Oil in coolant with only 55K miles on motor!?

[r6speed]

So this car has been sitting for a couple years...driven every couple months just around the block a few times and started every week just to keep things in order...also change the oil every 6 months even though it still looks brand new. NOW I HAVE OIL IN MY COOLANT! Like said above this car only has 55K miles on it so its killing me that this could be the head gasket. The car has some mods with the 16G and the problem I really have been having is the damn intercooler piping leaks which I just found the main leak (in a weld, go figure) but now I have bigger problems...could anything else be causing this besides the good ole head gasket? i have NEVER overheated this car or abused it AT ALL, this is my baby and I can't believe its doing this! GRRRR

 

[slinarez25]

That's weird, because i know my oil cooler is a 2g, and im positive it's air cooled.

 

[08talon08]

That's weird, because i know my oil cooler is a 2g, and im positive it's air cooled.

like i said it must be rare because out of the 4 2gs ive owned and about 30 ive worked on ive never seen one

 

[r6speed]

it really sounds like a HG though unfortunantly

I want to cry

 

[slow4g6392tsi]

Just think of it as an opportunity to upgrade. OEM composite HG w/ ARPs would probably be the best bang for your buck. And all new timing components if you haven't done them yet seeing that you are approaching 60k miles.

 

[r6speed]

Ya that is true...not what I was wanting but it is true. Where you think is the best place to get those? Going to have to try and be as cheap as possible although I know it can't be

 

[slow4g6392tsi]

extremepsi.com always has pretty good prices and if not they price match. If you are not planning on doing it yourself I would recommend English Racing seeing as you are in Oregon they are not horribly far away. Plus they don't rape people on labor from what I have seen.

 

[95gst16g]

extremepsi.com always has pretty good prices and if not they price match. If you are not planning on doing it yourself I would recommend English Racing seeing as you are in Oregon they are not horribly far away. Plus they don't rape people on labor from what I have seen.

+1 I got mine from extreme psi good price.I dont think the ARP's and the HG cost too much.That is not that bad unless you pay labor to have someone else do it thats what costs the money.Also if you havent changed the belts and whatnot then I would recomend you to do this when you have the HG changed as the timing components will have to be removed anyways.Good luck with your car.Even when they seem like they arent worh all the time and money just remember how fun the last time you drove it was .

 

[mannyssj13]

yea dude ill go with extreme psi they have pretty good prices i live 15 mins from them n i brought all my stuff for my car from them! n they have like package deals for doing ## timing n head gasket...good luck with ## car tho dont sell it tho my car gives me hell here n there to n ive put alot of time n money into mine n its mine forever! haha love my car

Timing deal
EXTREME PSI : Your #1 Source for In Stock Performance Parts - Extreme PSI Timing Belt Kit: Mitsubishi Eclipse 90-99

Head gasket deal
EXTREME PSI : Your #1 Source for In Stock Performance Parts - ARP Headstuds + Cometic Headgasket: 90-99 Mitsubishi Eclipse

 

[r6speed]

Well I never got back to my car...work picked up and I had no time. I'm back to working on it now and noticing some new things.

First off I opened my hood and ALL I mean ALL my aluminum is badly oxidized including my used to be pretty valve cover, any suggestions on what to use to get this off besides elbow grease? Hoping for some kind of spray on stuff for once I get it to a mild point?

Next thing is I started looking at the oil cooler and it LOOKS fine...rather that means anything or not but its not "crushed". I noticed that I was over a half gallon low on fluid even though I had filled it up last time, so I filled it up (still tons of oil in it) and started the car. Drove it up on the ramps and let it run while I looked and while running water was steadily dripping from the bolt in the pic below, then I noticed a small amount of oil looks like leaking from the other bolt on the filter housing The water leak slowed extremely right after the car was shut off, the oil coming from the other bolt is not comming out fast enough to notice any difference between car on and off.
Then I look closer at the water lines and the one you can't see in the pic has oil all around where it connects to the rubber hose to go back up so maybe its still my cooler?

I still have not done my leak down test...I had some dsm guy at a dsm shop here locally telling me there is no way to get a true leak down test anyways and it will do me no good...I don't think he is right so I'm gonna do it anyways since i got the tool, I will be updating tomorrow with that info but for now can anyone direct me somewhere that explains how to bypass the oil cooler safely (same guy also told me something about when you bypass cooler you MUST buy longer bolts or something like that or you will screw other stuff up) who knows about that guys info though...

