[FAKnGT]

Ok, so last Easter I had a muddy mix of oil and water coming out of my expansion tank(never overheated). I had white smoke coming out of the exhaust, so I figured it was the head gaskets. I replaced them (not a fun task I might add).

I get the car all together and have been driving it for a couple weeks. Still getting oil in the water, but nothing fast at first. I was hoping it was just leftover residue in the system, but I was losing oil. Along with my oil pressure gauge would start ticking on me . If I got it down to stall speed in first gear while stuck in traffic, the gauge would read zero untill I pressed the clutch and it popped back up to normal.

Then someone suggested the oil cooler to me. "OK! that makes sense!" I pull off the oil filter, and remove the shaft. "Hey! the oil ring is busted." I swap that out and do another flush(running the car for about 10-15 minutes). I check the oil the next day and now I have GAS in my oil...joy! I removed the oil cooler entirely and swapped it for another one I got off a wrecked car. Didn't bother putting any oil in it this time since I have gone through so much in the past month I might as well buy stock in Motorcraft.

I filled the cooling system with just water and let it sit for the day. The next morning I come back and see the expansion tank water level went down so I pulled the oil drain plug and MORE water came out. So I pulled the oil cooler off and stuck the filter adapter on from an automatic mustang thus eliminating the oil cooler. Well I ran it again yesterday after just topping it off with oil again. And once again I have oil collected on the top of my water about the same color as whipped cream. I havent bothered to check the oil yet...but I get the feeling I know what's gonna happen there. But all I know is there was no gas in the oil before I replaced that stupid o-ring.

Only thing I can think of the check now is the intake manifold since I dunno where else gas is gonna come from, but I am pretty stumped and stressed out about it.

I look on the bright side, if I have to do my head gaskets on, I'll throw the PI heads on. Too bad though, I wanted to port and polish them and install new cams n stuff.

Oh we did a block tester after the head gasket install and it checked out fine. My check engine light is on for my EGR, and the engine is running smooth and clean with no overheating right now. Mechanic neighbor thinks I'm just paranoid, but at this point...I don't blame myself after everything else.

Any ideas?

 

[83t top]

Is this a 4.6L or a 3.8L??

 

[FAKnGT]

Is this a 4.6L or a 3.8L??

4.6...Sorry, thought "GT" was enough info lol

 

[fasterthenev]

from what i heard the intake's are notorious for cracking like the 3.8's exhaust manifolds.
my buddys car does the same thing.
take a good look around the intake.

 

[FAKnGT]

from what i heard the intake's are notorious for cracking like the 3.8's exhaust manifolds.
my buddys car does the same thing.
take a good look around the intake.

That's exactly what I was thinking about. It's made out of plastics and it explains the gas/oil mixture, but could that also be a reason for the water/oil mixture?

--I thought about hunting the junkyards for the intake manifold. Figure my best bet is to try to find one off a car that was wrecked from the rear end. I think the Crown Victoria has the same manifold. Heard anything about anyone using one?

 

[FAKnGT]

from what i heard the intake's are notorious for cracking like the 3.8's exhaust manifolds.
my buddys car does the same thing.
take a good look around the intake.

Ok, so there is one thing I have been thinking long and hard about...How exactly can a problem with the intake manifold cause oil to get into the coolant???

This one really has me stumped. I know that the thermostat housing and the water pump line goes to the intake manifold, but it makes no sense how it could get into the oil. I just want to find out before I rip the intake manifold off. I already think there is a problem with the intake manifold, but I want to try to avoid setting myself up for another dissapointment. Trying to get this done before Friday since my father is visiting and I would like to have my kid running before then.

 

[racin366]

Ok, so there is one thing I have been thinking long and hard about...How exactly can a problem with the intake manifold cause oil to get into the coolant???

It can't, you have people that don't know what they are talking about making guesses. Oil in the water or water in the oil is either a head gasket or cracked block or head. Even if your manifold explodes, which it won't unless you have a biblical backfire, it won't put water in the oil unless you have heads like the dumbass 390 where the manifold shares a sealing area with the valve area of the heads.
You're gonna need to do a compression test to try and narrow down the cause, but if you're losing oil and have contaminated water you got a problem that needs to be fixed asap.

 

[FAKnGT]

Not so sure if I am losing oil anymore. That oil cooler might have been the problem. The only other thing I have been wondering about is swapping out that cooler for the adapter from an automatic. And as for gas in the oil...not lookin like it was that anymore. PEAK brand oil smells like Whiskey. I played chemistry last night and mixed some with water and it came out lookin the same.

As for the intake manifold, I kind of thought that sounded fishy but so many people mentioned it that I thought it was worth a look. Think I'm gonna put it back together and drive it around a bit. I'm thinking if my oil pressure gauge stops ticking then the problem might be solved.