Coolant in the Oil-Need to test

[kayaked56]

Hey guys,

I may suspect there is coolant in the oil...hope to god its not a head gasket.

I called the local Big-O tires to change to oil and determine if there is contamination. They seem to think they can 'spot' it a mile away.

Do any of you know of a good shop or service station that has the proper way to test?

Greg

 

[medtro]

This is not local though, Blackstone Labs

Do you have milky oil? If the coolant has been there for some time, then --- yes, you can spot it from a mile away.

 

[Tools R Us]

Pull the dipstick with the motor warm, does the oil look milky? Model and year of the rig would be helpful.

 

[kayaked56]

Sorry about that. The LC is a 97 40th with 185,000

There is no milky oil issues. However I read allot of articles of other owners with head gasket issues and contamination was there and no milk.

Only reason I was concerned is the following:

last 2 weeks I had a rough engine idle in the morning. I disconnected the extra pusher fan that was used during the hot summer.

Then on Sunday came down from Flagstaff, when I hit the Valvista and 60 exit temps rose real fast. Most likely due to exiting the freeway.

I checked my coolant, and sure enough very low. I did not see any leaks.

Thus since the car has never had the dreaded head gasket, I thought this could be a likely culprit.

I filler her back up with Toyota Red, drove all day, and no issues. No loss of fluids, no rising temps, etc.

I do need an oil change, (all my tools are packed from a recent move to AZ), so I planned on taking the LC to a local shop for the oil change and investigation of the fluids.

Greg

 

[AFinn]

must be a ' just moved from colorado ' thing. i moved here in april, and just lately i have started noticing a pretty obvious oil burning odor. hoping to find the leak this weekend. i am driving the cruiser 70miles a day to work right now, as my normal DD is down. hope your fears arent true! good luck.

 

[-Spike-]

More likely you've got a bad thermostat or clogged radiator or air flow issue or something. Any significant amount of water in oil is pretty obvious.

 

[BrotherRob]

Define heating up. Are you reading this on the stock gauge or some other impliment. Heating up after pulling off the freeway would suggest airflow issues. How's your fan clutch? If it's not moving much air, heat soak would be pretty pronouced in that situation.

As far as head gaskets, drive it until it's obvious. If the head gasket is going it will manifest itself soon enough. You are not likely to hurt anything unless you overheat.

 

[murf]

Throw a cooling system pressurizer on it, pump it up and see it it holds the pressure over a period of time. Better yet, maybe you'll find an exterior leak that is dropping your coolant.

Hopefully one of the many hoses....?