Thick mixture of oil only in cooling system

TIMOTHY FOLEY

MEMBER
2002 SATURN L300
3.0L
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
180,000 MILES

Driving noticed steam, was not overheating. Stopped seem bottom driver side radiator hose sprung a leak. It was not but about two miles from home so got straight home. Still was not overheating/still had not emptied system out so I gave it time to do its thing and pulled felled hose.
So my first thought head gasket problem, but seem when looking over for couple days now there is only this mixture in reservoir passage? Dip stick clean, opened oil cap just oil.

2 Replies

TIMOTHY FOLEY

MEMBER
2 POSTS

Just adding; before I removed cooling system I partially flushed water through bottle let drain out the hose that I removed. Place another hose filled with water and started vehicle. Short time white cloud out exhaust still temp hand normal. From experience still blown head gasket does same but hoping problem be something little cheaper.

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Wednesday, May 31st, 2017 AT 3:21 AM

STEVE W.

MECHANIC
13,452 POSTS

The engine overheated and blew the head gasket. It did not indicate that it was running hot because the temperature sensor needs to be surrounded with coolant to read the actual engine temperature. As soon as it started leaking coolant out the sensor would have been in an air pocket and no longer reading the engine temperature.
The white smoke out the exhaust confirms it.

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Wednesday, May 31st, 2017 AT 3:38 AM