Oil pan full of coolant

[Robert Housley]

Just swapped an 89 3.0 into my 92. The motor sat for 15 years with oil in the pan but no coolant. This motor had 96k at the time the body was killed. I replaced the water pump, valve cover gaskets, belts, hoses and such. I had some leaks at the intake, so I bought new gaskets. I decided to change the oil in case of crap from leaking intake. When I pulled the drain plug I got about half a gallon of straight, green, uncloudy coolant before the bad goo came out. I am trying to figure out if it is possible for the throttle body to be dumping coolant directly into the crank case vent hose. It is like I unscrewed the oil fill cap and just poured the coolant in. Any advice or even an educated guess? I have another motor, but I really don't want to switch motors if I am just missing something else...
Thanks,
Robert

 

[sperold]

I am having trouble figuring out if the motor has run yet.
Are you low in coolant in your cooling system now?
If it has run, was there any vapours or smoke, and did it reach operating temp?

 

[Robert Housley]

Sperold,
Thanks for the reply. Sorry, the motor ran for 10 minutes at most in total. It may have reached a high enough temp to open the thermostat. It was running super rough due to the leaks at the manifold and puffing fluid around the gasket. I don't know if any of the fluid was coolant. There was a bunch of fuel weeping by the gasket. If the stat opened at all it could have only been for a couple of minutes tops. Yes, the coolant is low. I also changed the oil before turning the key the first time.
Robert

 

[itwonder]

The intake gaskets do not seal any fluid passages, so the fluid leak must be coming from another source. It almost sounds like the TB coolant lines have been hooked into the PCV system lines somehow. Easiest thing to try is disconnect the coolant lines that go to and from the TB, and just loop them.

 

[sperold]

If the oil and antifreeze mixed while the engine was running, it is doubtful that it would separate back out to its original components.
Was the oil you removed grey?
Fill it back up with water and get a rad cap pressure pump and put some pressure on the system for a few hours and see if any water ends up in the oil.

 

[Robert Housley]

It was very odd. I checked the oil at the dipstick and it was very full. 2 quarts over or so. what was on the stick was very clear and clean. The oil was mostly riding on top of the coolant. The coolant came out looking new and clean, then a bit of mixed with oil, then mostly oil. It really looked as though the coolant was poured into the pan and then the oil was poured on top of it. I will find some decent used oil and see. I really don't want to waste five more quarts and a new filter.
Robert

 

[rubydist]

the oil and coolant will definitely separate back into two layers in the pan after the engine sits for a while.

you either have coolant hoses plumbed wrong at the throttle body or you have a head gasket issue. both are very possible.

 

[Robert Housley]

Update.
Well, time for another motor. Right hand cylinder at the front side of car sprayed water on pressure test. I suppose the hit that killed the body may have broken something important. I think there may be a very large hole in the cylinder wall. Water is pouring through it. You can actually hear it running even without pressure on it. Thanks for all of the help guys. I have to order some gaskets for my other spare motor. It is from my 91.
Robert

 

[SHOdded]

Sad to lose a motor, looking forward to your build/rebuild.