WTF....Water in oil.

[1QUICK85]

Ok........just got done replacing my headgaskets. Used ARP headbolts w/the washers with some race oil under the bolt heads......thread sealer on the bolts.....chased the bolt holes out.......80ft/lbs torqued and I followed the bolt pattern to torque them....got her all good and started her up.....ran in park for a couple of seconds and stalled.........I then checked the dipstick and long behold water in oil Then I slammed the damn storage unit door and left in anger before I blew the damn thing up.

So before all that:
Took the heads to a machine shop they shaved them.......I probably should have had them pressure checked....but when I had the headgasket problem.....it was burning through the exhaust...white smoke out the tailpipes and bad idle, and only 10# of boost. no water in the oil before i changed the headgaskets!

So, were do i start..........drain the oil/water? Check pressures? Rip it all apart...........how do i know what is wrong.......gaskets or heads?

Frustrated as hell. Nick

 

[Nick Micale]

Well, you did the right thing first, slammed the door.

When you open the door again, of course drain the oil and leave out the drain plug. Fill the rad with water and pressurize it using a pressure tester. See if water then comes out the pan.

If so, pull the intake. Water could be leaking by the intake gasket. That happens ocasionally. When water runs into the pan like yours, it would be the intake or heads on the valley side.

No sign of the intake leaking, you need to pressure test with the water passages in the heads blocked. To do this you need to make 4 block-off plates to bolt on the heads to cover the water passages.

I may have the ones I made a while back to find a similar problem if you need to borrow them.

 

[Red Regal T]

I'd suspect the intake manifold water passages, first, as Nick said. You have to run a bead of sealer around the water passages in the intake gasket for the installation. If you don't, there's a very good chance that you'll have the problem you've encountered. If this is the case, it's a pain, but you'll have it back together in no time.

 

[49-blues]

Good thing you didnt put in antifreeze.

 

[1QUICK85]

AWESOME. Just the info I was looking for........thanks a bunch Nick!! I put the intake gasket on dry except for black RTV where the rubber and valley pan gaskets meet on the corners..so I didnt put rtv around the water passages to the heads....I hope that is the prob.........I am glad I put just distilled water in there. I just went out to look at the dipstick again and she was only showing oil.......so must not be a lot of water in there....as it must have seperated to the bottom and the dipstick reads just a little over full. Sucks I am leaving for the weekend and wont be able to work on her until Monday morning.......it will have to wait. Thanks for the tips on were to start.......you guys are great.

Nick

 

[1QUICK85]

When I do get time to pressurize the system and see it is leaking through the pan then what are some signs to look for to tell me that it is the intake gasket not sealing right.......obviously I will have taken the intake off at this point right and looking for what?

TIA, Nick

 

[Red Regal T]

Hey Nick, you said you didn't put sealant around the intake gasket water channels. Sounds like the problem to me. You can't put a buick together and not seal those passages on the gasket without getting an oil pan full of water. I'd go right there.

 

[1QUICK85]

Ok.........its still a little fishy.............just went out to my car to rip the coil pack off for a fellow turbo buicker to borrow and the cold oil with a little water(not even noticable on the stick to me)....was not even pass the full mark If I run the car for a few seconds, as it stalls, the oil get a more watery look to it.

Here is my theory......is it possible? I changed the heads.....had some water fall into the engine and went into the pan......i drained the pan and dump two quarts of thick oil through the engine to help clear any of that **** out...........it is possible that some didnt get out and has now made my new oil look like it is.

My stall issue......could this be caused by low fuel pressure? When I started this my fuel pressure was set to high 20's.....not low 40's.......because i was getting hesatation and bucking....too rich......so when ran in the high 20's it would run somewhat right..(stupid probably....but i didnt know what was going on as i had just done a intake, turbo, ecm, chip, injectors, etc. swap on my car(i think i blew the headgaskets before i did the swap and didnt know it))..because i didnt know i had blown both my headgaskets. Or could a stall be linked to my IAC OR TPS?

