Oil in coolant

[jacek]

Hello, the back story:
I bought this can non running after 7 year hibernation. Not much information about it. I did the leak down test before purchase and all cylinders checked out fine. After finishing the necessary assembly and repairs that you can read about in my other threads i fired it up. As soon as it warmed up and the thermostat opened i got oil coolant mix burping out of the cross over bleeding outlet and in the overflow tank. It got dark so i had to stop for the day. The newly replaced oil is clear, no sign of coolant. But it seems to disappear based on the oil level. I suspect the oil cooler seals. What is the best way to verify that? It could also be the head gasket but the plugs looked good and the engine seems to run fine and does not overheat.

 

[01yellercobra]

You can remove the filter and see if the center fastener is loose. Sometimes just retorquing it is enough. Otherwise if you're checking the o-rings you might as well replace them IMO.

 

[52merc]

Probably oil cooler.

 

[Badaz01]

I deleted my cooler with a gt adapter. Tried rebuilding twice never seemed to seal right after the original O rings went out.

 

[jacek]

Not sure I want to delete an oil cooler. It's there for a reason. Ordered the adapter gasket and o-ring kit

 

[Badaz01]

Not sure I want to delete an oil cooler. It's there for a reason. Ordered the adapter gasket and o-ring kit

It’s pretty much useless from what I’ve been told. The cobra oil pan is big enough it pretty much does the same thing just riding in the wind under the car. The gt’s run without them and so have I for 5000 miles so far do oil analysis every oil change and no different from having to not having it. Idk….

 

[Bullitt1448]

It not a cooler, it’s to warm the oil to in colder temps for emissions

 

[jacek]

That's good to know thank you. But honestly the oil warmer theory does not add up for me. It takes longer in the cold climates for the coolant to warm up so how could it warm up the oil faster? Also the oil temperature exceeds the coolant temperature by quite a bit hence the cooling effect...

 

[Badaz01]

It not a cooler, it’s to warm the oil to in colder temps for emissions

So pretty much useless then?

 

[Bullitt1448]

As on oil cooler, yes. Check out Cobra Engineering’s website for his take on on the so called “oil cooler”

 

[jacek]

I have just looked it up: apparently the coolant heats up a lot quicker than oil so warming up the oil with the coolant initially should work- good catch there. I will consider the delete now. Thank you

 

[Badaz01]

I have just looked it up: apparently the coolant heats up a lot quicker than oil so warming up the oil with the coolant initially should work- good catch there. I will consider the delete now. Thank you

GT adapter is the best way to go imho.

 

[jacek]

bidding on one now ...

 

[jacek]

The non cooler adapter on the way...
In the mean time... I removed the oil cooler and adapter, cleaned and started resealing since the orings came in. First I needed to use my three ton press to remove the cooler from the housing, it was completely corroded in-whole nine yards including lime stone -pretty shocking, i did not expect that. See the pictures attached. The orings were shredded and "ingrown"- couldn't even remove them in one piece. I think somebody was using crappy tap water as coolant. The orings were also pinched visible from outside, see pic. Not sure what's up with that...
There is so much deposit on the fins and they are corroded. Is this one a goner? It looks like i may have leaked internally not only by the orings. Is there a way to test it or i shouldn't bother? I kind of taped the outlets and filled the cooler with oil to see if i can find any leaks from the fin area. I would love to put it back together today and drive it since the cooler delete adapter won't be here until Wednesday..