The car is on the way to me, its my cousins, we put a new lt1/tranny in it last fall, runs great, about 5000k miles?

he was driving and temp went up, first low water light, then temp, he pulled over and popped hood and was smoking on passenger back exhaust area.

He was 4 minutes from his moms, so took it there, it stayed cool as long as above 1500rpms, at idle it climbed, so he kept revving it.

He cut it off when he got there, popped hood and oil overspray on back firewall by passenger side, and on headers, all on that side.

I have personally never seen a headgasket spew externally, but have heard it can happen.
any other avenues to look at other than compression test on cylinders to rule out headgasket, if that is not it,then suspect completely blown out intake gasket, but i though lt1's had the reverse cool water ports on back of heads and front intake passages, isnt that waterpipe part of that system? could a leaking radiator that just happened make it act like that? run cool while high rpms but not at idle?

any tips from somone in this situation, let me know, sick and dont feel like working on it, but he is a cop and good kid, want his money to stay in his pocket.

 

Confusing post...

Topic indicates you have "water in the oil"?? Is there water in the oil?

Seems like you are asking/talking about leaking coolant, but you mention poppng the hood and (finding ?) "oil overspray on back firewall by passenger side, and on headers, all on that side." Did you mean to type there was "coolant overspray....."

Might want to clarify.

 

no, some oil overspray on the firewall and header/valve cover.

I dont see milky oil, its actually low on dipstick, maybe a little water. he said it was milky, I just now got the car myself. No visible leaking anywhere, radiator is dry, but also is not oily, no residue at all on cap or anywhere inside it, nor in overflow. oil level is right at about 1/8 th quart low.

 

How can both of those be possible?