My truck has milky oil!

[SnS C10]

hey everyone. well, got my truck running a few days ago. put in the new radiator. new belts. new stainless exhaust with flowmasters. new msd wires and plugs. hei ignition. started right up and seems to run well. smokes a little excessive white smoke and smells real strong also. took for a drive for 5 min yesterday, good power, sounds great. few hours later i move the truck into the garage and on the ground is a spot. put my finger in it, and its very milky oil. check the dipstick and its milky as well. the spot on the ground is coming from the very bottom of the timing cover as there was milky oil between the two mating surfaces of the cover and block. pretty sure its a blown head gasket. question is, do i need to get that oil out of the engine asap? and why would it be leaking from the timing cover?

[GASoline71]

Yes... get that oil out asap... how full was it? Was the oil level up a bit? When a lot of water gets in... it will raise your oil level. Plus... do not start that thing until you get this nailed down.

It could also be a bad seal between the intake manifold and cylinder heads at the water passages.

Gary

[sjarrett71]

The water in the oil will break down the rust inhibitors and cause damage to your engine. I would drain the oil and antifreeze and then remove the spark plugs and spray lube down the cylinders. And I might also pour new oil into the crankcase to slow the rust from forming. Of course don't run the engine until you get it fixed.

[Stocker]

^^ What they said, don't run that engine. Water is a terrible lubricant.

[SnS C10]

How does this sound for a plan? I will drain coolant and oil after work today. Pull the plugs. Put in new oil. Do compression test to test the cylinders and circulate clean oil. Record readings. Then drain oil. Pull carb intake and heads and fix the problem. Sound like a good plan?
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[truckster]

You said it has white smoke and smells strong. Does it smell sweet, kind of like burned maple syrup? That's indicating a coolant leak into the cylinders. There's really no point in wasting fresh oil until you fix the problem. It's most likely a head gasket, although you could have an intake leak that's allowing coolant to get into the engine. Either way, you need to find it and fix it.

[SnS C10]

Ok so just drain the coolant and oil. Then start pulling parts off? Dont worry about compression check or getting good oil on the internal parts until I fix it?
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[GASoline71]

So is this a fresh rebuild? Or did you just put a lot of new parts on the stock original engine? High mileage?

If it's the original unmolested engine... I'd look into a complete overhaul, or a replacement crate engine.

Gary

[SnS C10]

I would love to do that gasoline but dont have the funds for that. Just bought the truck 3 weeks ago. Owner stated when we bought it last jan. It ran fine. In january, he started to replace parts...headers, ignition, etc...and it sat. He drained oil, put on a k and n oil filter and lost interest. Left engine sitting dry, no coolant or oil since last january. So, I put in oil, built oil pressure which is about 45 pounds at idle. Installed headers, exhaust, radiator, etc... Drove yesterday before I knew about oil and it drove great with good power. So plan is, pull intake, heads. Replace gaskets. Put new timimg chain on. Paint heads, install aluminum dual plane intake and run till she cant run anymore
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[davepl]

A compression test probably won't tell you much, you really need to do a leakdown test I think.

If you have a leak between coolant and combustion, combustion will always win (except when the engine's not running) as the combustion pressures are orders of magnitude higher than the cooling system pressure.

But yes, get the water out of the crankcase for sure. If nothing else, water is heavier than oil and if you've got enough water in there, once it sits the oil pump pickup will be in the water section at the bottom of the pan, and when you start it you'll be "lubricating" with water (ie: not lubricating).

[GASoline71]

Well... all I can say is that if you keep trying to run that engine... you will also be replacing a rotating assembly and possibly a block.

Tread lightly on where you spend your cash here on the fix. It could be a head gasket. But it also depends on how long you ran that engine with water in the oil. If it was a significant period... the bearings will possibly be toast. Not to mention the cam and lifters.

Personally... I'd pull the pan and look at the bottom end. Maybe pull a main cap and a rod cap to check crank jornal condition.

Gary

[SnS C10]

I got the engine running a week ago. I added the coolant this past saturday. All the truck has done is idle in my driveway for probably 30 minutes total since saturday. Yesterday I drove down my street and drove it 3 blocks then came home. I noticed the oil a few hours later on the ground and at the same time on the dipstick. So basically, the engine could already be torched? Would hate to put it back together and have it crap out on me
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[GASoline71]

I'd check it all out before doing anything else. But that's me.

Gary

[SnS C10]

But who knows the previous owner may have run it like this too..not sure what to do here. Spend some money on gaskets and let it rip or start saving for a new engine
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[SnS C10]

Ok, ill check it out as it may be fine and if so, ill fix it. Either way ill start saving for that monster engine!
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[mr48chev]

A leakdown test might not be a bad idea even if you don't have a pressure gauge on the line but I'm not sure it will show the coolant leak. If the truck was running pretty smooth you probably don't have a blown head gasket though.

Pull the plugs and check to see if you have coolant in one cylinder. You might even spin the engine over with all eight plugs out and see if moisture blows out of one hole. Then that is the area you start looking at and paying the most attention to.

