If this keeps up I'll be 5 stars before ya know it. So today I left my car runningin the driveway while I ran in the house for 10 minutes. WhenI returned I noticeda brown puddleunder the car near the front passenger wheel. I open the hood and see that the brown fluid is comingfrom the coolant reservior cap. Smellsand feels like oil mixed in the antifreeze. Check the oil and it's down a quart, but no evidence of anti freeze in there yet.I'm thinking head gasket. Any and all input appreciated. Thanks Bob 96 850 turbo 150k

 

My bet is that the oil cooler line inside the radiator broke.

...Lee

 

Well there's something I didn't know, but makes perfect sense. Would I be able to connect the input line to the output line, to bypass the oil cooler. Then flush the radiator, add new anti freeze and see if the problem goes away. If so I would think that anti freeze would leak out of the oil input or output on the radiator once the car warmed up. Or is there an easier way to pressure test the cooler in the radiator.

 

Bypassing should be fine for testing.
Try that and see what happens.

 

I would think if it was a leaky head gasket, the motor would be running rough. One test I heard of that is supposed to work is to start the motor with the cap to the coolant reservoir off. If the head gasket is blown I'm told you will get bubbles from the coolant tank.

 

This is what I would be looking at also.

 

I'm leaning toward the oil cooler line in the radiator. Because the oil was forced into the cooling system, that tells me that it was under greater pressure than the coolant. If it were a head gasket, it's usually the other way around, coolant in the oil. Unless this car has a channel through the block from the oil pump that brings the oil to the top of the head, that passes near a coolant channel around one of the cylinders. Typically a blown head gasket burns through near the cylinder (it's hotest point) and then the anti freeze runs into the cylinder (being under pressure), causing hard starting and poor running, sometimes with visable water out the exhaust. Where as the oil channels aren'tunder pressure since they allow the oil to drain down from the head back to the oil pan.Whichis why I don't think it's a head gasket in this instance. I would think it rare for a head gasket to fail between a coolant channel and oil channel.

 

Agreed!

 

I don't think you needed to ask, you know a hell of a lot more than I do!


JPN

 

Thank you all for the time you spend here to share your expertise. Here's what happened next. I concured with Lee that it was the oil cooler line in the radiator that was the culprit. So I ordered a new radiator and all hoses, be sure to order the clamp kits for the oil and tranny lines that go into the radiator, the old ones are not reusable. I figured while I had the radiator out it would be a good timeto do the PCV repair so I did that too. If you do the PCV repair it's worth at least taking off the fan and cowling from the radiator, the added room is worth the effort, it makes accessing the bolts under the intake manifold much easier to work on. Now it's all back together and running fine again. Thank you all again.

 

Yay!!! And thanks for the helpful guidance.


JPN