All Right Guys I really need some help! Bear with me as I'm gonna explain as deeply as I can. I also posted in the inline six forum, but figured I'd get a bigger audience from both forums.

So I've been having trouble keeping oil in the engine, things I've done so far to correct this:

Removed breather cap and just capped valve cover as it was pushing oil through the breather and onto the valve cover.

Replaced PCV and Grommet for same reason as above.

Pops was tightening my timing gear cover and cracked it, so I JB Welded that shut. Still leaks a bit, but minimal.

Replaced pushrod cover gasket.

And now it seems like I'm losing oil worse than ever!

I lost my dipstick and almost all my oil through the dipstick tube, replaced the dipstick.

Now I'm putting in at least a quart everyday, and my oil idiot light comes on whenever I take a turn, just put in a new radiator and the fluid is kinda brown now (Put it in a week ago, it's possible I just didn't flush the engine that well...)

On top of the pushrod cover is wet, along with the oil pan. so, oil pan gasket is next thing to get replaced.

But today when I went to throw some oil in the oil cap had a strange white froth on it, looked like melted vanilla ice cream. Sound like a head gasket problem? or an I'm an idiot and put too much oil in the engine?

 

You have what I call a milkshake...water in the oil and vice versa from what you have described...in short...your engine needs a complete rebuild as the milky goo is throughout the water and all of the oil galleries and bearings and everywhere...its an UGLY mess inside I promise you that...dont drive it at all...let alone run it...just pull it down and rebuild it stem to stern...its the ONLY PROPER fix...
radiator will need a VERY thourough boiling out as well...gotta get the oil outta there too...new hoses...dont forget to flush or remove and service the heater core as well...


- cs65

 

Camperspecial has a good point. However I recomend one test before you go down that road.

Taste the oil foam. Yes it sounds nuts but is the only way to know if your leaking coolant.
If its sweet you got either a, 1)Blown head gasket. 2)Cracked head. 3)Cracked block.

If you have a leak that can allow plain watter into the system that can also cause some foam. On cool, humid days my dipstick will get a bit foamy.

 

If the radiator inside had the brownish milky look...thats a dead giveaway...water in the oil...regardless how it got there...engine needs a rebuild to properly and thoroughly cleanse the engine of the water out of the oil passages and oil out of the water jackets...In my experience milkshakes dont have much of a smell aside from a nasty oily watery type smell...most of the sweetness anti freeze has for a smell is gone...

- cs65

 

Taste not smell. Very old coolant also turns brown. A head gasket and a flush can save some money. Though I would tank the radiator just for safety.

 

well, here's what I'm thinking, on second look of the radiator, it's just rust, I just didn't flush the engine very well. On the milk, with how much the oil is leaking out and that the only place I could see it like that was on the cap, the fact that all the oil coming out elsewhere looks perfectly normal, and that I'm losing oil so fast,

backtrack a thought... If it is the oil pan gasket that's bad along with others, We've had a lot of rain, drove about 45 minutes in hard rain, and in trying to find oil leaks, took it to a local do it yourself wash and pressure washed it.

where am I going with this? lol I have no idea

 

I would replace the oilpan, valve cover, and lifter gaskets. You should leave the breather cap on. That is what allows air to flow through the engine and clean the vapours out. If you use a closed cap this will not happen. A small amount of murratic acid in the coolant while running right before flushing will clear alot out. Though you will need to fully flush with clean water a few times before refilling with coolant.

 

I wonder where the other end of the pcv tube is ran too? If its clonged or not allowing the engine to breath properly it will cuase oil to be force out of places like dipstick etc. Grated lossing a qt a day is alot.
Just wondering about the breating cycle of the engine!

Mitch

 

the front breather that I capped had no pcv when I got the truck, just a hose stuck in it (basically, looked like an oil bath cleaner with a hole on top), but that goes to the air cleaner, the back one, which I have hooked up, goes to the manifold.

and a qt a day is on a good day, It very very easily is losing more. It is now sitting in front of my house, and I will not be driving it till I can get it sorted through, if I had the money I would rebuild the engine, but I don't... Actually if I had that money I probably would buy a little honda civic that some teenager hasn't f'ed up yet and drive that around while saving some money for this baby.


I must say I find the whole try and turn your civic into a racecar thing quite annoying, they think they're fast until they come up next to me, haha! (not in the slick, it doesn't really have the ***** for it... )

 

Pop the valve cover off...see what the underside of it looks like...if it looks like melted chocolate ice cream...thats water/oil mixed...drain the pan...if its the same...or runs faster...like water...then the sludge will be the last to run out...oil coming out the dipstick tube...plugged oil passage/s...thats the easiest place for the crankcase pressure to get out...I had that happen on a nailhead Buick years ago that had been sitting for a few years...


- cs65

 

Once you get ready to gasket the engine, dump some diesel oil in with the motor oil. That will disolve the sludge and any coolant in the oil system. Drops right out with the oil.

 

IsoGrifo, dont forget! i have a good 240ci 3spd all it will need is a waterpump and a thorough cleaning. i also have a 302 auto from a 79 f100, PM me if you intrested.

 

I think maybe you blew some water INTO the engine when you power washed it and now haven't driven it long enough at one time to vaporize it out.

So, I think if it was mine, I'd replace any leaking-bad gaskets and plug any remaining holes & openings into the engine. Then do as fliplos suggested above: warm the engine, dump a quart of diesel fuel in the motor oil fill hole, run it for another minute or two, then shut it down and change the motor oil and filter, letting it drain good. Then add fresh motor oil and filter, top off the coolant in the radiator and run the engine for a good 15 minutes at ~1500 to 2000 rpms; then shut it down. Let it cool for 5 minutes and pull the oil cap off and see if any milkshake is present. I'd bet it'll be clean. If so, fine; now you can start looking for a new-to-you timing cover and plan to do a better job of flushing the coolant again sometime soon. If it is all milky again, then it does sound like an internal leak of some sort..... Maybe a coolant system pressure test would be the next move.

BarnieTrk