Well well. It seems my "new" engine may have an issue. In December during our cold snap my coolant mixture must have been bad, because I noticed an antifreeze icicle hanging off my lower radiator hose. Thawed it all out & it's ran fine since, and I even took it on a 1000 mile round trip road trip.

I'm trying to make sure it's ready for this trip my other thread asks about and noticed.........some little black-speck kind of stuff in my coolant overflow. No real discoloration, I don't think, although it does seem a little dark in the reservoir, but mostly just some black specs stuck along the edges. Not a lot, just enough that I noticed it and took a closer look. So since that really scared the hell out of me, I reluctantly took a look under the oil cap...and there's a little hint of white milky residue up there. So that pretty much aught be enough info to tell me I'm mixing coolant & oil somewhere, correct? It's mixing in both places, a little oil in the coolant, and little coolant in the oil. What's the best way to tell where the leak is? A guess a compression test is a good place to start?

A headgasket isn't that expensive, but I'd rather know if I'm dealing with a cracked block or headgasket before I do all that work (headgasket) only to find that I'm still mixing oil & water somewhere.

Any advice?

Doesn't make me happy...I know it could be totally unrelated to the freezing. I really don't think it froze solid, but still...

Is there another place I could be mixing oil & water other than headgasket or cracked block?

 

it was on the underside of the oil cap?

 

>>>*Those little black specs in the coolant suggest exhaust gases getting into the system, so my first guess would be a failed head gasket. A bit of milky looking moisture on the fill cap in wet weather is actually considered normal. Now if the dipstick looks like a thawed out fudgesicle then it's a big leak.

Freeze damage usually means a coolant leak outside the block, they usually break to the outside (not always) when frozen up....*EB

 

Hmm. Ok, thank you very much. No external coolant leaks, so likely no cracked block then. Definitely no overfilled crankcase that's chocolate milk covered. Seen that before...this isn't it, luckily. So is there a chance the freezing could cause a slight headgasket leak? And is a slight leak a "fix it now stupid" issue or a "keep a close eye on it" issue? Exhaust gases pretty much only get in by a faulty headgasket?

Sorry I'm beginning to get my engine figured out but I still don't understand it all!

 

BTW if that's you Ted, thanks for the input, I haven't seen you over in our section since I joined! Anybody from engbldr, though, I appreciate the help. I got a couple good parts, and a ton of good advice from you when I was tearing this engine apart and deciding what it needed.