Hi. I am new here. I recently purchased what was seemingly a steal of a van. 1999 E350 van with a 5.4L. Only Has 7700 miles on it.... and that is confirmed as being true. the van is spotless inside and out. looks like a new truck. i spent some money doing a tune up and rearranging the interior to my liking. i have been driving it for a week. runs great. drives like new. i parked it this evening and came out about an hour later to find a milky/ oily slick...

checked the oil ( which i just changed a week ago). not reading on the dip stick. turns out a oily water mixture is oozing out of the coolant reservior.... its obvious a lot of oil has migrated into the coolant. ANY THOUGHTS OF HOW THIS CAN BE?? BLOWN MOTOR??

My only though is. i know this car was practically unused for 7 years. it was started once a month to keep the battery alive. could a bad coolant/ water mixture have froze an cracked the block? or is there something i am not thinking of that could have caused this? any chance this is not catastrophic? i drove it around the block. it still runs and drives like nothing is wrong but i have a feeling this is gonna change very soon

 

Where did the van lived? You mention freezing, how cold does it gets? The coolant, even if old should be good for mid 20s, I guess.

I think you are right with oil getting into the cooling system. I'll drain and flush it first. There is an oil/water head exchanger at the base of the oil filter. I've never heard of them failing but it could be a possibility, and easy to fix. Worst case, one head gasket and even worst cracked block.

With only 77k miles you should have yes problems unless overheated or had only water with no antifreezer.

Good luck.

 

I agree the age of the coolant mix should not be a factor. If a 50/50 mix was used then a cracked block is unlikely.

 

It's from New York City. I will check into that problem you listed. And also the reason why I feel like it would have to be something like the freezing... It doesn't have 77000 miles. It only has 7700 miles

 

And yes I fill the oil correctly and only topped off the antifreeze with 50/50. I don't believe it with anything I did while doing a tune up. I was very thorough

 

I'd suggest doing a pressure test of the cooling system which would confirm an head gasket or other internal engine issues allowing oil and coolant to mix. Very quickly you'll know if there is an internal leak.

Check with AutoZone for a free loaner radiator pressure testing kit. DIY in the driveway or garage at home---I'd not drive the van until all this is sorted out.

Maybe check the transmission dip stick too---see if coolant has seeped into the pan. The thought occurs to me perhaps the trans cooling loop inside the radiator has ruptured or developed a leak---sitting that long this is a possibility.

I'm also in agreement even "old" 50/50 anti-freeze should provide freezing protection down to zero degrees.

 

Might be helpful to pull a carfax history on the VIN.

Do you know if the coolant was a 50/50 mix in the radiator? If not, and it froze overnight, there's your problem.

 

The car fax on it is clean. I am unsure if it was truly mixed 50/50. but i remember the antifreeze being extremely green so it definately had some high concentration of antifreeze.


So after doing some research... the only thought that i have without doing a compression test is could it possibly be the Oil filter adapter gasket went bad? it seems to be that some people had a similar issue with oil being pumped into the antifreeze. but i cant find too much on the subject

 

Oil and coolant mixing at the oil filter is only on engines which have an oil cooler through which the coolant circulates to cool the oil. If you don't have an oil cooler, that isn't the problem.

Bright green coolant is a good sign of high concentration, or the coolant was recently flushed and refilled due to contamination. There is no way to avoid doing the troubleshooting to find the problem. Just do not drive it with oil in the coolant as the coolant could find its way into the oil and that will really destroy an engine in short order.