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Need help water in oil

8

89burban454

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Hello everyone I joined this site a couple days ago and yesterday mt 89 Burban had a bad day. On three way back from work it kept bogging on me. I got home and the previous two days it kept losing coolant so I continued adding coolant and to my surprise all this coolant I was adding was in my oil. Looks like the head gasket or manifold gasket tore. However right now I'm in this dilemma that a crapload of gunk (15 qts) was in the engine. I bought some motor flush from AutoZone and it still coming out with a milky color. Does anyone know of anyways to do a complete motor flush to get rid of this gunk. I'm replacing all gaskets but I want to clean out the engine without having to rebuild it. Any ideas welcome and thanks again head of time for reading.
 
Sounds like yours is pretty severe so you'll need to fix the problem or it'll probably just come back as fast as you do something to clean it out. I just did a 4.3L in a 95 1/2 ton Chevy that was a weird "water-in-oil" one. Compression was great so I was going to pressure test the cooling system but when I started pumping it up I heard hissing at the top of the water pump. The heater hose connector at the top of the water pump was half broken off on the back side (one of those piece of junk quick connect type). I'd also noticed something weird with the valve cover on the passenger side when I did the compression test and figured I'd look into it once I figured out the problem with the water getting into the oil. Turned out it had a blown valve cover gasket, blown out on the top. The water would blow out of the crack in the fitting and onto the top of the engine and then leak down in the engine and mix with the oil. I'd have bet money it was a head gasket or cracked intake when the guy first brought it to me. I did three oil changes (with filters) after I fixed the problems. First I drained it real well and then filled the engine with Dexron ATF. I started it and let it come up to temperature and run for about 20 or 30 minutes, then shut it off and drained it hot. Most, if not all, of the goop came out with just that. Then I filled it with engine oil except that I used 1 quart of ATF in place of 1 quart of oil and had the owner run it that way for about 250 miles, then did another hot drain. Filled it as normal with engine oil and have about 1000 miles on it with no hint of water in the oil and everything looks good. Only loose end is figuring out why the gasket blew out. PCV valve was blocked with crud, so it could have been vapors igniting in the crankcase but then you'd expect blown crank seals. Told the guy he needed to run it on the road more (he uses it to haul hay to his cattle and other stuff around the farm) so that it gets up to temperature more often. Time will tell, I guess. Anyway, try the ATF flush. Worked good for me.
 
Thanks @swinters, my truck is a blown head gasket or the intake. I'd never seen oil look like coffee with cream I'll post up a picture that you can see. Right now I know I'm gonna replace all gaskets and that includes the oil pan because once I complete the flush I wanna make sure everything in the crankcase is clean as well. I've read on about ATF flushes and diesel fuel flushes, kinda crazy is that the diesel fuel flush is something that they do as a common thing back.in the early years and they stopped at the end of the 60. Thanks for y'all help I think I got some good tips on cleaning this thing.
 
89burban454 said:
Thanks @swinters, my truck is a blown head gasket or the intake. I'd never seen oil look like coffee with cream I'll post up a picture that you can see. Right now I know I'm gonna replace all gaskets and that includes the oil pan because once I complete the flush I wanna make sure everything in the crankcase is clean as well. I've read on about ATF flushes and diesel fuel flushes, kinda crazy is that the diesel fuel flush is something that they do as a common thing back.in the early years and they stopped at the end of the 60. Thanks for y'all help I think I got some good tips on cleaning this thing.
Click to expand...

