So I'm driving today with low coolant, waiting to get home to top it off. The car gets hotter than normal, but nothing too extreme. I stop at a local supermarket for some distilled water. Go to fill it up and the "coolant" is super oily and...BROWN.

Oil cooler seals, right?

This is what I get for bragging how solid my 84 is...

 

My milkshakes keep all the boys runnin'

 

Oil cooler seals, right?


CORRECT!

 

almost certainly the cooler seals. not that hard of a job, but be prepared to dump every fluid in the car on your face :-P

is there coolant in the oil as well? if so, DON'T DRIVE IT ANYMORE until you fix it. AT ALL.

 

if the oil cooler seals dont do the trick, it is head gasket time.

 

I am planning on doing this job on my turbo in the next week or so (waiting on parts now). If my compression numbers are fine, then the head gasket is ok ... right?

 

im not a mechanic, but i had the problem. turns out the prior owner had the head gasket replaced, and the monkey that did the job used a rolac grinder on the head. cut into an oil passage and at high rpms i would get the milkshake. drove great otherwise.

fortunately the damage wasnt deep enough so the head was able to be ground. fortunately shortly after the motor was rebuilt the car was stolen.

 

I just sprung an oil leak from around my oil filter area. Noticed it about 3 days ago. Bad oil cooler gasket could be the culprit. Either that or I can't install oil filters anymore...

 

So this is why you mentioned how watercoolers suck.

Join the club... (milkshake club)

 

oil cooler seals are not as bad as you think. Of course you have to drain oil and coolant, but when's the last time you had a coolant change? When doing the seals be sure to scrape all calcium buildup off the areas where the seals mate to the metal. new seals WILL NOT FIT in there if it's not done. Be careful not to damage the the oil cooler itself when doing this.

 

Drain the coolant? I was thinking I could get by with my current one.

I'm not worried about the job, just sucks that I won't get parts quick enough to do it this weekend.

 

I did have an oil filter spin off on me once...I lost 4.6 qts of oil in about 12 seconds (I was at high RPM when it backed off and the oil filter seal blew out). You can guess how afraid I was when I saw the plume of oil out the back and my oil pressure guage (in a VW, not the 44) went from 5 to 0.5 bar. lol.

 

Ah, the joys of milkshakes...

I'm doing the head gasket on my Starquest for the millionth time. I buy headgaskets 3 at a time. (Hey, at least they are only $11 a piece )

 

I checked my oil one more time... I have this yellow jelly at the top of the filler tube. I think I need to park it.

 

I'm doing the oil cooler thing this weekend also, I have access to a lift though. WooHoo!!!!

Oh, btw I picked up my '84 today, let the fun begin!!!!!

Tom