Hi. I recently purchased (for very little money) a 1993 240 Wagon. It has the auto transmission.

It runs very smooth and idles great, but there is oil in the coolant overflow tank. The engine oil looks totally fine. The transmission fluid is mysteriously low. I'm assuming that the radiator is bad and the transmission fluid is mixing in with the coolant. My questions are:

1. After I replace the radiator, how do I make sure the oil is out of the block? Should I just flush it really well? And how important is it to get it all out?

2. It was run very little once the oil in the coolant was noticed. Would having oil in the coolant damage anything internally?

3. Is there any chance that coolant somehow got into the tranny? The transmission level is low, so I assume the transmission is under higher pressure and coolant would not flow into the tranny. Any risk there?

4. Should I replace the head gasket just to be safe or should I wait until after I rule out the radiator? I need to do the timing belt anyway since I'm not sure when it was done last....

Any other suggestions? This is my first Volvo and I'm hoping to keep her a while.

Thanks.

 

my experience with oil in coolant (radiator cap had sludge on it, and oil was floating on top of coolant if u stick finger in), was bad head gasket, allowed oil which is at higher pressure than coolant to leak past bad part of gasket to coolant which was lower pressure.

Coolant didnt go other way into engine oil due to pressure differentials

 

I would disconnect the transmission lines from the radiator. Use a piece of rubber hose and connect it to the 2 transmission lines and clamp them to bypass the radiator. Drain the radiator and drain/change the engine oil and change the filter. Do a compression test on the motor. If all cylinders look good then fill the radiator with water and start it up. Usually a leaking head gasket will produce bubbles/exhaust gases in the cooling system. There is a tool to test for exhaust in the cooling system. You did not say if you have coolant in the oil so I would suspect the transmission lines in the radiator are leaking. If you have water in the engine oil you will see that when you drain it out. It will look like chocolate milk. Good luck