DarylJ

Let's hope so. All of your symptoms add up to that. The rest of the suggestions you got in this thread are things you do AFTER you eliminate the easy, obvious, and cheap things. And the cooling system pressure tester will lead you to your answer if it is in fact something else wrong.

Don't know why, but many people here likes to yell head gasket as soon as some coolant disappears without leaving a puddle. It's not always the case. In fact, it's often not the case. When mine went, I knew it was a head gasket or cracked head pretty immediately, as I had milkshake. It could have been an oil cooler if the only thing I had to work with was that information, but I had also noticed a bit of coolant missing every time I parked for the previous month or so, and had power problems after a cold start until I got into 2nd gear (turned out it was a cracked head/bad gasket and it was leaking coolant into the #2 cyl at shutdown when the coolant pressure is highest, so that cyl didn't fire properly until it all burnt off). Things finally let go, and I got milkshake. It was all pretty obvious from there.

It doesn't sound like you have any of these things going on. So you probably just need to bleed it.

krazykarl

I sure hope so, I really don't want to spend the cash for an r&r on the engine only 6 months after I bought the thing. Owner of the local porsche/944 shop was at the event and mentioned a rebuild could cost around $5000, but I think he was including a lot of stuff like rod bearings and a valve job.

DarylJ

He had to have been. $300 worth of head work at a machine shop gets you in good shape, plus about 8 hours or so of labor and another $200 in gaskets if all you're doing is a head gasket and the "you should REALLY REALLY do this while your in here" stuff. Should be under half of what he quoted, depending on where you are, and I really don't think that's something you should be worrying about. At this point, you just don't have the symptoms that add up to that.

If this ends up just needing to be bled, you really should be making a phone call back to the shop. I'm sure you'll get some freebies the next time in, and that tech really needs someone to tell him that he's doing it wrong. If they're a good shop, they'll appreciate the call.

krazykarl

Hopefully I'll have it figured out in the next couple weeks. Thanks for all the valuable input Daryl, I appreciate it.

peanut

I must have missed the bit where you told us that you had the system filled and bled recently

Z-man

Yellow froth on the dipstick = coolant is getting into the oil. Can be:

1. Headgasket
2. Oil cooler gasket
3. Cracked head.
4. Other ??

My cracked head yielded the same frothy stuff - on the dipstick as well as on the inside of the oil cap.

Good luck,
-Zoltan.

krazykarl

I admit I did not include that information in my initial post, with so much going on this weekend and so much information to post I forgot that bit

Wouldn't the oil at the end of the dipstick turn cloudy as well though? It's staying clean and the level isn't rising.

DarylJ

With as much coolant as you've lost, you'd be far overfull on your dipstick by now. Of course, the best way to know for sure is to change your oil into a clean pan, walk away for 30 minutes, and then slowly pour it into another clean pan and look for coolant below the oil.

If I were in your situation, I'd still be making sure my cooling system was fully bled before bothering with anything else. Again.....simple and cheap first. Bleeding the cooling system is 15 minutes worth of work. Bleed it, fill it, drive it. For a few days. Then see if all the coolant and oil are staying where they are supposed to be.

JohnKoaWood

+1, but then I have been saying that since post #6... pressure test the coolant, well bleed it first

Z-man

The frothy stuff floats atop of the oil - that's why the bottom of the dispstick looks clean.

Check the inside of your oil cap - does it have the same frothiness? Or something that looks like a lot of condensation?

Drain your oil - see what comes out.

-Zoltan.

krazykarl

There has been some frothiness under the oil cap, but nothing new since I cleaned it out a couple days ago.

Seeing as there's a good chance I'll just have to change the oil again once I determine the problem, should I just fill it with regular oil or stick with mobil 1 15w-50?

DarylJ

There's almost always going to be some froth under the oil cap, unless you drive 30-60 per trip on a regular basis. It's just condensation. I wouldn't freak out about it.

If you're going to change the oil, have both the good stuff and something else around. If you inspect the old oil and it's fine, put in the good stuff. If not, put in some other stuff until you can diagnose further.

peanut

You'll also need to change the filter pointless otherwise.
I would go with all the advice you have had so far and get the coolant system pressurized so you can eliminate a leak or not as the case may be. Its cheaper than changing your oil and filter !

Its a pity you didn't mention the coolant change as that has a very direct bearing on this I suspect the garage didn't bleed the system properly as others have said.

My local indie did just that and I ended up with a head gasket gone which they had to pay for.

krazykarl

After finding this pic from when I looked at the car prior to purchase, it appears it even had low coolant then, this pic was taken last September.

peanut

yes that would suggest that it has been leaking for some time. You could have a small head gasket leak. I nursed my Lux for about 10,000 miles (6 months) with a slightly blown head gasket before the garage left the engine running without the fan on and finished it off.