Coolant leak mixed with oil

Answer 1

Generally, when you find anti-freeze in your oil, it is usually a bad head gasket. However, it can also be caused by a cracked head or a cracked engine block. Was the vehicle ever overheated or run low on coolant? You might try a little shade-tree mechanic trick and add "Bar's Leak" (pellets only, don't use the liquid form). Warm up the motor WITH THE RADIATOR CAP OFF, then break the pellets up so that you have some dust and some pieces the size of BB's or slightly larger. Put the whole package in the radiator, put the cap back on, then go for a half hour or longer drive. After a week or two of normal driving, change the oil and filter. Then start checking the oil dipstick for signs of coolant. If the oil still shows coolant, keep an eye on the radiator level. If it isn't loosing too much, just drive it. Either bad head gasket, cracked block or head, or even tranny fluid coming through cooler. whatever you do it is a bad idea to add any form of stop leak to a cooling system due to the fact that it will not only plug a crack in the block or gasket but it will plug off your heater core depending on how much you use. Then you guessed it no heater and another expensive fix, and if it is coming throung tranny cooler you have three systems screwed up: cooling, trans, and heating. Have a mechanic fix the original problem and do not make any more expensive mistakes.