I just noticed today that it appears I'm finding oil in my coolant overflow tank. Seems like the more I try to improve the car, the more I find things wrong . Anyway, the head has been off the car about 15k ago (by the previous owner) and redone. I'm not getting any coolant in the engine oil though. No smoke when driving either. So obviously I'm hoping the head isn't the problem.

How would I start trying to diagnose this? I'm assuming there's about 2 other options, either the turbo is shot (120k), or the oil cooler?

I know this is far fetched, but I recently went to fully synthetic oil and wonder if that could have something to do with it.
Needless to say, I'm wondering if it's time to find another vehicle.......

[This message has been edited by Gary Singletary (edited June 11, 2001).]

are you sure its oil in your overflow. Dont make the same mistake I made. I used the prestone additive in with my coolant and when it came out the overflow a week later I panicked and though I had oil in there.

Second, it could be the oil cooler if its the water cooled type. drain the oil and pull the oil filter and then look inside the cooler see if its cracked. You may have to take it off. If you need another one, I could probly hook you up with a used one. They cost 285USD new from Mitsu.

Do a compression test and a leak down test. The leak down test will tell you where the leak is.


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Len...
92 Talon TSi AWD
89 2000 GTX (currently retired)

Chirp'less

It's oil for sure. I haven't put any additives in the coolant.

The first thing I'll do is the compression test. If the compression is good, a leakdown test isn't necessary is it?

The leakdown test sustains a pressurized condition, so you can watch for bubbles and stuff.

Since someone else did it, it could also be the headgasket. You say there's no oil in your coolant, then how does it get into the overflow.

There's oil in the coolant overflow, no coolant is showing up on the engine oil dipstick though.

[This message has been edited by Gary Singletary (edited June 12, 2001).]

Can you see it in the coolant under the rad cap?

Nope. When I pulled the cap it looked ok. Oil and water won't mix, so I'm assuming it naturally gravitates to the overflow. I flushed the system and replaced it with straight water yesterday to get an idea of how quickly it's leaking.



[This message has been edited by Gary Singletary (edited June 13, 2001).]

Update:

I dumped the synthetic I was running last night and put normal oil back in. From my observation, I don't think it's possible to tell if the oil cooler is bad just looking at it from the outside. I do notice i'm getting a tiny oil drip from behind the cooler so I probably should swap it out.


I decided to call around for prices on a leakdown test. One guy I talked to who seemed to know quite a bit said that the leakdown test might show up absolutely nothing. Here's a summary of what he had to say....

1) Leakdown test may not show you squat if you have a cracked head. To quote "Those cars are famous for cracking heads". (I knew the starions were, but I didn't realize the dsm's were that bad.)

2) If you're not burning coolant, it isn't the turbo.

3) Good chance it's the oil cooler.

4) For 150 US$ we'll tell you what the problem is.

Wow, for that price I can get a second hand oil cooler and start replacing random $hit



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91 Talon TSI FWD