bunz315

I am a new-ish member and a first time poster.
I have a 2006 2.2LT with 122,000 miles.
Long story short, I have put about 6 gallons of coolant into my car over the last few months. Right now I am going through about half a gallon a week. I have no idea where the coolant is going. I just changed my oil and didn't find any water in it; however, the oil came out brown. I have done a pressure test on the system with no problems. I have done a pressure test on the cylinders with no problems. No leaks inside the cabin from the heating core, that we can immediately see. Checked, and replaced, the spark plugs and saw no evidence of burning coolant, did this a month before the pressure test on the cylinders. No visible leaks on the ground or anywhere under the hood. Checked the transmission fluid and saw no problems.
A friend of mine who is a mechanic has been helping me and it is blowing his mind as to where the coolant is going.
Any ideas or tips? I have searched a little through the forums and haven't found much help. Please send me a link if this has been discussed before.

843de

to the forum bunz315!

Well if you would have said anything but "brown" oil, I'd have said you've got an external leak somewhere that is evaporating before it leaves a puddle, and to get a dye kit and a black light to track the leak down.

However, brown oil(like chocolate brown), indicates an internal leak into the engine. You might have a head gasket that is leaking at operating temperature, a crack in the head, or in the worst case scenario....a cracked block.

Have you done a leak-down test on the cylinders, or have you looked into the engine with a scope to see if one or more if the cylinders is suspiciously "clean" and free of the normal carbon deposits?

One quick and effective test to detect coolant/water in the oil is to take a drop of the suspect oil and drip it onto the exhaust manifold. If it just smokes then there is a good probability the oil is free of coolant, but if it sizzles like a drop of water on a hot frying pan, you've got trouble.

bunz315

Have not done any of the tests you mentioned. I called Napa to see about an oil analysis test and the guy said it has to be a coolant leak into the oil for it to be brown like that.
How do I do a leak down test? We pulled the spark plugs for the cylinder test and just looked down into them and they looked "normal" but no scope, yet.

843de

Here's a video from Eric The Car Guy on how to do a leak down test......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgrfT...layer_embedded

It may help you pinpoint which cylinder has the issue, but you're now looking at pulling the cylinder head at a bare minimum to see what's going on in the engine.

Coolant in the oil will lead to the eventual destruction of the engine, so this is one repair to handle A.S.A.P.

firemangeorge

Yep, sounds like a definite internal leak. By chance did the car run hot before this problem showed up?

barfan1

I would say your head gasket is done, unfortunately. A leak down test will confirm, you can get the testor at any auto parts store for pretty cheap. You take out the plugs and screw in the adapter and apply air pressure and then see if the each cylinder will hold the pressure. You should have leakdown on at least one cylinder, it doesn't matter which one because the headgasket has to be replaced and will fix all of the leaks.

donbrew

About $1000 for a head gasket job, you don't know what damage has been done to the bearings. About $2000 for an under 10,000 mile "junk yard" engine installed. I just went through this, you do your own math. For that matter, a crate engine runs about $5000 installed, if you can find one.

foolmoon_design

Are you sure its Brown and not-a rusty orange? That would be the proper color for Dex-Cool Fluid.

unless of course it's your oil that looks like that.

My experience with that, the oil looked like a light milk chocolate, and had the consistency of warm wax when collant got in there. mine was from a cracked block(mustang)

bunz315

I have no idea. I was driving up and down some hills here in SLC one day last fall and I noticed the temp gauge climbing up to the red mark so I stopped and turned the car off. Got to a parts store and added coolant, the reservoir bottle was empty. That is when this all started

bunz315

Yes it was brown like milk chocolate. I drained it then poured it into a mason jar to look for water but never found any. If coolant is leaking into the oil, this seems to be the problem, why am I not seeing any water? Would the coolant mix with the oil and not separate? (Is this why the oil is brown?)