Milkshake for Oil

Tiny
MJWIDD
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  • CHEVROLET IMPALA
I think my head gasket might be leaking into my oil. I'm losing water and my oil level seems to be increasing. Also lack of power at takeoff. Any comments would be appreciated.
Thursday, January 5th, 2006 AT 7:50 PM

6 Replies

Tiny
PALCO
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  • 83 POSTS
If its milkshake for oil then yes your getting coolant in your oil, and it sounds like a head gasket
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Thursday, January 5th, 2006 AT 8:02 PM
Tiny
TLLCP12
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I have a 1988 Cadillac Deville, and I had water in my oil, which turned it white. The engine ran normal, but obviously it wasn't. I thought that it was the head gaskets, so I tore the engine down and replaced all of the gaskets. It fixed it, but it was not the head gaskets. It was the intake manifold gaskets, but I just wanted to be sure. I recommend either doing that, or taking it somewhere and have pressure tests done. It could also be your heads themselves. Thanks
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Friday, January 6th, 2006 AT 12:05 PM
Tiny
ROCK
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Careful, it's not ALWAYS a leaking cooling system, but in your case it probably is because you said you're losing coolant.

I had a similar "milkshake" problem with my MG 30 years ago. Living in California, I had removed the thermostat in my naive attempt to make cooling more efficient. Everything was fine. Until I moved to Ohio and winter set in.

I went on a long winter trip (8 hours of driving) and it was near 10 degrees F through the whole thing. Just as I returned home and pulled into my driveway, my oil-light came on. Investigation revealed that all of my engine-oil had turned into "milkshake" as you called it, and it was all clung to the inside of my engine-block and valve-cover as whipped-cream. So there was no longer any oil-flow, which made the oil-pump run dry. Lucky for me I had made it home.

Without the thermostat, the engine and its oil never reached the proper temperature. It was warm enough to heat the inside of the car, but any water that got into, or condensed, inside the engine-block (main by-product of combustion is water, and it was snowing thru most of that trip) couldn't "boil off" or "remain in vapor", and it all got whipped into the oil, which turns it all into whipped cream.

So I put the proper thermostat back in and I never had that problem again. A stuck-open thermostat would have the same symptoms.

BTW, don't make the mistake of just adding more oil willy-nilly. All that oil-foam will reconstitute back into a liquid when the engine reaches a high-enough temperature, and you'll have an over-filled crankcase.
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Friday, January 6th, 2006 AT 2:06 PM
Tiny
DARRYL
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Hello: Like the posts said, if oil has white look to it, then water getting into oil. If oil level is increasing and no white looking stuff then you could be pumping raw fuel into the crankcase which will raise the level and drastically thin the oil and cause a failure of all parts that rub together. Determine what it is, but at first it does sound like water getting into oil, key here is look for the oil to get lighter in color. Look at oil filler cap etc.
Good luck
Darryl.
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Sunday, January 8th, 2006 AT 9:00 AM
Tiny
PALCO
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The post didn't mention a year. And with the newer models they use a orange long lasting coolant. Wich doesn't turn the oil white untill large amounts. The milkshake looks more brown at first, then gets lighter as ratio increases.
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Sunday, January 8th, 2006 AT 11:07 AM
Tiny
MARKANDMELISSA514
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Thats sound like what happen when I blow out the head in my 2.3
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Monday, January 9th, 2006 AT 9:36 PM

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