Its a brand new build... fresh bore, .030 trw forged pistons, xe274h cam/lifters/springs, rebuilt heads with the 2.09/1.66 valves....

Put the engine in and it fired right up really nice, only problem is the oil looks like chocolate milk and there is a brown 'sludge' floating on top of the radiator and under radiator cap...Did we not get the head gasket sealed? Should I do a complete teardown now that the new bearings, cam etc has been run in this damn chocolate milk??? tell me something good hopefully....

 

For oil to get into the water, we are probably talking a cracked block.

The head gaskets seal only oil returning to the sump, not pressurized oil.

The water is under pressure during operation and for some time after shutdown due to the heat in the system, so it is not unusual to see water in the oil with a bad head gasket.

Oil in the water....not so good.

Carefully inspect things as you pull it apart.

 

thanks for the reply...the block was supposed to have been checked for cracks when the machine work was done,,,,,brand new radiator, new hoses etc, getting brown sludge under cap and floating on top of water....

 

I would guess your intake gasket is leaking. Not that uncommon as the FE intake can be a pain to fit. If you add some dye in the coolant, run it (w/fresh oil), then drain coolant and pull the intake, you should be able to find a snail trail with a blacklight if it's the culprit. Have you pressure checked the coolant system?

If it's not a gasket leak (intake or head) then it's probable one of the oil galleys that feeds the heads from the #2 and #4 cam bearings could have cracked. It happens sometimes. They run very close to the head bolts. It won't show up when magnafluxed. Sometimes you can coat the head bolt liberally with RTV and it'll seal up.

If not then you can also sleeve the oil galley with a 300 I6 pushrod cut to the right length. You want to make sure you don't make contact with the cam bearing. You can use anything (like a coathanger) to check the depth of the hole. Sometimes you'll find a lip where the dia. decreases, that's the length you need. Some people have used a 1/4" roll pin to do the same thing. The oil galley dia. can vary a little and it should be a press fit so you just have to use some type of tubing to make that happen, you get the idea.

Probable cause and repair options are listed in order of things to check and solutions to perform.

Good luck

 

so is it possible for a leaky intake to get oil in the water AND water in the oil???

 

i'd check intake too , did you stick with cast iron manifold ?

 

its an edel performer rpm intake

 

So if i get lucky and its just an intake gasket leak, are the main, rod and cam bearings likely ruined from running in that chocolate milk water/oil mess????

If those cracks wont show up when magnafluxing the block, is there any way to check for those cracks when building a new 390??

I am not sure whether I should pull the motor and check all bearings for damage even if it is just an intake gasket leak...the crankcase was FULL of that chocolate milk mess ........advice please, thanks.

 

If you caught it quick and you think the intake was the problem, I'd flush everything real good and give it a try. You have nothing to lose at this point. Just keep a close eye on everything.

 

LIKE 69cj said noting to loose . did you use permatex #2 around water jackets when you put manifold on ?

 

How do I go about flushing the oil out of the coolant and the coolant out of the oil???

Gonna pull the intake later on today......

 

For the oil I'd get a cheap filter and 5 qts. of cheap oil, run it for 10 minutes, drain and put the good stuff in. The cooling system can be flushed with some simple green . The hoses should be changed since they absorb some of the oil.