Coolant mixing with oil

INJOY987

MEMBER
1996 BUICK CENTURY
3.1L
V6
2WD
AUTOMATIC
170,000 MILES

I started the car to leave work the other day and in the time it took to text my girlfriend to tell her I was off and about to head home I looked down and the car was starting to overheat. I topped the coolant off and drove home approximately 7 mile. It didn't overheat going home but almost shut off pulling into the parking lot. I shut it off and checked the oil and coolant and found coolant in the oil. Would a sealer work here or which road should I take? Any help is very appreciated. Thank you all

3 Replies

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Clearly you are assuming the head gasket is the issue. You can try a sealant but I have never had them work. There are some reports on this site of people having success with Blue Devil Head Gasket repair. I have not had the chance to try this yet but others have and reported it worked.

Before we go down that route, let's confirm the head gasket but running through these guides. I attached the video as well it you don't want to read through the info.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test

https://youtu.be/5zpNjYmmiYY

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/coolantantifreeze-in-the-engine-oil

Let me know if you confirm the head gasket and we can go to the next steps. Thanks

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Saturday, April 18th, 2020 AT 5:51 PM

INJOY987

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I have read both of those and watch the video before I posted my question. My coolant level after topping it off completely full after driving home from work was extremely low as well as chocolate milk foam 3/4 of the way up the dipstick.

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Saturday, April 18th, 2020 AT 5:58 PM

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

Okay. I think it is safe to say you have a head gasket issue. The issue you have at this point is which bank, front or rear? To find this we need to do a compression check or cylinder leakage test to identify which cylinders unless you want to do both banks. Clearly it is only necessary to do the one that is failed so I would highly suggest trying to narrow this down.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-test-engine-compression

I included the process for both heads in case you choose to just do both sides.

Let me know what questions you have.

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