Oil in Coolant

Lu47Dan wrote:Before freaking out too much, are you sure it is oil?
If you mix regular green antifreeze with the new orange antifreeze it will turn colors and form a scum that looks like engine oil. .

No I haven't mixed any anti freezes.

Come on Mayor, throw a jug of K-Seal in the old girl & run her for a while. Tell the purchaser you did it if needed. Hell, it's old & stuff happens. That's why they make the stuff!

Come on Mayor, throw a jug of K-Seal in the old girl & run her for a while. Tell the purchaser you did it if needed. Hell, it's old & stuff happens. That's why they make the stuff!

FF, I knew I knew you from somewhere else. Didn't I buy a used car from you once.

Uhhhhhh--NOPE, musta been my twin bro.--ya gotta watch him

Richard S. wrote:It's got oil in the coolant only which I just noticed. It lost some coolant but not much, radiator is still full but nothing in the reserve. No coolant in the oil, that looks good and smells like oil. No coolant in the trans fluid, that looks a little darker red than it should be but I never had it changed. No loss of power, no white smoke from the tail pipe so I don't think it's the head gasket.

My research says this is probably an issue with the upper and lower intake gaskets, am I on the right track here? Appears it's not that big of a job and should be fairly cheap to do myself.

An oil analysis would be the only way to know for sure if there is coolant in the oil(s). When you can see the coolant in the oil you have a lot of contamination and big problems.

I had to have intake gaskets done on a V6 GM and a V8 GM engine in the past. The gasket replacement is not a hard job but the removal of all the *censored* to get to the gasket replacement part of it is a pain in the ass so I supported my local mechanic for these jobs, his kids need to eat too. If what you read on the internet is true, once the gaskets are replaced the problem is usually fixed for good. They claim that the replacement gaskets are far superior to what was used from new which begs the question; why didn’t they do it right from the beginning?

I'm actually losing a little oil so I'm guessing there isn't anything going into the engine. Perhaps 1/4 of a quart over 3000 miles it looks like. The oil looks like oil and the last oil change it looked normal. In any event car should be sold Wed. and they are aware of the problem so it won't be my problem anymore.

LDPosse wrote:Most likely intake gaskets, the ones used during that time period on numerous GM engines are notorious for leaking...... Getting ready to do them on my '97 K1500 pickup. Shouldn't be bad if you can do your own wrenching.

Did them on my son's 97 K1500 too. While I had it apart, we upgraded to the newer version fuel injection system with the injectors right at the intakes instead of at the central body. Later ended up putting new heads on and doing it all over again!

gaw wrote: They claim that the replacement gaskets are far superior to what was used from new which begs the question; why didn’t they do it right from the beginning?

Easy 1 word answer > Chevrolet.............