Hi, I have done alot of research on my problem, but I am still not 100% confident I know what's going on. Maybe someone could give me a better idea. There is what appears to be oil floating at the top of my radiator suddenly after a weekend of high revving fun in the evo. The internals of the engine are completely stock. I am running 26 psi on the stock turbo and I had thought about replacing my head studs to the ARP's. For all I know this is what the problem is? The stockers stretched? I ordered a head gasket and ARP Head Studs already but I would like to know the other possibilities. For all I know it could be rust in the radiator, but there is also a little bit of the brown stuff in the overflow tank too, and since it was a hard weekend for the car and it appeared right after I figured oil. THANKS

 

Oil is prob mixing with the antifreeze from a hairline crack on the head gasket. Best bet is change the head gasket first and flush out your cooling system so it can be monitored after.

 

I really appreciate the input. This newb (me) lives no where near a good shop so I have to fix my problems myself eeek

 

i highly doubt your headbolts stretched. very unlikey

most likely just a head gasket causing this

 

thanks!

 

you could use a block tester. that should tell you if you have a leaking gasket due to stretching

 

never heard of that. thanks. i will look it up.

 

If its oil it will look like chocolate milk after it mixes with the water. It will be all in the cooling system radiator head and block. I would flush the system really really good first. Replace the antifreeze and let the car run for a couple of minutes if the substance starts floating up again as little brown bubbles its oil. It could be coming from head gasket with a best case scenario. Worst case is cracked head or block if it was ran hard wwhile being at high temps.

 

Very similar symptoms to what i had. It's most likely the headgasket but there is a few thing you can do to pinpoint the problem. Leakdown test, compression test, Cooling system pressure test

 

There would have to be more than "a little bit of brown stuff" in my antifreeze before I'd start tearing things apart. Remember, this car has a cast iron block. A little bit of brown stuff is normal.

 

Could some explain more about the block tester?

 

Yes I never heard of a block tester as well

 

block tester ? first time to hear it.

 

I think the item referred to is an antifreeze tester that tests for products of combustion. In other words, checking to see if gases from the combustion chamber are leaking to the cooling jacket.

I know of one person who had this test done with a negative result only to later find that the head gasket was indeed blown. This may have been a bad machine, a bad operator or maybe the test isn't that accurate. Dunno.