You're welcome. Blown head gaskets are common on the 6.2L so that's not a surprise. My 85 Suburban had a blown head gasket when I got it, though it wasn't mixing oil and water. Just depends one where it decides to let go and how long it's driven. Have your heads checked by a shop familiar with 6.2L heads while you have them off and be sure to use new head studs. I think I saw on here where Leroy Diesel has a deal on them with a set for under $200.00. My Suburban was owned by a dentist and used to pull a large boat. He paid a guy (friend of a friend's brother type of deal) and the guy reused the studs. Ran fine until the first trip towing the boat. On the ATF, I've used it in engines for years. It's basically a 10 weight with a bunch of additives (anti-foaming, stabilizers, etc.). One of it's characteristics is that it keeps contaminants in dispersion, so does a great job of getting stuff out of the engine. Being 10 weight viscosity it tends to flush stuff out of tight areas, too. Not drastic like an engine flush that can break stuff loose and clog up oil ports and stuff. I figured it was worth a try on this job and it seems to have worked fine. I did manually clean out both valve covers and around the rockers when I put in the new valve cover gaskets. Same creamy goop that you're talking about. If it had been my own truck I'd have dropped the pan and cleaned it out too but the owner wanted to keep the expenses down (he's literally a millionaire, so I wasn't going to argue the economics with him) and after the first flush coming out so well figured he was good to go. Probably the reason he's got money in the bank and I'm turning wrenches in retirement to pay for what my wife calls my bad habits (old trucks, guns, home brew gear and stuff like that).
 
Yeah I got the 7.4 454bbc on my Burban. Bout it a couple months ago and the previous owner had mentioned it had over heated on him which should have been my first sign that future problems would come up but the price was the deal breaker. So I took it the truck is in mint condition inside and out. Bad thing now is this is my daily driver and now instead I'll be riding on my Cherolegs lol. Got some work ahead of me to.get this girl back to awesomeness. Thanks for the tip on.changing the head bolts to new ones.

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89burban454- welcome to The Truck Stop.
If you fill out your truck info it would be helpful.

Reading your name I figure you have a 454 gasser, but swinters refers to a 6.2. Big difference in possible problems like water pump backing plate leak causing contaminent vs no way water pump has any influence on a gas bbc.
 
Must have mixed a couple of posts in my mind or something. I see your info in your site name but that doesn't mean much when most of us have multiple items of rolling stock. Probably should fill out your signature with your vehicle info. I've had several 454s myself and they're rugged. Surprised to hear of a blown head gasket on one but overheating will do it. Hopefully they didn't shut it down, fill it with cold water, then start it back up. Engines don't like thermal shock and stuff cracks and warps pretty bad from it. Might want to look at a used engine or at least price one. It'd be a shame to spend a bunch of money on head gaskets, maybe having the heads milled and so on, and then find that you still have a taffy factory.
 
Will L. said:
89burban454- welcome to The Truck Stop.
If you fill out your truck info it would be helpful.

Reading your name I figure you have a 454 gasser, but swinters refers to a 6.2. Big difference in possible problems like water pump backing plate leak causing contaminent vs no way water pump has any influence on a gas bbc.
Click to expand...

The site name doesn't mean a thing to me. Hell, if I thought he was talking about an 89 I wouldn't have been talking 6.2L either. Had just read 4 or 5 posts and then went back to this one. Just shows the importance of filling out your info, or at least putting it in the post.
 
Doubt that the block is gone the thing was still running even with the 15 qts a gunk it had in it. Today I'm doing those flushes and gonna start takin it apart see if there's any internal damage. Crossing fingers that their ain't.

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In regards to that guys I just as I tried to fill out the vehicle area which I still can't find I did put on my Bio that I have a 89 burban with a 454. But if y'all can help out in how to add the vehicle part that be great help

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Odds are good. If you haven't already, you should do a compression test before you tear into it. I know what I know, what I don't know, and who does know, so I talked to a friend of mine a minute ago who builds 454's and he said "1st suspicion, intake manifold gaskets". Says it's a common cause of water and oil mixing on them. He said he doesn't see too many blown head gaskets and that when he does it's from either overheating (I hadn't yet mentioned that yours had been overheated) or improperly torqued during an earlier repair. Compression test will tell you if you have a blown head gasket and, if you do, where at. He said that it you do have to do head gaskets to be sure to replace the head bolts and to clean the head bolt threads in the block or it'll mess up your torque and you'll be back in there doing it again. We'll keep our fingers crossed that your compression is good and that you find a bad intake gasket.
 
You'll have to be in the forum on the web instead of tapatalk and go to"forum actions" above and "edit details" then "edit signature" from there.
Welcome to The Truck Stop!

Sent from my SCH-I535
 
Thanks for that awesome tip, if it's only the manifold gasket that will save me a lot of doe that's for sure

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