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Oil in Radiator!

3K views 16 replies 9 participants last post by  Djblowens 
#1 ·
Just finished up installing my long block, been driving it for a couple weeks and then yesterday i went to check on my coolant level and this is what i find...what would cause this? Head gasket? My oil is clean, no signs of water.
Car has a new radiator, hoses, water pump etc
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#8 · (Edited)
I've read that a bad head gasket or cracked cylinder head can allow oil and coolant to mix resulting in what you have there.

EDIT: I googled this and found this article. I took some of it with a grain of salt as it read like an ad for their coolant products, but I get that.

 
#10 ·
Do you have a magnetic plug?
I wonder what you find if you drain all the coolant and fill up again.

I noticed a bunch of crud in my system after first start. I ended taking the intake off a few times and therefore draining my system and it seemed to clean things up.
 
#13 ·
You got something corrosion related going on. It's possible the distilled water was very ion poor, so it aggressively sought metal to make itself electrically neutral again. I would remove the t-stat, fill it with straight tap water, run it (don't worry about coming to temp, you're just looking to knock the crud loose), drain it, and see how everything looks. If things look bad still, I'd do it a second time. If the radiator tubes look cruddy still after running straight water through twice, you may need to get serious and do an acid clean. Given that we're looking at something that has structure to it, I also don't think this is oil. Sure fire way to also tell for oil, is after you drain it, let it sit and see if a film/layer develops.
 
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