Alex Sol

I'm about to drain the coolant and oil out of the 1985.5 944 and replace the seal. Have the dreaded milk shake oil/water mix and have a question.

What is the best way to clean the oil out of the water lines and the water out of the oil lines?

Can i connect my garden hose to one side of the coolant hose? Will i get an oily bath or will it likely cycle through? Are there check valve type of stops that would prevent the flow or only allow flow one way?

I plan to blast the oil lines with diesel fuel by way of a drill actuated pump that will clean up the lines some what.

Replace the seals as per clark's garage and many other threads then run the car for short time, take a short drive, change oil and change water/coolant mix. Then refill and run for say, 100 kms, then drain coolant/oil and refill.

I hope that will clean up the lines and get another 100,000 kms... haha

snb13

Take the coolant plug out of the right side of the engine. Dawn dish soap and a garden hose work great. Just make sure to do a final flush with distilled water.
It's doubtful you have water/coolant in the oil. You should be fine.

Alex Sol

@snb13 i'll be sure to remove that coolant plug that drains the block. i was thinking sunlight just happens to be in my garage. and a good steady blast of garden hose until the water comes out clear. how would you propose to flush with distilled water? i do have a softener... perhaps a fill with 1/4 coolant and 3/4 distilled water mix, run for the first 1/2 hr or so... then drain without the engine under load. then refill both oil and water and go for drive?

i think i would have water/coolant in the oil because of the 'milk shake' oil. i think i will just do two quick oil changes and hope that clear out most of the water/coolant. one 1/2 hour like the coolant run without load on the engine, one after about 100km of driving

snb13

If you raise the left side, water will run out the block drain better. Since the tap water will leave impurities, try to get it out. Pour a couple gallons of distilled through.
Typically when the seals fail oil gets into the coolant, but not vice versa. The milk shake is noticed in the coolant tank. If you do have coolant in your oil, you need to consider replacing your rod bearings.

V2Rocket

Just drain and change the oil like normal.

For the water side, some folks put a little bit of laundry detergent powder in with straight water and run it for a few days, drain it and fill with straight water to flush it, then drain and fill with real coolant.

Alex Sol

okay, great tips. the oil is completely gone to milk shake. engine fried? in either case, I'll swap out the seals and if all goes poorly, i have a spare lump to swap in... then pull this milk shake one out and consider to rebuild. then have a spare for the other 944... yup. that's three almost complete 944 with 2 running, one with milk shake, one ready for rebuild and lots of spares. this is some kind of sickness. funny thing is none of them are mine. i sold my 85.5 and 87 951. focused all my attention on my 964 and now running almost perfect so i have some time to wrench on my buddy's 944(s)...

Alex Sol

found getting the power steering pump off a pain and very difficult to remove the heat shield held on by two 10mm hex bolts? ran out of time and light and got cold so going back at er tomorrow.

plus the parts are arriving on Wed so there's time to remove, clean and prepare for the re install.

any tips on how many bolts holding the oil cooler to the block? looks like 4 from clark's garage. plus a hole for the oprv. i can only see one of the four from underneath....

V2Rocket

4 bolts holding cooler to block.

milkshake has potential for bearing damage if it was run for a while.
if it "just happened" and you catch it fairly quickly you should be OK.

Alex Sol

we are looking at potential rebuild of spare motor and drop if this 'fix' does not help. how will we know if the rod bearings and other weak points are ready to grenade? hold in side of block may be the clue??

plan A - swap in spare motor rebuild this one and keep for spare

plan B - drive for a few km, check for head gasket leak, rebuild and reinstall

plan C - LS1 !!

Alex Sol

incredibly helpful video - hope your german is up to snuff

https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...-question.html

Scott at Team Harco

Some guy did a write-up on this a few years ago. Might be helpful...

http://reutterwerk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10723

Alex Sol

@scott, thanks for the info...

okay, i just read the reutterwerk.com and it appear i have the milk shake in the motor not coolant bottle. yikes. is that automatic engine rebuild time? head gasket job??

V2Rocket

milkshake doesn't automatically mean rebuild.
really depends how long the car was run/has been running with a milkshake mixture in the oil system.
and really, the main thing to be concerned with at that point is crank/rod bearings.

i've done a number of these jobs for folks, and plenty of HG's...fix the problem, fresh oil and coolant, and go...

Scott at Team Harco

What Spencer said. If the intermix was discovered quickly and little damage was done, just finish the cooler seal job and flush everything multiple times.

On the other hand, the engine bearings will be the first things to be damaged by coolant in the oil. Hope for the former...

Alex Sol

whew! thanks for the vote of confidence.. happy thoughts! I'll be finishing the job and have 3 filters to swap out along with the fluids. i don't see any milkshake in the cooling system but the engine is quite loaded... i took out over 9 litres of oil... the seals on the oil cooler are all dry and crusty.. likely original. who do we have the thank for this odd design? Audi?

parts arrive later this week and hope to get under the car when the weather warms up again. got lucky this week with some mild weather for wrenching at home in Toronto.. @scott can attest to our 'great' weather.