I plan on draining the oil and doing as Nick suggested and see what happens on monday or tuesday. But, just thought I would throw out some of my ideas to you guys. I am still keeping my finger crossed that worst case will be the intake seal prob!!

TIA, Nick

 

[Red Regal T]

I got the impression you had full blown milkshake in your pan. If the water is coming through the water passages, the pan will fill up in short order. You could always start it and see what happens. I would.

 

[MoJoe]

Intake gasket installation

Originally posted by Red Regal T
You have to run a bead of sealer around the water passages in the intake gasket for the installation.

John, the Felpro intake gasket instructions say to install dry, except for some of the included black RTV at the head/block joint with the rubber end strips.
Is this a "sometimes needs sealant around the water port"? Or, even though the instructions say install dry, the water ports always need RTV?

... I had the intake off, re-assembled following the instructions and haven't fired it yet...

Joe

 

[1QUICK85]

Sorry if I have confused ya guys.....that is probably because I am confused...........it does look like milkshake if I start it and she runs for a few seconds before it stalls.......but once she sits the oil must come to the top of the pan and the dipstick doesnt read any higher then half way through the crosshairs and all you can see is oil.....so not even full. I put 5 quarts in and forgot I am using the bigger oil filter on her(pt52).

John - Not sure why it is stalling, but I cant start it because my friend borrowed my coil pack to see if his is bad or not. It is good to know that the pan would fill up if I did have a bad gasket or water passage leaking. So my hopes have been raised a little, very little.........

Joe - I had changed my intake gasket once before and did not have a problem with leakage when installing the fel-pro gasket dry, but it doesnt seem like a bad idea to put some RTV around the water passages now that I see almost every guy does.

Nick

 

[Red Regal T]

Re: Intake gasket installation

Originally posted by MoJoe
John, the Felpro intake gasket instructions say to install dry, except for some of the included black RTV at the head/block joint with the rubber end strips.
Is this a "sometimes needs sealant around the water port"? Or, even though the instructions say install dry, the water ports always need RTV?

... I had the intake off, re-assembled following the instructions and haven't fired it yet...

Joe

I was just trying to help with the problem at hand, however, it can't hurt to put a bead of sealant around the water port. I've always done this from 455s to LC2. I use the felpros now but previously had used the all metal intake gaskets and one time I did have a bad leak at the water port upon installation. I forgot to put sealer around it. So now, I don't want to take the chance. Perhaps you don't have to. I just do it out of habit. Your's is together now, so I'd just hope for the best. I gotta' start reading those instructions.

 

[MoJoe]

Whew!

Thanks! I come from a Chevy background, and the intake installation was: pitch the rubber end strips, lay down a 1/4" bead of RTV. The Felpro gaskets had a pretty good raised "rib" that ran around each port for sealing.

I remember putting RTV on everything when re-assembling. Now, most everything says to install dry, especially the gaskets you might want/expect to have to put RTV on... oil pan, front cover, water pump, intake.

I have a 15-16 year old nephew in town for a couple weeks, and I'm sure I'll have to do some "entertaining" instead of wrenching.

Joe

 

[GSX-PKV]

Hi guys, this link caught my attention because in Bowling Green, after a run I had water in the oil.

I this it's probably a head gasket and I've asked some questions on another link.

I wasn't sure what it was so I did a cooling system test and at 20lbs it leaked down exteremely slowly. When I was draining the oil, I noticed the oil stopped flowing out but I got water when i pressurized the cooling system with the tester. I'm tearing down the motor now and saw this link.

Do you guys think my problem is the intake gasket or should I keep on going at this stage to remove the heads and do the head gaskets????

Thanks for any advice or tips! Paul

 

[MeanBuicks]

Re: Intake gasket installation

Originally posted by MoJoe
John, the Felpro intake gasket instructions say to install dry, except for some of the included black RTV at the head/block joint with the rubber end strips.

The older valley pan gaskets used to be bare steel and required the slimy blue brush tack to be applied around the intake ports and silicone around the water ports. I had always done those that way.

The newer, coated style gaskets do say to install dry. I've installed two of those type now, dry as instructed, with no problems.