 

[TenSecondSTi]

the lucky 8 ball said =buy a new car...

Well I never got back to my car...work picked up and I had no time. I'm back to working on it now and noticing some new things.

First off I opened my hood and ALL I mean ALL my aluminum is badly oxidized including my used to be pretty valve cover, any suggestions on what to use to get this off besides elbow grease? Hoping for some kind of spray on stuff for once I get it to a mild point?

Next thing is I started looking at the oil cooler and it LOOKS fine...rather that means anything or not but its not "crushed". I noticed that I was over a half gallon low on fluid even though I had filled it up last time, so I filled it up (still tons of oil in it) and started the car. Drove it up on the ramps and let it run while I looked and while running water was steadily dripping from the bolt in the pic below, then I noticed a small amount of oil looks like leaking from the other bolt on the filter housing The water leak slowed extremely right after the car was shut off, the oil coming from the other bolt is not comming out fast enough to notice any difference between car on and off.
Then I look closer at the water lines and the one you can't see in the pic has oil all around where it connects to the rubber hose to go back up so maybe its still my cooler?

I still have not done my leak down test...I had some dsm guy at a dsm shop here locally telling me there is no way to get a true leak down test anyways and it will do me no good...I don't think he is right so I'm gonna do it anyways since i got the tool, I will be updating tomorrow with that info but for now can anyone direct me somewhere that explains how to bypass the oil cooler safely (same guy also told me something about when you bypass cooler you MUST buy longer bolts or something like that or you will screw other stuff up) who knows about that guys info though...

You want to delete all that B.S until you buy a real oil cooler. Just don't block off the lines. Loop them.

Do you have ARP head studs? I like to tq down the studs and then the bolts because yea there kinda ghetto.

What type of head gasket are you running? hopefully an MLS one.. Does your car idle right? could be pulling coolant in threw the air idle controll valve if it doesn't idle right steady.

 

[Hitmachine101]

The chances of coolant and oil mixing within the turbocharger are .000001%.

For this to happen it will literally require the turbo housing to be cracked in a way that would allow the pressurized oil source to meet the coolant chamber without leaking externally, which is damn near impossible.


Do you understand the purpose of the coolant in a turbo?

The turbine shaft seals do not have anything to do with coolant leakage or coolant and oil mixing.

well then i guess im the lucky .000001% hahah, the first thing my car did when i got it was start mixing the coolant and oil

i had coolant in my oil and vis versa

the t25 turbo i had cracked internally and when i got a new one the problem was solved soooooo dont rule that out yet

I basically went through all the steps your going through right now

i started with the easiest -- that being the oil cooler -- i took it off and did a pressure test on it -- make sure you put soapy water in there to see if there is any leakage that your not hearing while pressurized -- i used a bike pump so nothing outragious when it comes to putting pressure on it

found out that it was fine, so i reinstalled it and torqued it down to the correct settings in the hanes manual -- if you over tighten it you WILL CRUSH THE FINS and it will give you the same problem you have now if its not already the culperate


second i went with the turbo -- it was a t25 and my car had 46K on it -- so i found a used but in good shape t25 off ebay and got it here for 140$ ( the turbo had 5k on a rebuild so i figured why not )

when i installed that -- i put new coolant and oil in -- ( when you remove both the oil cooler and the turbo your gonna lose all your fluids so just enjoy the coolant bath ) andddd the problem was fixed THANK GOD

so easy and cheap to test the oil cooler

since your 16g is an ebay 16g maybe thats your problem idk,, if you have a 14b or acces to a friends 14b id bolt it up and see if it fixes anything

if not then try bypassing your coolant lines to your turbo -- run the car for a little while ( theres lots of theorys out there saying you dont even need the coolant lines for the turbos ) and see if you keep mixing --

hope this helps -- if none of these solutions are the answer then its HeadGasket time sorry bro -- good luck

 

[r6speed]

well then i guess im the lucky .000001% hahah, the first thing my car did when i got it was start mixing the coolant and oil

i had coolant in my oil and vis versa

the t25 turbo i had cracked internally and when i got a new one the problem was solved soooooo dont rule that out yet