Take your time pulling the pieces off and check each gasket for issues as you go.
Things like wrong gasket, miss aligned gasket, previously damaged gasket. If it was on the intake that would show up between the water passages and one of the end intake runners.
When you pull the heads check the gaskets and check or have the heads checked for cracks.

[mcbassin]

I've had a blown head gasket that resulted in steamy smoke from the tailpipe and milky oil. Changed head gasket and flushed the engine new oil and drove it another 40K+ miles before I sold it. Could be you trashed the bearing they could be fine too. I think it may just depend on how contaminated your oil got. More water more damage, keep in mind it doesn't take very much water to milk up your oil.
I wouldn't dump a crap load of cash into the repair until I knew for sure what shape your bearings are in. You said you have 45psi at idle. That's great, what about after you went around the block? at idle. If your cam bearings are trashed you should have low oil pressure.
Good luck.

[GASoline71]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

I've had a blown head gasket that resulted in steamy smoke from the tailpipe and milky oil. Changed head gasket and flushed the engine new oil and drove it another 40K+ miles before I sold it. Could be you trashed the bearing they could be fine too. I think it may just depend on how contaminated your oil got. More water more damage, keep in mind it doesn't take very much water to milk up your oil.
I wouldn't dump a crap load of cash into the repair until I knew for sure what shape your bearings are in. You said you have 45psi at idle. That's great, what about after you went around the block? at idle. If your cam bearings are trashed you should have low oil pressure.
Good luck.

Good post...

Gary

[SnS C10]

When I got it back to the garage after driving it, oil pressure was still the same right about 45 pounds. When I drain the oil tonight ill let you guys know what it looks like.
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[street_rodder]

May or may not be your problem...but....

Just had this very same problem with my daughters 75 Trans Am. When car was bought, engine ran great....did several upgrade and cosmetics to the engine and compartment. Daughter drove car for about 500 miles and I just by chance, checked the oil...MILKED!

Towed the car to my shop believing it to be a head gasket......hunted down and installed another Pontiac 400....took her original engine all apart and could not find any damage to where water would seep into oil....looked and looked, checked EVERY gasket...couldn't find any leak or breach of the gaskets.....but by this time already had bought new engine and had it in her car......

Two weeks later my daughters boyfriend comes to me and says her engine oil is MILKED AGAIN! Now this is in a completely different engine????

I go thru everything I can think of....cannot find how this water is getting into the crank case....change oil and filter and the engine runs great....check oil everyday for 2 weeks...nothing.....THEN out of no where, my daughter comes home and says her oil is MILKED AGAIN!!!!

So I start going back thru the days events of my daughter.....starting from 2 days prior which was when I last checked her oil.....

After much aggrevation, anger and a bit of yelling....I found the culprit!

My daughters boyfriend was washing off her engine for her everytime he would take it to the car wash. He would then wipe down all of the chrome items and sop up the standing water in the intake valley's.....but.....when he would be spraying the engine, water was running in around the distributor hole (EVEN with its gasket in place) and straight into the crank case!

[truckster]

My local Caterpillar shop will do an oil analysis. I haven't done one for a while, but it was something like $10 or $12 dollars the last time I did one.

An oil analysis will tell you how much bearing material, among other things, is in the oil, and give you a good estimate of the overall condition of the engine. It might be worthwhile for you.

Edit: I just noticed I hit 1,000 posts. Woo hoo!

[SnS C10]

Im hoping no damage has been done. dont have the funds for a new engine right now or a bunch of new parts. Why would there be milky oil sitting right on the mating surface of the timing cover and engine block on the very bottom of the cover? Also, when I checked the oil last night I remember the level did seem very high
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[GASoline71]

It's all over the timing chain cover because the oil/water level is so high... it's right up to the crank seal through the cover... which is a lot of water in there.

Gary

[SnS C10]

Does that mean I should pull tue timing cover too, or just worry about where the leak is coming from?
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[54belair]

You have two GOOD indicators. One-- You said the engine had "good power" and two--you said the engine still held 45# oil pressure just before you shut it off.

Chances are youre bearings are fine (for an old engine).
If I wanted to keep this engine start out replacing the intake gaskets and yes, the timing chain cover gasket.
With good engine power chances are its not a head gasket . Remove the intake slowly and easily trying not to tear or damage the existing gasket (so you can do a good visual inspection. I would change the timing cover gasket simply because you already know it leaks!

Now--with that said, before I removed anything Id check every bolt for tightness before I loosened them.
You said the PO "started" doing some stuff and didnt finish-----maybe he didnt do what he Did do correctly. Im always skeptical about someone elses project--even if they finish it. Just because he said he did something correctly---doesnt mean it happened that way.

If you get the intake gaskets off and see no indication of leaks, then Id go ahead and pull the heads and replace the head gaskets---once again, get a torque wrench and check head bolt tightness Before you break them loose.
After you do all that, since you will have the distributor pulled, go ahead and spin the oil pump with a drill motor to make sure everything is prelubed with good oil before you spin the engine again.

Anyway, good luck----this is the procedure Id use on my own engine.