Coolant in the oil turns it the color of peanut butter.

Although it is possible it doesn't match the normal pattern. Every blown 4G63 HG I've heard about resulted in air in the water jacket and coolant in the jug and then on the ground. It watch it a bit before jumping to any conclusions.

According the the weather man you've been having some cold days there. Maybe that has something to do with what you are seeing.

 

Milkey, peanut butter, same thing There was defiantly a mixure of water and oil in my catch can. Same type of fluid mixture you would USUALLY find on the underside of the oil cap. BUT there wasn't anything on the bottem of the oil cap or the dipstick. It's the oil in the coolant that worries me.

Shouldn't you feel a loss of power, or see tons of white smoke under load/boost? I'm not which make me think I'm only at the beginning stages or a bad headgasket. If I'm lucky, It's nothing.

 

I cleaned out my coolant resivior today. Along with that I figured I'd try starting the car with the rad. cap off to see if the coolant rises or bubbles. Well, it didn't bubble! But it did rise Is that telling me there is an air pocket somewhere in the cooling system cause by compression?

I want to drive the car and see if any of this continues. But I don't want to risk making anything worse. Maybe moisture in the catch can was from sitting. Maybe my coolant and resivoir are just drity. Since I've owned the car, I haven't changed the coolant. I was planning to along with my turbo upgrade since I'll need to change coolant lines anyway.

Like I've said about 4754398 times before, I'm getting no loss of power, and no white smoke under boost. Even with a small leak, shouldn't I get both of those?

Compression and/or leak down test is soon to come. I know I keep posting way too much, but it's my way of venting

 

the coolant does rise with heat. that is normal

do the leakdown, that will give you the best answer

 

It didn't rise after the car was warm. It rose in the matter of seconds after a cold start.

 

Last summer I had the same water-oil emmulsion in the catch you speak of. About 5mL of it. It was from several short drives that day, I emptied it and never seen it again.

It's probably only water vapor. Don't you think that if coolant was making it's way into the sump and you see it at the catch that if you were to open the oil plug the sludge will definately be seen there too?

With engine running with radiator cap removed, now you have to bleed the air out of the system so it works most efficiently. An easy way is with a funnel sealed to the top of radiator with water in it. Squeeze the hose to push trapped bubbles out, then drain from bottom valve until level with top. Put the radiator cap back on and keep it there. Always fill through the reservoir.

 

You make a very good point. I'm still going to try a compression test tomorrow. If I notice low compression in any cylinders then I'll follow up with a leak down test.

As far as bleeding the coolant system, I don't see the need. I started the car with the cap on, and took it off for about 4 seconds. It didn't pull any air in. I use those coolant funnels at work. They're pretty niffty

Thanks for the advice. Seeing that somebody else has noticed water in their catch makes me feel a little better. The only thing that still worries me is the resivoir cap and tube with the little white speckles or oil/water condensation and dirty coolant.

 

I asked some of my much more intellengent friends and techs at work about it and they all bascially called me stupid. Telling me easpcially on a boosted car if the headgasket was blown I'd know it. On guy telling me about his boosted integra when it blew a headgasket. I feel a little more at ease.

They tell me it's simply just water vapor, which it does seem to be. I was just freaked out. I got made fun of all day for being so paranoid

Don't mind my lame catch can. It's cheap, but it works. I'm content, for now

 

Better off paranoid than broke

 

You can move one of them out and have the whole garage to work on one. Invest in a space heater. You plug that bad boy in and you'll be good to go

 

Ohh, I must've forgot to mention, it's my parents garage. I use it all the time, but I don't know if they'd let me use it completly over winter. If this was the summer, I'm sure it'd be no big deal.

Oh well, I'm pretty sure there isn't a headgasket issue. Like C6C6CH3vo said I agree. I kept saying all day that I'd rather over react than under react. The guys at work just like giving me a hard time

 

You shouldn't have any oil in your coolant. There is no doubt that is a head gasket sealing issue. You will want to fix that before it gets any worse. Once you get oil in your coolant it may take many flushes to get it all out!

 

It's hard to tell if it's oil in the coolant or just dirty coolant. I showed this and mentioned it to many people at work and I'm told not to worry. I know that I have never changed the coolant since I've owned the car. so it could very well just be dirty coolant.

Everybody says that a blown headgasket is unmistakable, and I'm not having any OBVIOSU symtoms. If my catch wasn't clear, I'd have no idea or ever think about my headgasket being bad.

 

It's been about a week. I've driven the car here and there trying to dry out any condensation out of my catch and/or noitce anymore blown headgasket symptoms. Well, I failed at both attempts. I still get a milky substance in my catch, and no more obvious signs of a blown headgasket. I just cleaned out my catch once more and tried to blow out any condensation or water vapor with compressed air. The water vapor that is collecting in the catch is just clear, and you can't smell any sweetness of anti-freeze in the catch. Good sign?

I've done very many high boost pulls, long highway drives, just about a full tank of gas really. Nothing is getting any worse. I haven't noticed my coolant level going down or get any dirtier. It's almost like I'm coaxing my headgasket to blow. Of course I don't want it to, but it's just a test, which so far, I think it's passed.

Just as a referance, I checked in my dad's eclipse's resivior. This car I know for a fact does not have any head sealing issues since the 6 bolt swap, and never did when the car was stock. His resivior looked very similar to mine. A slimy dirty substance on the walls of the resivior (kind of looks oily) and a little bit of white crust on the tube. Normal for a high mile car? I do have almost 77k on my car by the way. And again, I've never changed the coolant since I've bought the car 15k miles ago. I went and picked up some new coolant and I'm going to change it out.

Also, I know another sign of a headgasket, or loss of coolant (whether it be water pump, coolant hose, etc.) is you lose the heat in the cabin. Well, I'll tell you, if I have the heat on high, my knuckels downright start to burn from the heat, haha. It's unbareable I need to turn the heat down.

And again, no loss of power, no white smoke, no over heating. I've been told to go do a pull and watch on decel. for over heating. Nothing.

I stumbled across another thread similar to mine and turns out that Redline Water Wetter may have been used. Well, I've never used that stuff in my car. Has the previous owner? I have no idea.

I've asked a friend of mine, who happens to have over 10 years of turbo and general car experience, about this situation. He's been through blown headgaskets on his turbo integra. He's convinced there is nothing wrong and I'm just a paranoid retard. He tells me a blown headgasket on an NA car and turbo car are pretty different. Turbo cars, it's more obvious, and there usually aren't any grey areas. It's either blown or not. It can't really be "a little blown", especially with boost as high as 24psi. It makes sence.

And most threads I've read similar to mine, it's usually nothing. And threads I read about headgasket actually being blown there is build up on the oil cap, literally oil drops in the coolant, high clouds of white smoke under load. I have none of these.

I was going to do a compression test but the tech with the tester left before I could ask for it. I didn't have time to do a leak down either for it's a little more involved. I know both these tests will give me an answer and I really need to do them to find out for sure.