Flat6 Innovations

Post a pic of the head here and I will look for them; because I know exactly where to look.

BUT a hot pressure test is often necessary to find these csarcks as some of them only show up when the cylinder head is heated. We offer this service and you should take advantage of it.
Not all cracks are visible..
find the smoking gun before it goes back together or you WILL have a recurrence.

logray

Take a look at this crack... not so easy to spot until he pressurizes the head.

(I had a sick thought for a moment but will keep it to myself - you can fill in the blank...).

jsoderbe

Thanks Jake and Logray,

you are right, that crack would NOT have been visible....

Strange thing though is that I still have no coolant in oil, just oil in coolant. Is that since oil pressure is higher than coolant pressure? Meaning, would it be the other way aorund if they had pressurized the oil channel instead?

I guess using a crack finder solution is the best way to find the crack once the engine is out. I'm just concerned my oil-to-coolant leak is a symptom for a tiny crack that will prove a nightmare to find....

Thanks,

Johan

logray

A crack should show up with the head under pressure.

IIRC coolant doesn't mix with oil as much in these situations - it is mostly the other way around, if you send an oil sample off for analysis to a company such as Blackstone for $25 they can tell you if you have coolant in the oil. I think Napa auto parts has a supplier for oil analysis and there are other companies recommended as well.

Flat6 Innovations

Until the head is pressure tested it is guilty until proven innocent.

Byprodriver

My 2000 started making coolant disappear very gradually & a oil report showed high level of sodium in oil. This was soon after waterpump went out & temp got to 240. Sent the heads to Flat6innovations they found & repaired the crack & strenghened the cracked area. Now they are better than new.

Flat6 Innovations

Yep and he also attended my M96 101 Engine Rebuild School in February of 2009 :-)

BTW- we just milled into a MY 2000 M96 head yesterday to repair a crack. What you see pictured below is what was found INSIDE the head casting at the area of the crack. One day people will listen to what we direct concerning elective water pump replacements with these engines. Those are water pump impeller blades.


Guess what? When a water pump fails and loses even one impeller blade it MUST be found, otherwise it blocks the capillaries within the heads, leads to a localized hot spot and results in a crack.

If you have a water pump failure, the WORST thing you can do is just replace the water pump... These impeller blades will make it to the cylinder head and at best its going to cost you 4,000.00 to repair, the norm is more like 7-10,000 or of course 18,000 if you play the "it can't happen to me" game.

Listen folks, we see this over and over and over with cars from all around the country and world. Our record thus far is for an engine being shipped to us from Russia for our specialized services.

The picture above cost 14,000 dollars. Had we not gone this deep with our repair processes the issue would have recurred almost immediately~

wyovino

Did you use a year 2000 penny for emphasis?

logray

No I think he found that in the block. LOL.

jsoderbe

Hi again guys,

I decided to drive the car for a while, just to see if it develops any more intermix problems. I still have NO coolant in oil, but do get some oil in coolant.

However, now when I have driven it, allowing it to reach proper temp, it leaks both oil and coolant badly! My wife was driving it and I was behind in my truck, and I could actually SEE the coolant dripping (almost pouring) out of it. It leaks on the right side of the engine, to the front of the car. And, there is a severe oil leak in the same spot, with oil dripping on the exhaust causing a smoke screen.

I know it still most likely is a cracked head, but I cant help to think that it is highly unlikely that the car devlops a cracked head and a severe oil AND coolant leak at he same time.

The PO could have fooled me by cleaning the coolant tank from oil, but here is no chance in hell I would not have noticed the pouring coolant and severe oil leak.

Is there really no chance there is something that could cause intermix AND a severe oil/coolant leak towards the forward right side of the engine?


Thanks,

Johan

logray

Standing from behind the car, the right side (psgr) of car in the front = back right of engine. Engine is flipped around backwards. Front of engine faces the rear of the car.

But yes that is the vicinity of the oil cooler mounted atop the engine, which is a known source of intermix.

jsoderbe

Ok, just to clarify, standing behind the car, oil and water is leaking to the passenger front side of the engine.


Thanks,

Johan

logray

OK, front side of the engine meaning rear of car... that is not where the oil cooler or AOS is. Those things are in the rear of the engine (toward front of car). Guesses there would be coolant hoses, spark tubes, aos breather, head gasket, aos hose. But not the AOS or oil cooler. Blind diagnosis like this is pretty pointless though. It could be the turbo encabulator for all we know until someone that is versed on sorting these things out has a look at it.

Anyways I wouldn't drive it until you get it fixed, that's not very smart to do.

Your engine can hydrolock and go boom in very little time with intermix. Then you are looking at $10,000-$15,000 repair job or more.

jsoderbe

Sorry, Dont know why I cant get this right. The leaks are from the engine, on the passenger side, in the forward direction of the car....

It is not all the way over to the wheel on the passenger side, it is maybe 8-10" from the center of the engine.



Johan

Macster

"I know it still most likely is a cracked head, but I cant help to think that it is highly unlikely that the car devlops a cracked head and a severe oil AND coolant leak at he same time."

Why unlikely? More like likely. The head has both coolant and oil passages in it and a crack may not confine itself to just one passage or the other.

Whatever the cause of the fluid loss/intermix is you should avoid driving the car any more and have the car looked at by a qualified professional.

These types of things do not get better on their own and by continuing to drive the car with this frankly serious of a problem -- even though the engine appears to run sans any real troubling symptoms -- can only make a bad situation worse, maybe to the point the engine is ruined.

Sincerely,

Macster.