Coolant in oil. Need help identifying cause.

joshbarnett said:

Well, gentlemen, I don't see any evidence of a coolant leak here:

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It seems I am stuck on the horns of a dilemma. Pull the heads or not. My gut is telling me that pulling the heads WILL NOT reveal anything obvious. It's likely going to be a bunch of work for very little result. I will probably just end up changing the head gaskets and hope for the best. I do think that if there was an actual head gasket rupture, the pressure test would have revealed it.

There is something else I noticed though. Based on this doc, the head bolts have to be torqued to 70 ft/lb. I tested a few bolts in the middle of both heads and they were not even close to 70 fb/lb. I'm really tempted to just retorque the head bolts, add some K-Seal to the coolant and cross my fingers. Well, and, obviously swap the cam, cuz that's why I'm digging in there in the first place. What do yall think?

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Pressure test may or may not show anything at all with a head gasket - you are giving the pressure test way more creedence than it deserves. It's impossible for you to simulate a running engine. Nix on any kind of sealer in the coolant. You shouldn't re-torque heads at this point.

Replace the head gaskets (use composition type head gaskets that do not require re-torquing), clean head bolt hole and head bolt threads, and look for cracks especially on cylinder #5. Check head surface straightness. Go back together with liquid teflon sealer as advised by others.

I'm curious. are the bottom of the bolt holes under the end intake bolts open to cooling passages, or are they just plugged up with gunk? See if you can stick a small screwdriver through the bottom of the bolt hole. Does any one know if these are blind holes on Dart Iron Eagles? If so, where did the gunk along the intake bolts come from.

Maybe you found out why the vehicle was sold? Maybe they already tried the pour sealer in the coolant? Stranger things have happened.

joshbarnett said:

I will consider it. Sucks that a turnaround time for a good machine shop is going to be like 2 months. And I hate waiting. I hate waiting more than I hate doing things over.

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Definitely looks like you found out why the vehicle was sold. My 2001 Blazer was something like that. Absolute creampuff - so much so that I was blinded to major engine problems. I ended up putting a Goodwrench crate engine in it so I could drive it in the snow that year instead of work on it. That was 70K miles ago.

At least it is Winter now and not Summer driving time!

The problem is that the microscopic metal particles go everywhere and will cause wear to happen much faster if they are not removed completely. We are not just talking about the lifter faces. We are talking about in the oil pasages, down the valve guides, in the rod/main/cam bearings, on the piston walls, oil pump gears, between the rings, etc. So maybe you get 20K miles instead of 100K miles (just as an example, not as fact). If the engine is otherwise fresh it seems a shame to not do it right before wear sets in.

This is in contrast to another thread I am involved in where just a cam is being done after multiple cam lobe failures. In that case we are just trying to get an old worn-out 305 running again. He has been warned a long time ago. I hope he remembers the warning and doesn't expect a long engine life. If he can get past the cam break in, he should be OK for some time until the metal particles have taken their toll on the rest of the engine. Yours would be the same.

If you have a place to work on it, and are willing to buy an engine stand and good torque wrench and anything else that you need - there is no reason why you can't disassemble and assemble short block yourself if that is interesting to you. Still need machine shop for washing block, polishing crank, and measuring things - but it would be a lot shorter wait I expect. If you find that the block needs major work for any reason, you might consider going to a late block that has factory roller cam provisions. Or you might just punt right away and stab a crate engine in - recouping part of the cost by selling your old engine. Or you could buy a short block kit. Lots of ways to go.