Just getting the car ready for the summer, changed the oil and it's light milky brown. Over the winter I did heads & cam. When I installed the head gasket I followed every procedure to the letter. The engine was out of the car, so it was really simple. I torqued in the right steps, in the right order. The head gaskets were all brand new. The car has had maybe 1 hour of idling, and a few minutes of driving around the block. It doesn't smoke out the back at all and seems to run fine. Am I looking at a head gasket failure or is there another explanation?

 

I wouldnt run that motor with coolant in the oil. You could very well spin a bearing...

 

On my rebuild last fall, I used fel-pro head gaskets, and was very careful to not knick the gaskets. Went to turn the motor over with no plugs in it, and water was spurting out one of the spark plug holes. I pulled the head gasket, and you couldn't see any evidence of anything wrong with the gasket. This was confirmed by a machine shop also. They couldn't find anything wrong also. I replaced it with a GM gasket, and no more leaks. Some people will not recommend to use a different brand of gasket, due to thickness variations. I haven't had any issues.

Is your oil level the same as when you put the oil in, or has it risen some? Pull your valve cover to inspect for any milkiness in the oil. That's any easy chore.

Good luck

ZMAN

 

Yup, there's milky oil under the valve covers too. What's the procedure for cleaning this all out?

 

I ran another change of oil through it and sure enough I have a really really expensive milkshake machine. I idled it on jacks for a few minutes and there was zero smoke, zero misfire, zero chugging. It ran like a champ. The only thing I noticed was a ticking from one valve on the passenger side, which I presume is just a valve lash issue.

How does coolant get from the heads to the oil without making it into a cylinder? And it does it rather quickly too... I only idled it for 2 minutes, and the fresh oil looks like the old oil.

 

check your oil cooler too, sometimes those rings go bad...I just had a similar issue. Rebuilt the motor, ran it for a few seconds, and there was oil in the coolant...but no coolant in the oil lol. Was strange.

 

There is no milky coolant on any of the valves on the passenger side, but there is on the driver's side. So unless anyone has any suggestions I'm going to pull the driver's side head

I really can't get over how smooth the engine runs. I didn't expect it to run BETTER than it did before, right out of the box after cam & heads without a tune.

 

I guess it would depend on what combo u went with, how aggressive your setup is...and if you put bigger injectors in etc etc. Cuz mine fired right up, but wouldn't idle with out a vaccum leak because it needed to be calibrated for the bigger injectors.

 

where did you get the heads from, a local shop or mail order or did you have your heads reworked local. sorry to say but I think you got a cracked head, I seem this before in my big block, but when I fill the rad. it came out of the carb. do a pressure check, and pull plugs to see which one is leaking. that way you may be lucky enough to rework one side only.