a what do I have to lose moment, I plunked down the 50 samolians for the appropriate sized bottle of prestone head gasket fix, followed the instructions precisely, and low and behold the coolant consumption stopped. In the four years since I threw the hail mary, I've had to add maybe a quart of coolant. So that stuff does work!