you've blown a head gasket, theres coolant in the oil, now what!

Grumpy · Feb 2, 2019

yeah, many of us have either been there or know someone who has been!
step one, think things through, and don,t park the car and ignore the problem,
until you can afford the repair work, the time the engine sits does effect the repairs.
the longer the mix of coolant and oil in the engine remains the more potential damage it can potentially do, the longer it sits the more it potentially costs to repair
water or coolant in the engine, bearings and moving parts like the cam, lifters, valve guides rockers etc. will damage parts.
the mix of coolant and oil , resulting from the leaking head gasket,
must be removed as soon as you can manage to do so, and the engine must be repaired,
and the oil filter should be, replaced as the oil & coolant slurry, is drained.
before the engines repaired and as soon as you can, stop driving the car and drain the oil/coolant slurry , and flush the engines lower end,
if you caught the problem immediately, or at least in a day or so, most people will drain the oil pan , change the oil filter , and pull the heads,
then,mix a quart of diesel fuel with 4 quarts of cheap 10 w 30 oil and pour it through the short block engine and prime the engine with an oil pump primer tool of some kind , while you manually turn the engine over a half dozen times, too flush the lower end bearings and lifters and cam in the short block, valve train components , of contaminants.
(this reduces potential rust and bearing damage)
then drain the contaminated flush mix.
it makes sense to use an oil filter inspection tool to open the oil filter to look for evidence of internal damage.
Once the engines been repaired, most people will again mix a quart of diesel fuel with 4 quarts of cheap 10 w 30 oil and pour it through the engine and prime the engine with an oil pump primer tool of some kind too flush the lower end bearings and valve train components , then drain the engine replace the oil filter and fill it with fresh oil, and run it for a few hours, before draining that oil once again, and changing that oil filter, to insure the traces of coolant are totally removed.
this may sound complicated but its damn cheap insurance to prevent future bearing issues.
now if the engine sat with that coolant oil sludge for over a week or more Id darn sure be pulling the oil pan and carefully visually inspecting the bearings, and in almost all cases you'll want to pull the engine for a basic refresh/rebuild with new bearings.

its basically a heavy duty can opener , or an oil filter cutter , is designed to make it easy to internally inspect oil filters, by allowing you to remove the filter element , from inside the surrounding (CAN) for close visual inspection.

coolant mixed with oil has almost no ability to lubricate or prevent rust, a leaking head gasket,a cracked head, or leaking intake gasket, etc. will allow the two fluids to mix, if the problems not quickly corrected, the engine run with the mix being pumped to the bearings is in for major damage too occur

Grumpy · Feb 4, 2019

oil filters can catch a good deal of crap and water or coolant, that might be in the lower engine,
if your flushing out an engine, with the oil and quart of diesel fuel suggested earlier,
using the air ratchet to drive the oil pump primer,
while you manually slowly turn the engine over by hand, to ensure a good bearing flush,
without putting any load on the bearings,
after its been repaired, and flushed and the oil filter changed a few times,
but youll want to start the engine with the cheap oil and allow it to get up to about 200f-- 215f or a bit more ,
then again change the oil filter before you drain the oil and replace the oil filter and oil with good quality components.

obviously this will require you use and replace 4-5 oil filters,during the engine flush,
ordering your oil filters on line can save you a good deal of cash,
my local NAPS charges almost double the cost of the same filters purchased on-line, even if you add in the shipping cost on the on-line oil filters....
obviously your going to order in small batches of 6-12 rather than individually and ID suggest WIX or hastings or ACDELCO

inspecting the oil filters you remove only makes sense.

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you've blown a head gasket, theres coolant in the oil, now what!

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.

Grumpy

The Grumpy Grease Monkey mechanical engineer.