milky oil?

by **flyingf4i** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:04 pm

Typically if you get milky looking oil on your dipstick, it's indicating a junked head gasket, correct?

Would there be any other possible causes for this? I was told that a faulty PCV valve could cause this to happen (milky residue in the oil). Could this be true? Any other possibilities?

I normally drive 32 (highway) miles each way everyday to work with very little city driving so my engine and oil are not victom of short trips and stop and go traffic. I have 110,000 miles on a '99 SLE V6 automatic.

Website · by **SpeedSTARs** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:14 pm

I was told from a good friend (a long time ago) that milky oil was a indication the coolant is leaking/mixing into the oil. In which you just implied the head gasket. That's all I know if this helps. :angel:

Good luck Bro. :drinking:

by **flyingf4i** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:17 pm

Thanks SpeedStar,

I'm pretty much thinking that's the case but ya know what? It's Christmas and I'm hoping for a miracle. Anyway I think the inevitable truth is that I need a new head gasket. Thanks for the reply.

Website · by **Turbosolara** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:51 pm

do you lose coolant at all?

if not, it might be just some cold oil residules. dump in sea foam cleaners, it is a very effective cleaner. it is very well known amog 240sx and classic car world.

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=137978&page=1

by **flyingf4i** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:55 pm

Hey TurboS,

I really don't seem to be losing coolant. It is down a little but I just noticed the milky oil recently and my coolant is staying between the lines. What exactly is the sea foam stuff? Never heard of it.

by **SleeperSolara** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:18 pm

flyingf4i wrote:Hey TurboS,

I really don't seem to be losing coolant. It is down a little but I just noticed the milky oil recently and my coolant is staying between the lines. What exactly is the sea foam stuff? Never heard of it.

Seafoam is a greenish liquid that cleans your injecters through your gas, cleans intake plentum through a tube of some sort [ i know which on on Stealth TT] but need to find on the Solara. And it clean the crank case through oil.

Sorry but has anyone used Seafoam on their Solara for the intake plentum????

by **made in china** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:34 pm

I would avoid any kind of "mechanic in a bottle" until you have a test done on your motor to determine why the oil is contaminated. Milky oil is never normal. Take your car into a shop and have it tested for a bad head gasket.

by **Strider327** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:50 pm

Thin oil is resulted to coolant mixture. However if you are not losing coolant the full seafoam treatment shouldn't hurt. Try that first and see if it solves the problem if it doesn't then go for professional shop help. Here's the procedure:

1. One full bottle into the gas tank
2. One bottle through the brake booster line. (Big circle black thing located on the driver side, unhook the hose on top of it and pour the seafoam into a foam cup and let a buddy turn on the car and keep the rev up, don't let the motor die out. As he's revving you let the vaccum hose suck up the seafoam.
3. Half a can of seafoam into the oil crank case

Drive the car for about 1-2 days and then do a oil change. See if the problem still exists if it does go to a shop. Most likely head gasket.

Good Luck

P.S. If you need a pic of how the hose looks like check my cardomain
www.cardomain.com/id/calvin327

by **flyingf4i** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:27 am

Thanks for the input guys. You pretty much confirmed what I thought. I just don't feel like dealing with a bad head gasket right now. Especially 'cause I only have 110,000 miles on the car. Oh well.

by **Jai_Jai_Binks** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:40 am

your on the money to suspect milkey oil as being a head problem..have a friend rev your car while parked..and see if water comes out the exhaust, usually loosing coolant, water leaking out of exhaust, and milky oil are symptoms of head problems...

by **drock03** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:28 pm

Milky oil is definitely anti freeze mixing in with clean oil. Keep an eye on you anti freeze level to see how bad it is. If its bad, I would not drive around too much with oil mixed with antifreeze. My jeep did the same thing, milky residue on the bottom of the oil cap=moisture. My jeep ended up having a 7" crack in the head. I'm sure you're just looking at replacing the gasket on your ride unless you severly overheated the motor. Aluminium doesn't take much to crack when it gets red hot.

by **offthahook** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:30 pm

Could it be a cracked block as well??

by **flyingf4i** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:44 pm

Well, I had my oil changed today and everything looked fine in the filter and the oil that came out. I talked to the guy who changed the oil and told him before hand what I was looking for and he said everything looked good. I checked out the filter myself and there was no milky residue in the filter. The coolant level also seems to stay in the operating range.

The guy said that he has seen where it has been cold like it is now (I live in Wisconsin) and that the residual oil in the dipstick tube has turned milky. He indicated this could be because when you pull to check the oil (which I do regularly) you are allowing moisture a place to enter the oil system and it really doesn't get hot enough to evaporate it out when it gets really cold. He said he has also seen it on the filler cap once in awhile in cold weather too.

I guess I'll just keep and eye on it. The car is running great and doesn't seem to be using coolant. The engine is running at normal operating temperature too. Anyway, I'm gonna keep an eye on it and if it looks like it is using coolant, I guess it is the head gasket.

What do you guys think with that being said? Any cold weather drivers had this experience in anything they've driven?

by **Midias** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 7:31 pm

sea foam is great I alaways get 2 bottles .5 in the gas .5 in the OIL change it about 1000 miles later it will get dirty quick. 1 in the intake manifold I take off the break booster hose and dump it in while a friend revs the engine, try not to stall the thing and enjoy the smoke.

by **offthahook** » Wed Dec 21, 2005 2:02 pm

flyingf4i wrote:Well, I had my oil changed today and everything looked fine in the filter and the oil that came out. I talked to the guy who changed the oil and told him before hand what I was looking for and he said everything looked good. I checked out the filter myself and there was no milky residue in the filter. The coolant level also seems to stay in the operating range.

The guy said that he has seen where it has been cold like it is now (I live in Wisconsin) and that the residual oil in the dipstick tube has turned milky. He indicated this could be because when you pull to check the oil (which I do regularly) you are allowing moisture a place to enter the oil system and it really doesn't get hot enough to evaporate it out when it gets really cold. He said he has also seen it on the filler cap once in awhile in cold weather too.

I guess I'll just keep and eye on it. The car is running great and doesn't seem to be using coolant. The engine is running at normal operating temperature too. Anyway, I'm gonna keep an eye on it and if it looks like it is using coolant, I guess it is the head gasket.

What do you guys think with that being said? Any cold weather drivers had this experience in anything they've driven?

I've never heard of a Solara blowing a head gasket. It is possible, of course. I would agree with your mechanic. It is condensation that formed inside the dipstick/cranckcase. I live in Indiana and I have seen small amounts of moisture get in the oil cap as well.

milky oil?

milky oil?

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