Hey guys, I seem to be having major issues with my motor (2003 2.2 ECO), I either A.) have coolant mixed with oil, or B.) air mixed with oil. The reason I say that is because i have light brown foam all throughout my motor. Also, let me explain the driving circumstances, I really didnt do any thing out of the ordinary, i may have over-revved on the freeway a little bit, but not anything that hasnt happened before. Also, i spent atleast an hour under my car looking for somewhere oil could have leaked out, so, im thinking that im burning oil as well, approx. 1 QT after 1500 miles. do you think that it could be a blown headgasket? or maybe somthing else? i dont have any idea where to start.
Also, i just broke 100,000 miles
How much oil is in it? Some times when you pour too much oil in its worse just being a little low. When the level of oil is too high, the crankshaft beats the oil into a foam which can be sucked up by your oil pump. maybe thats your problem. why not try getting an oil change? look in your owners manual and put in exactly what it says and enough to compensate for the oil filter. and see if that helps your problem out any.
keep us posted
Matt
Sounds like a head gasket to me, unfortunately... Change your oil like stated ^^^ and keep an eye on your coolant; is there any foaming you can see in the radiator or overflow? Or any weird colors going on?
well, that is a possibility, i thought that maybe over-revving may have caused the same issue. my only question now is how do i get all the foamed nasty oil out of the motor? its all throughout the head. also, the coolant is low, but not lower than usual, and also no odd colors or obvious oil in coolant. also, what do i do about the burning oil as previously stated? could that be related to a head gasket or is that more of a piston ring issue? thanks for the help guys.
Chocolate milk? Could be a head gasket... could also be a water leak into the oil... coming in thru your intake, etc... you don't use any snake oil additives, do you? That Lucas crap is good for foaming oil up.
...j
1 qt. after 1500 miles isn't bad. if you were burning that in under 500 miles or see blue smoke in the tail pipe you should worry. If the coolant looks good, and isn't low, change the oil. Try some good synthetic and if it still foams up get it to a shop. (if you do the oil change yourself, smell it and see if there is any hint of fuel or antifreeze in there)
The level of oil should be no higher than the FULL mark on the dip stick. To measure properly, the engine has to not be running for at least 15 minutes. If the engine is running when you check the oil, that's wrong. If you just turned off the engine to check the oil, that's wrong too.
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We all drive in a yellow Cavalier...
the only problem is, i cant really just change the oil, that foam is all through out the head, so unless there is somthing i can run though it, i guess i would have to rebuild it. ill have to get some pictures up so you can better see/understand the foam im talking about. also, no, i dont use any additives, and ive used mobil one full synthetic since about 5000 miles, and changed it about every 4500 to 5000 from there. and another question, how would water work its way into the intake? its the stock intake/intake manifold, and im sure it would be difficult to have a crack or leak in it. thanks again for the help!
Light brown color, u have contaminated oil, proboly coolant. The foam could be caused by your oil pan filling up with "chocolate milk" and the crankshaft aerating it. Changing the oil should clean the foam out of the oil passages and all the places that the oil is suppose to be, but i personally would change it again right away(after the foam is cleared out).
I would recomment a rebuild or new engine , my reasoning:
-Im assumeing you found this problem when you were doing your 5000 mile oil change. So there could easily be over 1000 miles on the chocolate milk.
-Your crank and rods require good oil to lubricate the bearings and prevent them from wearing out. When you exceed the oil's "lifespan"(3000 mile, 5000 mile, etc) it breaks down and doesnt lubricate as well and allows bearing wear to occur. It's the same with contaminated oil.
-So Im also assuming that you have excessive bearing wear.
-I would at the very least pull the bearing caps and inspect the bearings and plastigauge them too.
another thing you could try to get all the contaminated oil out is to do and oil change, drive about 500 miles. change your oil again. but first run a oil system cleaner in the enigine for about 15 mintues before you change your oil after the 500 miles. should get everything out. check after another 500 miles. if still foaming i would bring it to a shop and have them check the head gasket.
well, actually i found the issue after my oil change, not during, so its not like an existing problem, and having to much oil is a good possibility. im just going to run amsoil engine clean and change the oil again, maybe that will take care of the problem. thanks again for the help
OR
you could save the hassle of taking it to a shop do oil changes as stated above then get a compression tester at Auto zone for like twenty bucks and check your head gasket compression yourself. If you have consecutive cylinders that both have low compression then chances are that you have a blown gasket!
here are some pictures to help explain my situation.
(Oil cap on head)
and:
(inside of head)
to be honest, i couldn't detect any "foreign" fluids in the oil, the only way i can describe to you how the head smells, well, it reminds me of Cici's Pizza, and no, i don't believe I'm baking pizza in my engine.
basically what i did to resolve the problem (fingers crossed) was bring the car up to temp, drain the oil. then i replaced with cheap oil and replaced the filter. and at the moment I'm putting about 200 to 300 miles on that oil, then return with fresh Mobil 1 and another new filter.
also, i did have a bit to much oil in the motor, only about 1/4 of a QT. do you think thats enough to cause the crank to foam up all the oil?
thanks again guys!
Possibly, but from my experience its hard to tell how much over you filled because of the way the dipstick goes in. Honestly, who had the bright idea of making the dipstick snake through two 90 degree bends to go in?
I put 1/2 a quart through the oil before putting the plug to "push" the residue out and wet the filter, then I close the plug and fill with the remaining 4.5 quarts. It turns out to be the right level that way in the ECOTEC engine.
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We all drive in a yellow Cavalier...
what that looks like to me is some one used bad oil and belive me it's highly possible all standard motor oil contains "detergant" that helps clean the internal engine parts if the oil contains to much "detergant" the crank will beat it up like soap in water creating foam.
We had 10 cases of this stuff delivered to my grandpas hardware store and had like 15 quarts out of 15 returned and returned the other 9 cases
thats not a bad idea, pouring 1/2 a QT before closing the plug, sometimes ill pour a cheap oil through to get some of the residue out.
also, its Mobil 1, i dont know if this would have "too much" detergents, but anything is possible.
thanks for your help guys
im just saying what i know from my experence
(it's like my grandma say's ive made this cookie recipe a thousand times and on occasion ad to much of something)
i had the same thing happen in my 97 monte carlo. looked just like that and it was a intake manifold gasket. bring it to a shop. trust me
That happened to me one time when I used walmart brand oil. From now on I use only name brand stuff.
well, i replaced the oil and put about 300 miles on, and guess what....same problem, not that bad yet, but there is definitely a light green foam showing on the dipstick. theres not much, maybe the very tip of the dipstick has a little foam on it. do you guys think its possible thats just residual and i should change my oil? i would prefer not to take it to a shop for the time being, im kinda broke.
you may not want to take it to the shop but if you did blow some kind of a gasket, you dont wanna warp nothing either driving when its messed up
Any progress on this?I am having a similar issue,went TOO long without an oil change,probably put too much oil
in,crappy oil as well.I then put some STP oil stop leak additive because I think I have a small leak from the exhaust
cam gasket,later upon checking the oil looked foamy.I got the oil changed and checked it a few days later,the oil is kind of clear
but seems to look a little like the "chocolate milk" I heard about but I am not leaking or losing coolant.????
15.2@89mph 2.171 60ft. 9.830 1/8 R.I.P. "LULU"
mine does not but the fan runs all the time
15.2@89mph 2.171 60ft. 9.830 1/8 R.I.P. "LULU"
