Jeep Strokers

Golen built 4.6. I just replaced my radiator and obviously flushed and changed my coolant. Besides the flush solution, I filled and flushed system with just distilled water twice over the course of two days. It's got 50/50 in it now and I noticed a couple tiny little droplets of oil floating on the top when I pulled the radiator cap to check it today. The cooling system holds 18 psi just fine over an hour without dropping with my Snap-On tester. The oil looks fine and not milky at all.

I unfortunately suspect the head gasket is starting to let go. Any input? Being too paranoid? It's just a tiny little bit of oil. I will try to get a pic. What other tests could I run?

The oil that the head gasket keeps in is not pressurized. I would expect coolant in the oil instead considering that is pressurized. One possibility is some oil left over from cleaning the block or some got in the coolant passages during assembly.

Hmmm, didn't think about the head gasket not seeing pressurized oil. Makes sense. The motor was assembled in 2005 though so it being left over from assembly seems a stretch. Still, I have a warm fuzzy about it not being the head gasket now, thanks.

Any other WAG's on how it might get there? I should probably have the oil and coolant sent off to be tested. Had anybody here done that before?

Could be something from the radiator assembly.

Other possibility is a crack in the block.

I'd watch it and the oil. If the block is cracked expect to see coolant in the oil. Oil is pressurized higher than the coolant while running. On shut down coolant is still pressurized, but no oil pressure.

Great tips, thanks.

Any chance it could be ATF? Does your radiator have a built in trans cooler? If so, I have seen those leak before and put oil in a cooling system.

JeepsAndGuns wrote:Any chance it could be ATF? Does your radiator have a built in trans cooler? If so, I have seen those leak before and put oil in a cooling system.

Ohhh... good point. I completely forgot about the transmission oil cooler.

Nope, manual tranny. Good thought though.