I have a 1995 850 Turbo with 175K miles on it. I change the oil every 3K miles, but shortly after the dipstick level is difficult to read as the oil has a light brown, creamy consistency. I am not a car person, but is this symptomatic of something??

 

Creamy oil usually means water is getting into the oil system.
Could be head gasket, head, liner, etc.

Does the radiator overflow bottle need topping up often.

There are 'home test kits' you can buy that will test the radiator fluid for combustion gases.
If I was a non technical person, that's where I would start.

 

Totally agree with ShaginWagon, more than likely anti-freeze is mixing in with the oil. Take the vehicle to a local garage or dealership (or you can buy the pressure tester with adapter) and let them (or yourself) pressure test the cooling system. More than likely there's a leak somewhere.

 

Ive seen a few oils where it seems the additive package seems to create a creamy appearance as it is first used a few times, but after a hundred or so miles it settles to normal. I know in my truck penzoil seems to do that, dipstick comes out frothy looking if I check the oil right after changing, and after the first drive. After that it looks normal.

After switching to Castrol GTX it didnt do it. Then switched to Mobil non-synthetic, and it didnt do it.

Went back to Penzzoil and it did it right off.

Truck has 202K on it...your mileage may vary...

If you arent losing coolant, and the coolant looks good, and the oil doesnt look abnormal throughout the oilchanges life...I wouldnt worry too terribly much. But a coolant system pressure test couldnt hurt.

 

Most likely it is a common symptom on the 850. The emulsified appearance on the oil dipstick is due to moisture condensation in the crankcase due to repeated short trips, or whatever is preventing the engine to reach its normal operating temp.

The first thing you need to do is to check the coolant level in the expansion reservoir, as recommended by others. If the coolant level is staying the same, there is nothing wrong with the engine/head gasketand you can take your 850 for a good freeway drive for an hour or so to burn off accumulated moisture. If the head gaskethas gone south badly, the exhaust would havehad white smoke & coolant odor, accompanied by engine power loss.

If you are still concerned, have the cooling system pressure-tested & the engine compression-tested.

I would treat a turbocharged engine with full-synthetic 10W-30 (5W-30 for frigid climate). I would also idle the engine for 1-2 minutes after a long high-speed driving to cool down the turbocharger.

Let us know what you find.


JPN

 

Thanks for all the feedback. My coolant expansion tank does need topping off about every 3-4 months. The fluid in it looks fine though.

 

Then there is nothing to be concerned of. Take your 850 to a half hour 60mph driving once/week or so (ideally once/few days).


JPN

 

+1 to JPN. Our 95 850 Turbo does this same thing religiously every winter. No coolant leaks, it just gets a creamy color to the oil until it is run hard for a few minutes to heat it up good.