Well, today I noticed oil residue in my coolant reservoir. Please point me in the right direction as I am not sure if my problem is the head gasket.

• Drained oil looks NORMAL
• Drained coolant looks NORMAL
• Never used water wetter
• Spark plugs are rusty brown in color
• Compression test 190psi on all cylinders
• Turbo HAS shaft play (OG Red)
• No white smoke

I just learned about that shaft play when looking into my problem and realize that my turbo needs replaced. Motor is on E85 with 6,000 miles on it and hasn't been abused. I'm having a hard time believing it's the head gasket...what do you guys think?







This is the coolant from the reservoir only. The rest of the coolant is extremely clean.

 

 

If the compression is fine I would say the head gasket is fine. I guess it could be a bad seal in turbo letting oil into the water coolant passage of the turbo then going back through the radiator. Seems odd though that its in the resivoir but nowhere else. Also if you use regular tap water it will turn a brown color after a while. Thats why alot of people use distilled water to mix coolant. The rusty spark plugs is interesting.

 

There's no connection between the water jacket in the turbo cartridge and the oil passageways. So, no seal to fail. The only way for oil to get into the coolant from the turbo cartridge is for the metal of the cartridge to crack.

 

Thanks, good info.


What's your take on it being the head gasket even though the car doesn't have the usual blown head gasket symptoms?

 

Glad someone else knows about the inside of the turbo. I wasn't sure if there was a seal in there or not. Thinking about it, it wouldn't make much sense to have a seal in there.

 

It's all good...I didn't know either.

 

Well, those spark plugs look kinda weird but I've never used E-85. Brown gunk does accumulate in the jug even if you mix distilled water with antifreeze.

I'd say clean out the jug and then keep an eye on it. If the head gasket is bad, the problem doesn't go away, it only gets worse.

 

Added new pictures.


I emptied the coolant from the reservoir into a clear bottle. The coolant drained from the radiator is extremely clean.


This is really bugging me...I can't figure it out!

 

Did you install the head gasket dry or did you use copper spray?

 

Nope. Just the head gasket.

 

Did the leak down test 3 times while the engine was dead cold and averaged the results. Only place I could hear air escaping was from the dipstick which is normal.

Cyl 1-2%
Cyl 2-4%
Cyl 3-3%
Cyl 4-2%

Each cylinder was at 190psi when I did a compression test. I would say the engine is pretty damn healthy!

Any other suggestions?