i dont think its the heat exchanger. it is burning the coolant and the coolant has gas in it, not oil. the oil was quite nasty.

i have got the upper plenum removed and all of the harness and vacuum out of the way. the plenum has the coolant/gas gunk in it. is there a reasonable way that the coolant would get up into the dry plenum from a head gasket failure? it seems that it would have to be an intake gasket failure for that to happen. the only way the intake would get coolant in it from the head gasket would be the intake valve and if that is open the cylinder is in a vacuum. so it would suck the coolant into the cylinder but as cylinder pressure builds the intake has to be closed, effectively sealing the passage to the intake plenum. does this make sense?