I basically went through all the steps your going through right now

i started with the easiest -- that being the oil cooler -- i took it off and did a pressure test on it -- make sure you put soapy water in there to see if there is any leakage that your not hearing while pressurized -- i used a bike pump so nothing outragious when it comes to putting pressure on it

found out that it was fine, so i reinstalled it and torqued it down to the correct settings in the hanes manual -- if you over tighten it you WILL CRUSH THE FINS and it will give you the same problem you have now if its not already the culperate


second i went with the turbo -- it was a t25 and my car had 46K on it -- so i found a used but in good shape t25 off ebay and got it here for 140$ ( the turbo had 5k on a rebuild so i figured why not )

when i installed that -- i put new coolant and oil in -- ( when you remove both the oil cooler and the turbo your gonna lose all your fluids so just enjoy the coolant bath ) andddd the problem was fixed THANK GOD

so easy and cheap to test the oil cooler

since your 16g is an ebay 16g maybe thats your problem idk,, if you have a 14b or acces to a friends 14b id bolt it up and see if it fixes anything

if not then try bypassing your coolant lines to your turbo -- run the car for a little while ( theres lots of theorys out there saying you dont even need the coolant lines for the turbos ) and see if you keep mixing --

hope this helps -- if none of these solutions are the answer then its HeadGasket time sorry bro -- good luck

Ok so I won't rule that out, especially since this turbo has been a bit wierd since I put it in, it seems to be leaking oil (maybe oil and water) a little out the bottom where the compressor housing bolts up so ya it could be the turbo but I will give the pressure test on the oil cooler too since thats an easy one.

Thanks for all the good info there I appriciate it

As far as HQ and internals its all stock, like said before the car only has 50K on it, never had any problems with engine so never changed anything, also only running 12-14 psi anyways, just minor mods


EDIT: Just incase it is my turbo...do I dare try to rebuild this one? If I where to try where would be the best place to get the rebuild kit? Thanks again

 

[r6speed]

I got the oil cooler off and gave it some pressure with the bicycle pump while plugging the other end with my finger. I was doing it at 20psi (wasnt sure what pressure to do it at) and I can't hear any hissing of air its holding good. at first when I pumped it up I could hear some ticking sound inside it but just sounded like it was expanding, then it went away on all the other tests. It passed the soapy water test as well

Today when I drained the fluids I first took a surenge and pulled the oil out the top to see just how much it was and found it really wasn't as much as I thought...just a few surenges full, coolant looked good coming out and the oil had not one drop of coolant in it.

I am hoping for more information on bypassing the cooler, even though it seems fine I might as well, so I need to connect the two lines to just bypass it and then what? Can I just put the cooler back on? No need to even cap the lines off of it right?

I figure I will bypass it, fill her back up with fluids, try to fix my water leak in the picture above (it was still dripping from there today when I took the cooler off), and then drive it a little and If it still comes back with oil in the water I'm going for the turbo next.

 

[gstbobby]

I am not sure if it has been established yet but you would know it if the head gasket was leaking, the car would not run right due to a loss of compression, from reading what you have been posting I believe that the turbo is the culprit.

 

[r6speed]

Ya I will be checking that next...I decided to just hook the cooler back up after doing one more soapy water test cause its not leaking. I put everything back together and got fluids in it I'm charging the battery now.

 

[dsm8883]

I am not sure if it has been established yet but you would know it if the head gasket was leaking, the car would not run right due to a loss of compression, from reading what you have been posting I believe that the turbo is the culprit.

Do not post info unless you know what you are talking about You can have coolant and oil mixing without (any) compression issue's and the chances of it being the turbo are slim to none.... Check the oil cooler by placing it under water and plug one of the coolant hoses and apply air to the other and look for bubbles. I would say oil cooler or headgasket which has already been said a 100 times on this post.

 

[Hitmachine101]

im still saying its the turbo -- especially if its leaking and acting weird -- if its not then great, you have done every other test and thus it is the headgasket

thats not good news but at least you know -- i just took 3 days to diagnoise a overheating issue with my bmw and i was pulling my hair out untill i finally figured it out

 

[r6speed]

Well now I may have some new problems even.

