Hello all, made a rather unfortunate discovery regarding my long time project ‘82 SR5 4wd. In the eleven plus years I’ve owned it, it’s never been put on the road. Been working on it here and there, main thing it needed was body and paint and that’s all done. Long story short, decided to wait on the little things and start enjoying it. Went to change the oil, and discovered an oil pan full of coolant. Not peanut butter milkshake, coolant, then oil. Pulled valve cover and found the milkshake there. In the short time it’s ran since I’ve owned it, there’s been no sign of a blown head gasket. Trusted mechanic who rebuilt the carb, checked compression and smogged the truck way back when I first got it gave me no indication there was a problem. Anyway, I’ve gone from a couple hours worth of work to get it on the road to ?? What course of action would you all recommend? TIA.

 

Since it has been sitting for 11 years, I would pull the oil pan to make sure it is not a rusty mess in there in case the coolant started leaking years ago. The next thing would be find out where the coolant came from. I would assume head gasket, but as you probably know, the 22r engines with plastic guides can break and the chain eats through the cover into the water jacket. '82 should still have steel guides, but it is worth checking in case it is not the original engine or someone put a cheap plastic guide in before you got it. There is also a chance that the timing cover cracked or the gasket sprung a leak internally. With the valve cover and oil pan off, try pressurizing the cooling system with a tester to see if you can see coolant flowing out anywhere internally. It could also be possible for a crack or gasket problem in the intake manifold to leak coolant into one of the cylinders that would slowly trickle around the rings into the oil pan. Coolant can turn acidic after a few years, so it may have been fine 11 years ago but dissolved something over time.

It seems like every time I get a vehicle back on the road that sat for an extended period of time there are always new problems that arise within the first 100 miles or so. It can be frustrating, but getting the engine in good shape now will be worth it when you take it out for the first time.