What does it mean when oil in radiator water, runs hot, and grinding noise

Asked by Becca1960 May 22, 2013 at 08:41 PM about the 1991 Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight 4 Dr Regency Elite Sedan

Question type: General

4 Answers

255

Oil in your water means your head gasket is leaking or intake manifold. Do you have water in your oil? Does your oil look milky? Wile the car is running, do you have air/compression coming out of the top of the radiator? When you first start or car or while the engine is running, is there white/gray smoke coming from the exhaust? These are all signs of a bad head gasket. The grinding noise is likely to be your water pump. Take your belt off and try to move your water pump pulley back and forth/ in and out ... checking for play in your water pump bearings.

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What size engine? The only type of engine that will allow oil to mix into the coolant is an overhead cam engine.... if it's not an overhead cam the ONLY place oil will enter the coolant is in the radiator.... the oil enters the head through the push rods, there is no pressurized oil in the head, if there was a crack in the head gasket the coolant would be leaking into the oil not oil In the coolant. For fluids to transfer, one fluid has to be at a higher pressure than the other the lack of oil pressure in the head and the coolant being pressurized means the coolant would transfer. The radiator however has oil at 30+ psi where the coolant is only about 13 the oil will overcome coolant and make its way in, the tiny amount of coolant that would enter the oil cooler after the vehicle was shut off would most likely burn off in the following trip...... Your "oily"substance could be a film of dirt buildup the grinding could be your water pump and a bad pump will cause overheating

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