Hey Guys,

Have a question for the mechanics out there, and thought maybe this forum could help answer an issue for me.

Friend has a '85 Porsche 944. He got the car with a blown head gasket. The oil that came out of the engine looked like iced coffee. He drained the oil, did not change the filter. Put on a new headgasket. Ran the car for 15 minutes and then it died. Car wouldn't restart.

Engine was leaking oil out the bottom end, so he decided to rebuild the engine. So he asked for my help.

So today we yanked the engine out of the car. It was a filthy mess, so we put it in the back of the pickup, drenched it with degreaser and then took it to the coin op car wash and cleaned the engine up.

Went back to the garage, put the engine on the hoist and then fitted it to engine stand. While it was on the hoist I noticed that there was milkshake oil leaking out of the front end of the head gasket.

We took the heads off and the newly replaced head gasket was torn (my friend who replaced it is not that mechanically inclined). The head bolts were torqued unevenly. The bolts holding the valve covers on most were barely hand tight.

When the heads came off I was surprised to find a half cup of oil in the top of each of the cylinders. The oil in last cylinder, seemed like good oil. Moving toward the front of the engine the oil was a lighter shade of brown moving progressively forward.

In the area outside the cylinder walls at the front of the engine was more of the iced coffee/milk shake oil concoction.

So my question is... How did all the oil get into the cylinders? The only thing I could think of is when the engine was on it's side for an hour in the back of the pickup. But then I couldn't figure out where the oil would come from to get into all 4 cylinders. And also why would the oil be different colors in each cylinder.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Dave B

 

Hard to tell. If the head was that loose, it is easy to make a mess. Oil probably seeping into the cylinders from the valve area. The milkshake oil is water in the oil. Maybe just the head gasket problem, or signs of a bigger problem. Check the block for cracks. MC

 

I'm not familiar with porches. But every engine I've taken apart had oil and coolant passages that went through the block and the cylinder head. The head gasket seals those passages so they don't leak between each other. If the head is improperly torqued oil and coolant will get into combustion chamber. When oil and coolant mix it turns the color of iced coffee.

 

The mechanical term for this sticky stuff is emulsified oil. It is as the above says, when the coolant and the oil mix. If this is in the combustion side of the pistons I would suggest stripping them out and giving the block a very good clean and fit new piston rings. I have had to do this on a few cars. Bit of a pain but is well worth it.

 

"We took the heads off and the newly replaced head gasket was torn (my friend who replaced it is not that mechanically inclined). The head bolts were torqued unevenly. The bolts holding the valve covers on most were barely hand tight."

That description would indicate how the oil got into the cylinders as the head bolts were loose. The engine is cooled from one end to the other---coolant flows from one end and out the other, the reason for different shades of color? Also, water could have seeped in at the car wash?

"He drained the oil, did not change the filter. Put on a new headgasket. Ran the car for 15 minutes and then it died. Car wouldn't restart."

The oil filter had some of the old stuff that mixed with the new oil. The car ran for 15 minutes...about the time for water to dilute the fuel mixture and cause it to "not start". He was lucky as I have seen many engines that had blown pistons due to coolant in the chambers.

 

Enough said.

 

Need to have those heads checked out and get some new bolts