zombie_stomp

As the title says, I have oil showing up in the coolant reservoir, but the oil on the dipstick is clearly just oil, no chocolate milk appearance. I guess I can't be 100% sure that it is not also contaminated without draining it completely, but I'm pretty sure. Engine still has all the power it did and is not overheating.

I'm writing to check with others who may have had this same experience before I go ahead and throw a head gasket at it. I have a friend who's willing to help and assures me the two of us can knock it out in a few hours no problem.

About 20k miles ago I did do the timing chain and snuck the timing cover out from under the front part of the head, as I've done before with my 2wd, and with again only minimal tiny external oil weepage at that seam where I did my best to clean and apply sealer.

I'm wondering if anyone knows the 22r well enough to point out places other than the head gasket area that the possibility for oil to flow into coolant exists. To me it is baffling- the coolant seems much more likely to flow into the oil since I think of it as being like steam pressure, water is thinner, etc.

I'm looking for places folks might recommend to check while I do the head gasket, and wondering if I should get prepared to pull the timing cover and reseal that or any other non-head gasket oil-coolant confluence while I'm at it for any reason.

osv

is there any mayonnaise underneath the radiator cap? how about inside the very top of the radiator? have you done a compression test?

i'd be tempted to clean the radiator overflow out really well, get rid of the mayonnaise in there, then start monitoring it.

we can't say that throwing a head gasket at it is the right approach, because we don't have all the info... if, for instance, there are 300,000 miles on the engine, it'll need rebuilding, not a head gasket.

zombie_stomp

It became obvious that it was the head gasket once it started running low on coolant without visible leaks. That confirmed it for me, along with the realization that it wasn't just oil from some mystery passage, it was blacker than that, and contained a small amount of oil residue from blowby, but more carbon, smelled like gas a bit, kind of like some combustion chamber blowby, which is exactly what it turned out to be.

It started running on 3 cylinders until warmed up and revved high enough, blowing clouds of steam intermittently (usually at a stage of warming up or warming back up), and missing on one cylinder intermittently and lacking power.

During my sketchy week of filling up with water before and after my commute, I ordered parts including a set of new head bolts in addition to the Fel Pro head gasket kit, a jug of oil, coolant, and an oil filter. I found a friend of a friend whose garage I could use to do the work in. We had heavy bursts of rain sometimes mixed with hail, so I'm grateful for having found the garage for the weekend, I wouldn't have been able to do it outside. Plus he had a shop vac which was great for cleaning up gasket scrapings, slurry of brake cleaner and gunk, grime and dirt. It was a grueling weekend of work doing this head gasket job myself.

I got paranoid about letting the timing chain get offset by a tooth, but my friend dropped by and convinced me it was fine. I had already zip tied the chain to the upper sprocket, the #1 cylinder was at TDC on compression, the locating pin for the cam at 12:00, and as long as I had it this way upon reinstallation, it was imposssible to mess up. I even tried to get the bottom timing chain sprocket to skip a tooth, and I couldn't, the timing chain guides wouldn't let it go that low. ('82 double row timing chain with metal guides on both sides stock, I had done the timing chain already 20k miles ago.)

Upon disassembly, I lapped the head on a piece of 1" thick aluminum plate with 220 grit and 320 grit. Lots of passes to get that little pitted spot near where the gasket metal ring rusted through. In the photo it has been pried up at this spot. A little concerning pitting on the block in said location between the combustion chamber and water jacket, but if it blows again, I'll know where it blew and hopefully be near a replacement short block. If not, hopefully I'll be in a good position to drive something else while rebuilding that bottom end.

It all went back together fine and my only mistake after setting the valve clearances and ignition timing was to leave the valve cover acorn nuts finger tight on the drive home. I lost almost a quart of oil and one of the acorn nuts. I found one of the nuts at the salvage yard though, and am pretty well cleaned up and re-oiled after that. No coolant loss so far, and any oily sheen seen on the top is minimal and residual from the cooling system. I didn't have time to flush the system or anything, just to clean that reservoir out as good as I could by stuffing a rag in there and using soap and hot water to scrub with whatever rag pushing tools I could improvise.

I'm glad I got that oil filter. I usually only change them every other oil change, but this time when I unscrewed the filter, nothing came out, and it was not liquid inside. I am convinced that the filter became clogged from oil combining with water. The oil level was fine and the oil was not that dirty other than the water. Apparently there is some kind of filter bypass circuit, because I didn't notice anything unusual that could have been a lubrication system failure, I don't think. Then again, I let it sit cold for 2 days with not only the filler cap but the entire head, whereas I usually run the engine before an oil change to heat and thin the viscosity of the oil. Maybe the filter had time to naturally drain and empty because of this, and wasn't clogged at all.

Engine is happy now.

millball

Good Work!!