ZW 944

my 86 turbo is getting water in the oil. a good bit of it. there has been a very tiny amount of oil getting into the water, but just enough to turn the coolant a slightly grungy color. no "milkshake" by any means. I had been tracing an external coolant leak for some time, which I was able to stop by replacing the aux water pump and putting on all new silicone coolant lines (which were much needed) but now it is still loosing coolant, and nothing is dripping outside of the car. I opened up the oil filler cap and theres boogers everywhere - its even noticable on the dipstick where the oil looks not quite right. In addition to all this, the aux waterpump sensor doesn't work, which I just found out after replacing the leaky aux waterpump. (which also failed a bench test)

I know about the oil cooler seals - which I plan on replacing either way, but is it possible that the head gasket needs replaced? It was replaced in 99 by the PO along with a valve job, and there is ZERO smoke coming out of the tailpipe. I plan on doing a compression test later this week.

Questions I still have:

1) can a head gasket let coolant in the oil without showing signs of bad compression?

2) can oil/water mix somehow in the turbocharger? I've been also trying to figure out a boosting problem - the car boosts to 1.2 bar (probably KLR restriction) could the boost issue be because of a bad head gasket? there could be other problems, but the intercooler hoses are all tight.

3) is there any way to test definitivly whether it is the head gasket or the oil cooler seals? I realize that generally oil cooler seals mean oil in the coolant not vice versa, but if it was left for long enough...could it go backwards?

Thanks for all your help in advance

rlm328

Do a leak down test. But I would venture to say the odds are high that you have a new head gasket in your future.

Tedro951

This:

zerMATT951

Also, start the car cold with the coolant reservoir cap off. Sometimes when the head gasket is shot, you will see pressure surges come through your coolant and bubble through to the reservoir. My car did that when I bought it and I was clueless... then I started getting steam out of the tail pipe... that's not good. I never had a milk-shake or boogers, but I definitely started to see oil drops in my coolant reservoir.

ZW 944

what would either of those tests tell you that a regular compression test wouldn't?

zerMATT951

Popping the coolant cap and watching for a combustion leak is quick, easy, and free.

Bri Bro

Two other easy things to do.

Pull the plugs, if one is super clean there is a water leak in the cylinder. If it is a small leak, you will never see it in the exhaust.
Tape an empty water bottle on the overflow tube of the radiator reserve tank. then drive around and get on the boost a few times. If water is in the bottle, bad head gasket.

Antifreeze is bad on bearings so don't drive around a bunch with this problem. I have never heard of a turbo mixing water and oil, they normally just smoke oil when bad. Leak down tests can tell you what is leaking. If the leak down numbers are a bit off, you can listen to the exhaust, intake, oil filler and look at the cooling system to determine what is leaking.

refresh951

Do you smell coolant in the exhaust? If not my bet is oil filter seals. Generally water in the oil is the seals.

Tedro951

A compression test won't hurt, but it's inconclusive for hg. It takes 2 mins to test for combustion gases in the cooling system, and bad valves, rings or a wiped out cam lobe won't alter the results of the gas test.