The old Water in my oil question.

[Jessica]

Ok, so i have a question and want to get some feedback from you guys to get your opinion.

We all see people saying, "i have water in my oil! What do?!"

and the answer from the interwebs is always either a cracked head or blown head gasket. Now, my father, who is 74 and has worked on cars and tractor trailers pretty much his whole life says that is a load of bullshit and the only way you will get water in your oil is by either;

a cracked block, or on some v8's a leaky intake gasket running water down in the valley past the pushrods.

He says the water and oil pathways arent even near each other and most the time a head gasket will split between a cylinder and a water port.

Now, i have done some reading and i see people who go and do the head work and a lot of times i find out that they do end up having water in the oil even

after doing the head work.

So, what do you guys think?

[ProMaxx316]

Well from what I have seen and worked on.

Small amount of moisture in oil when pulling the oil cap off. Kind of look like milk shakeish/ But once giving the car a good drive everything look like normal. Often seen this happen a lot on VW's.

Not to long ago had a Saturn SC2 come in with a blown head gasket. Could see lots of steam coming out dip stick tube. When draining the oil about half a gallon of coolant came out. Customer kept filling coolant when ever light turned on.

To my understanding........ When a car is driven for short trips and sits around a lot condensation build up in crank case causing the moisture. Other than the case with the foam look on a oil cap I have not seen it to the point of water, then oil drain. I cant post a link on the work computer but i'll get a pic of the oil cap issue.

[ProMaxx316]

[Jessica]

i dont have water in my oil. im just curious about who it happens

[ProMaxx316]

Oh and the Chevy 3.1, 3.4 in the impalas and Malibu ect, I have seen coolant/water in the oil from Intake manifold gaskets.

[dangaranga]

from my own experience, the first signs of a blown headgasket is the coolant overflow jug "boiling over" or showing signs of carbon etc this goes back to your fathers theory, this is due to the coolant system operating around 13-22ish Psi where as the combustion chamber is anywhere from 130-160+ psi.

However, it is a very real possibility that a HG will put coolant into the oil as i have seen it more times than i care to count, it can be from a variety of different engine designs. Intake gaskets are very common to go bad and many engines will get coolant into the oil from it, its hard for me to go into specifics since i dont do auto repair and really dont like helping do them lol

[Jessica]

from my own experience, the first signs of a blown headgasket is the coolant overflow jug "boiling over" or showing signs of carbon etc this goes back to your fathers theory, this is due to the coolant system operating around 13-22ish Psi where as the combustion chamber is anywhere from 130-160+ psi.

However, it is a very real possibility that a HG will put coolant into the oil as i have seen it more times than i care to count, it can be from a variety of different engine designs. Intake gaskets are very common to go bad and many engines will get coolant into the oil from it, its hard for me to go into specifics since i dont do auto repair and really dont like helping do them lol

hmmm. from what he says, oil passages arent even near water passages. Gaskets blow between the cylinder and a water passage. Not saying you are wrong, just saying what he has said.

[Skullz]

Old folks rarely do much driving and in the winter months you'll see that a lot when you do oil changes on their cars cause the oil never gets to a temp hot enough to burn the condensation out of the oil. Water in the oil at any other time is usually due to a blown head gasket and needs servicing as quickly as possible to prevent further damage.

[Jessica]

Old folks rarely do much driving and in the winter months you'll see that a lot when you do oil changes on their cars cause the oil never gets to a temp hot enough to burn the condensation out of the oil. Water in the oil at any other time is usually due to a blown head gasket and needs servicing as quickly as possible to prevent further damage.

I keep hearing that, but im not sure i believe it. Can you show me how it would happen, pictures would be a plus.

[Skullz]

I do not have any pictures personally to show but once you see a head gasket that has blown the passage between the water jacked and oil passage you'll understand much better, the gap between the passages can be fairly close to each other as there is little room between the cylinders to place them. What typically happens is the head distorts just enough for a gap to open up to allow the water that is under pressure to leak through to the oil passage and over time it gets worse and worse until you get to the point you recognize what has happened.