Coolant in water
05-25-2014, 08:15 AM
#1
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Coolant in water
An acquaintance of mine has a 98 Boxster that is getting coolant in the oil. I don't know how much though. Car has 90,000 miles on it. What is the most likely scenario that would cause this? Car runs fine.
Thanks mike
Thanks mike
05-25-2014, 11:35 AM
#3
Rennlist Member
usually a sign of a blown headgasket.
05-25-2014, 12:24 PM
#5
Race Director
Not a common failure, but a head gasket has to be considered.
'course, so do other possible explanations. The oil/water heat exchanger can leak and allow oil/coolant intermix. Ditto a block or head crack. There are IIRC some plugs inside the engine that seal off the coolant passages from the crankcase. If one of these fails, though, the clue is there is a lot of coolant in the oil.
Are you sure there is coolant in the oil? Sometimes the water that is in oil, gets there as a result of combustion, causes some goo to form/collect around the oil filler tube opening and for many owners the initial and natural response is to suspect coolant is in the oil as the amount of goo has this as the only explanation.
One way to be sure is to send an oil sample out for analysis and among other things the presence of anti-freeze compounds will be checked for.
Assuming diagnosis is correct however, this does not have to be the end of the world for the engine or the car. Barring a cracked block almost certainly whatever is wrong can be fixed and the engine salvaged. But any more running of the engine is out until the problem is found and fixed.
'course, so do other possible explanations. The oil/water heat exchanger can leak and allow oil/coolant intermix. Ditto a block or head crack. There are IIRC some plugs inside the engine that seal off the coolant passages from the crankcase. If one of these fails, though, the clue is there is a lot of coolant in the oil.
Are you sure there is coolant in the oil? Sometimes the water that is in oil, gets there as a result of combustion, causes some goo to form/collect around the oil filler tube opening and for many owners the initial and natural response is to suspect coolant is in the oil as the amount of goo has this as the only explanation.
One way to be sure is to send an oil sample out for analysis and among other things the presence of anti-freeze compounds will be checked for.
Assuming diagnosis is correct however, this does not have to be the end of the world for the engine or the car. Barring a cracked block almost certainly whatever is wrong can be fixed and the engine salvaged. But any more running of the engine is out until the problem is found and fixed.