Took it out and drove it easily (never letting boost go over 10psi) for about 50-60 miles...
last 1/4 mile home I decided to do WOT for one to check the previously adjusted wastegate and two just to make sure the intercooler lines were still holding good. (by the way I never did get that alan bolt to tighten up so it drips coolant there but nothing bad I stopped and checked a couple times and no problems)
During the split second I was at WOT the turbo boosted all the way up to 24-25psi (can't get it to boost lower having hard time ongoing issue) so of course I let out IMMIDIATELY but the all day perfect temps went out the window right then and there...car got hot quick, real quick, shut it off right away and coasted home (temp gauge never reached red) but the overflow was boiling over. when I got home I left the key on to check if the fan was running and it wasn't...I think it should have been right? It always worked before but maybe it didn't and thats why it got hot so quick? Still shouldn't have gotten that hot that quick I don't think?? I think I probably messed up the fan with my J pipe (doesn't all fit very well).

SO all day being nice (under 10psi) and ran like a champ (some idle issues I guess...but overall great) and then too much boost and bam she's hot and the fans not running, sure sounds like HG more and more but then again the turbo is definately acting wierd still. I have tried dejon performance boost controller and eliminating that to straight wastegate which I also adjusted and still just max boost so ya turbo acting wierd as well.

oil in coolant again right away withing first couple miles of driving.
And ya I just want to know what it is, I don't want to replace turbo for no reason nor HG for no reason obviously.



EDIT:
Also one more thing...heard once from a mechanic that if you have a blown HG to remove radiator cap, fill up and start and watch opening for shooting water...said it should shoot if HG blown...any truth to that?

 

[Hitmachine101]

Well now I may have some new problems even.

Took it out and drove it easily (never letting boost go over 10psi) for about 50-60 miles...
last 1/4 mile home I decided to do WOT for one to check the previously adjusted wastegate and two just to make sure the intercooler lines were still holding good. (by the way I never did get that alan bolt to tighten up so it drips coolant there but nothing bad I stopped and checked a couple times and no problems)
During the split second I was at WOT the turbo boosted all the way up to 24-25psi (can't get it to boost lower having hard time ongoing issue) so of course I let out IMMIDIATELY but the all day perfect temps went out the window right then and there...car got hot quick, real quick, shut it off right away and coasted home (temp gauge never reached red) but the overflow was boiling over. when I got home I left the key on to check if the fan was running and it wasn't...I think it should have been right? It always worked before but maybe it didn't and thats why it got hot so quick? Still shouldn't have gotten that hot that quick I don't think?? I think I probably messed up the fan with my J pipe (doesn't all fit very well).

SO all day being nice (under 10psi) and ran like a champ (some idle issues I guess...but overall great) and then too much boost and bam she's hot and the fans not running, sure sounds like HG more and more but then again the turbo is definately acting wierd still. I have tried dejon performance boost controller and eliminating that to straight wastegate which I also adjusted and still just max boost so ya turbo acting wierd as well.

oil in coolant again right away withing first couple miles of driving.
And ya I just want to know what it is, I don't want to replace turbo for no reason nor HG for no reason obviously.



EDIT:
Also one more thing...heard once from a mechanic that if you have a blown HG to remove radiator cap, fill up and start and watch opening for shooting water...said it should shoot if HG blown...any truth to that?

yes there is truth to that -- had a friend diagniose a cracked head that way - his bmw overheated and he limped it home -- which wasnt smart but he knew something wasnt right the next day -- he had vibrations and what not -- but no coolant in the oil or vis versa -- he did the coolant flying out of the expansion tank/radiator test and sure enough he had a problem -- he ripped off the head and had it pressure tanked and that showed a hair line crack between one of the valves and a warped head as well

wouldnt of ever known without that test untill something else went catestrophicaly wrong

so ya give it a shot

 

[dsm8883]

You can get or use a combustion test kit for the coolant to see if you have combustion gas in the coolant. But once again if you just have a break in the headgasket that allows your oil to push into a coolant jacket this test will not help... If you do test the coolant and find combustion gas in the coolant go ahead and change the hg and have the head checked.

 

[r6speed]

ok well I did the test with watching for fluid and nothing went squirting out when I did it.

 

[dsm8883]

that is not a test i would use for sure

 

[Calan]

...heard once from a mechanic that if you have a blown HG to remove radiator cap, fill up and start and watch opening for shooting water...said it should shoot if HG blown...any truth to that?

Some truth I guess... but there are many ways a HG can go bad, with different symptoms.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/articles-engine-fuel/336535-do-you-have-blown-head-gasket.html

 

[r6speed]

that is not a test i would use for sure

nope of course not but it didn't hurt

 

[7itanium]

ye I would also check the oil cooler