Water In Oil

[dbestz]

Hi

 

i have a 2.8 v6 Ghia-x- (P reg) galaxy

 

have noticed water in oil and a biege color on the oil filler cap!

 

does NOT over heat even when standing or driving!

 

does lose some water though

no major build up of pressure in water header tank and the water circulation back to header tank seems to be fine etc.

 

 

is this headgasket? or is their any other way water can get into the oil

 

e.g oil cooling system etc

 

many thanks

 

steve

Edited October 7, 2008 by dbestz

[insider]

There is an oil cooler on these engines so it's possible that coolant could leak into the oil via this route.

Another possibility if you're only doing short trips is that the engine is not getting up to temperature and condensation is causing the beige deposits on the oil filler cap. The loss of water could then be due to a separate leak elsewhere.

I'm trying to offer less expensive options but it doesn't sound too good, unfortunately it could be the head gasket.

[jkspoff]

Have a head gasket 'sniffer' test, from the exhaust, most garages will do this for free, even call out the AA and they can do a road side test, this will show if its the head gasket or not thats failed.

[flashgordon400]

The sniffer test, as somebody has mentioned, is not done from the exhaust.

It is a blue fluid that is held in a container that is placed into the neck of the header tank (the place you put water in your engine). The engine is run and the expaning air passes through the blue fluid. Turns yellow if compustion gasses are present.

This test will determine if the coolant system contains any compustion gasses from the engine.

It is remotely possible that the water system has breached the head gasket and is passing water into the oil return from head to block. The rover K-series is very common for this fault. I don't think this is common to the vr6 engine.

It may be worth getting a pressure test done on the coolant system. A pump is used to replace the rad cap and the sytem is pumped up to usually twice it's normal pressure. This may help to indicate a system leak if the blue fluid test doesn't show a problem.

The oil coolers do fail and are very easy to test wounce off the car.

I tested a cooler last week after it was fitted to a fully reconditioned engine in a citroen 1.9td van. Being a white van, the white van man that drove it kept going untill it melted the pistons into the bores of the block after it emptied the sump into the coolant system causing it to overheat. The moraul of this is, check your oil and water regularly.

Oil is not a good coolant in cars. Water doesn't lubricate car engine very well.

The white residue in the filler cap could be due to short runs and cold mornings. If the area down the hole the oil filler cap comes from is full of what looks like a peach fromage frais I would consider that a problem. Don't eat it.

[dbestz]

thanks guys the car did also judder on take off which lead me to believe headgasket problems also but this has turned out to be HT leads break down and the car seem to be ok apart from this god forbid im sure its the condensation build up as some of you have mentioned i took the car for a spin down the motor way then check oil and no "french yougart" (scum) on the filelr cap lol

 

 

must just be a water leak some were now the search begines :o