Was having a leaky oil issue, thinking it was coming from my oil pan I decided to remove it to reseal with an actual gasket. Upon removing pan I see milky oil. Oil seemed a bit thinner as well. Coolant seal must be leaking some where. How can I determine this? I'm assuming only way is take apart engine. Also if coolant channels are rusty can those housings be salvageable? Car ran perfectly fine with no smoke. This was on my 87 s4 na

 

pressure test cooling system. preferably before you put the pan back on

 

Never done that before. How would I go about doing that?

 

you can use this but you need to remove the water pump housing: https://www.pineappleracing.com/cool...estercspt.aspx

or get a generic cooling system test, like mitivac or others available

 

I have the tester mentioned above from pineapple racing. For easier testing, I’d use a generic one that goes on the radiator cap from oreillys, pep boys, autozone, etc.

but you should also use a block tester and fluid to see if exhaust gasses are getting into the coolant. Blue fluid turns yellow when exposed to carbon monoxide.

 

I did the coolant pressure test I get to pump up almost 15 psi but doesn't hold and slowly drops back to zero. Don't see any leaks on the outside though. Rad hoses, etc. Also nothing was leaking from the bottom of engine as well, oil pan is off. Car ran just fine. No smoke or anything. I'm stumped.

 

What would even cause that to happen?

 

I see exhaust manifold castings repaired with Aluminum bronze due to the difficulty of welding/filling cast iron...can't see why using this process wouldn't work to restore side iron coolant channel failures. This is a big problem with the age of these motors. Aluminum bronze has a couple hundred degrees F. better heat tolerance then silicon bronze.

 

just condensation from sitting 😆