Hi Peter,

Will check a) and b) tomorrow.. need to let the car cool.

As for c), the coolant temp guage behaves as it always has. It rises
to central as the car warms up, then stays dead-on until the car cools
down. Never seen it do anything but this (but of course I wasn't
present when he drove it).

I wonder, if he drove the engine hard, could he consume oil to the
point where the engine overheats, then coolant boils over and spews
from the globe. Is this a possible scenerio? There's some dried
dribble down the side of it, but that could be due to bad aim when
filling. Or what if the fan isn't working? In either case, I suppose a
warning light should come on..

Thx, Paul

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S i g n a l @ l i n e o n e . n e t

Three questions:

a) When the engine is dead-cold, and you release the coolant cap, do
you get a *POP*?
b) When you are done with a moderately long drive (that is, the engine
reached full operating temperature for at least 10 minutes), put the
car in the garage and allow to get cold as above (overnight). When you
remove the oil-fill cap, is there any grey/white/pale-brown foamy
sludge on the cap... about the consistency of warm vaseline?
c) What does your temperature gauge do? Does it cycle between hot and
cold rapidly?

If yes to the first, you have either a blown head-gasket or a cracked
head. Either way, some oil and coolant may be being blown out your
exhaust.

If yes to the second, you are getting coolant into your oil via some
mechanism which then reacts with the oil to form the sludge. This last
test must be done only after the engine has been run at full operating
temperature for sufficient time to clear all the natural condensate
from cold starting out of the oil. So do not be overly alarmed if you
see such sludge after a series of short trips with the engine cooling
between each one. "False Positives" are common.

Lastly, it could be that your thermostat is malfunctioning. If your
engine is running cold, fuel consumption will increase greatly. If the
stat is short-cycling, then excess pressure will build in the engine
loop, blow-off coolant and so forth. The engine will overheat a bit and
use excess oil, then cool suddenly when the stat does open. All of it
simply *not good*.

If "NO" to all of the above, then fill to nominal levels and keep a
real eye on it. Betcha your friend drove at very high speed at
something of a load. Oil consumption is logarithmic... the first bit
takes a long time to use, the second bit much less, and so forth as
less and less oil is in the sump to handle heat and wear.

But in a complete vacuum, from a distance, not seeing the car and given
its approximate age and condition... I lean to the T-Stat.

Peter Wieck
Wyncote, PA

Sorry for being dim I'm not only learning about cars.. ;-)

I asked before about a burning smell, now I think that's the clutch so
scratch that..

My problem is I've had constant coolant level and marginal oil
consumption for years. I lent my car out for one day and both dropped
below minimum. I just hope the coolant isn't in the oil. Could
somebody look at the following pictures and say if they look OK for
synthetic oil, or does the chocolate colour suggest contamination?

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/4947/oil2bo.jpg
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/2020/oil20lo.jpg

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S i g n a l @ l i n e o n e . n e t