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Old 08-08-2010, 06:23 PM   #1
elbm
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Default Oil in coolant

My spare car is a '98 Forester with a 2.5l. The past couple of weeks it has been running hot and loosing coolant at a rate of about 1/2 gallon per 300 miles. So this weekend I flushed the system, put in a new thermostat for good measure, refilled it and added a can of stop leak. I let it sit sit and idle for a couple of hours and checked for visible leaks about every half hour-- no leaks I could see. But the system did loose about a pint. I checked the oil and there were no signs of coolant contamination, there was no coolant odor at the tail pipe and no signs of cylinder compression leaking into the cooling system. I opened the reservoir and the reserve coolant was black. I sniffed it and it smelled like oil. I stuck a finger in and it felt like oil-- I am going with it is oil. So where can I loose coolant, not have it end up in the oil pan and get oil into the cooling system? Thanks.
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Old 08-08-2010, 06:31 PM   #2
Patrick Olsen
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I can't answer your question exactly, but I'll bet you've got a bad head gasket or two. The '98 Forester used the EJ25D, which pretty commonly has HG issues.
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Old 08-08-2010, 09:11 PM   #3
elbm
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Could a bad head gasket allow oil into the cooling system? Any time in the past I have had a bad head gasket the exhaust/combustion over pressurized the system and blew coolant out the over-flow or I would get coolant smell out of the tail pipe.
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Old 08-10-2010, 12:45 AM   #4
Cheshire84
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Their are guides or veins i believe that run through your heads and if the gasket is bad and allows oil out into those veins i believe thats how it gets in? Idk, im a newb too. Just a guess.
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Old 08-10-2010, 02:27 AM   #5
PhilSine
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I just did a head gasket job on a 97 Legacy GT DOHC. There was oil in the coolant and small amounts of coolant was being consumed as well as decent amounts of oil. When I removed the passenger side head; the cylinders were full of oil. I could clearly see where the hg had failed and allowed an open passage between the oil and cooling systems and even a path into the cylinder itself.

The hg job which also included a new clutch, rear main seal, front cam seals, oil pump seal, water pump, thermostat, valve cover gaskets, and timing set took about 8 hrs of working time to complete over two evenings.
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Old 08-13-2010, 02:12 PM   #6
elbm
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Thanks, I am beginning to think it is the head gasket too. Just did not make sense to me at first. I had it sniffed tested and there is a small amount of CO in the cooling system.
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Old 08-13-2010, 11:52 PM   #7
andrewm
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Well, oil in coolant can only be caused by two things. A blown HG or a cracked head/block. Easiest way to find out is to do a compression test, or a leak down test. The results will tell you a lot. It's not 100% of the time going to show results because a HG can fail between oil and coolant galley, rather than between a combustion chamber ring and a galley. Either way, the heads are coming off. Be sure to do a pressure test on the heads and flatten them.
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Old 08-14-2010, 03:05 AM   #8
feint05
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i bet you $20 its your headgasket, mine was just redone in my 98 forester at 130k
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