The oil will be cloudy and look like chocolate milk.
A good way to tell is change your oil. When a head gasket blows you will have water in your oil or oil in your water system. Check these 2 areas for water and oil.
It floats on top of the water in very visible greasy blobs.
You can tell the oil cooler is bad in a Cadillac CTS 2003 when oil is in the coolant and the water turns into a white muddy substance
if the dipstick has white foamy stuff on it
Check the oil on your dipstick. If the engine is warm, the oil level will be high and look milky or light brownish. If the engine is cold, the oil level will be high and you will be able to see water droplets on the end of the dipstick. If the oil is mixed with the water it will be grey. If not the water will be at the bottom.
well simply for any car you can tell by checking the oil or the oil cap. if you see white residue on the cap or on the dipstick you got water in the oil. if you also change the oil you can see water in it. that is simply the only ways you can know. good look with your alero
Check the oil on your dipstick. If the engine is warm, the oil level will be high and look milky or light brownish. If the engine is cold, the oil level will be high and you will be able to see water droplets on the end of the dipstick. If the oil is mixed with the water it will be grey. If not the water will be at the bottom.
While it is still liquid you can tell by smell. The water based will have very low odour, oil based has heavy odour. Once applied and dried there is no way to tell difference.
Water mixed with oil? Oil mixed with water? White smoke out of tailpipe? Lack of compression on 2 adjacient cylinders?
You can tell for sure if its water or oil be dropping a bit in a glass of water if it desolves it water oil wont
The color
no it sounds like you have water in the oil and it blended together. if it is gas you could smell it and tell.