Folks,
I'm appealing to the shop-talk group wisdom on this one. Earlier this
year my in-laws gave us their 1995 Buick Century with the 3.1l V6. It was
Grammy's car with only 105k miles - she can't drive anymore which is why we
got it. It's I really good shape except for the coolant in the oil problem.
When we got it the thermostat wasn't working so I put one in. After that it
started losing coolant. The radiator had a leak at one tank seam (aluminum
core with plastic tanks) so I replaced it. Still losing coolant but not
externally - you guessed it - it was leaking into the oil. My final test
before taking anything apart was to pressurize the cooling system with the
oil drain plug removed and coolant basically ran out directly correlated to
the pressure. Apparently this engine is known for having intake gasket
issues. I pulled everything off and it doesn't look good. The oil looks
like a gross milkshake.
The question - I don't want to replace/rebuild the engine if I can help
it. I figure if I can replace the gaskets (parts roughly $150, my labor -
priceless) and get enough life out of it I'll be coming out ahead!
Has anyone had any experience with flushing this gunk out of the engine?
I searched the archives and the only other case was inconclusive as to what
the poster did after getting answers.
In searching the net I found this site:
http://dannysengineportal.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-clean-engine-coolant-fromthe.html
They advocate using an industrial solvent like this: "Mix a 2:1 solution
of a commercially available cleaning solvent such as Butyl Cellosolve (Union
Carbide), Downol E-13 (Dow Chemical), or Glycol Ether E-B (Chem Central) or
equivalent with the enginebs recommended oil." When I search for Butyl
Cellosolve it shows up most in rants against buying window or carpet cleaner
with it. Of course I could care less about that. Two gallons with shipping
would cost $60.
Has anyone used the BG Flush products they sell at some shops? What
I've read about them is to avoid them if you've been changing your oil -
obviously not relevant to my situation!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Mark Watson
1956 Daimler (long term resto)
1965 Ford Falcon (getting back on road after trans replacement)
various transportation pods (including this one ;-)
_______________________________________________
Shop-talk@autox.team.net
Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
|