Oil in the antifreeze on the '80

[theiggy]

I checked my antifreeze tonight and it is full of oil. Can anyone assist me and tell me what this is an indication of? If it was a head gasket it would be reversed would it not? Is there an oil cooler? How big of job is this to fix?

Thanks in Advance.

[cbach1981]

it is not always the other way around. could be the head gasket, but could be something else as well. had that issue in my car and it was the head itself that was cracked. hope that's not your case, tho.

[thrasherg]

I don't know what you mean about "it would be reversed", usually the oil is pumped around the engine at pressures of 60PSI or more, the cooling system is at atmospheric pressure (A bit higher as the cooling system is a closed pressurised system) which is significantly lower than 60PSI (probably less than 10PSI), so it is normal if a head gasket fails for the oil to go into the cooling system (from the high pressure to the low pressure). Sometimes the head gasket fails enough that a pressure test will indicate which head gasket has failed, but this is not always the case. As mentioned it could also be a crack in the engine somewhere, those are much harder to find and very expensive to fix!! (usually requires a complete engine dismantle!). I would start by trying to run a cylinder pressure test on all 4 cylinders to see if one is lower than the others as that could give an indication of where to start looking.

Gary

[radioman]

check your water pump. I think it is possible for oil to get into the coolant through a failing water pump. Radioman