D16SiHatch

So my hope was to get the car stored for winter without anything bad happening, unfortunately that didn't come to pass. Background: completely stock bottom to top low miles gsr, running 8psi on a 57trim, made just under 300whp.

Symptoms: It started blowing light brown milky ick into the catch can. Under the valve cover, down to the oil pan, it's all chocolate milk. prior to noticing this it drove perfect, temperature normal, oil pressure unchanged, it just managed to turn the oil to crap. Also, i checked radiator fluid and it did not appear low nor were there any nasty floaties in there. This happened after normal driving, i was NOT beating the **** out of it.

Now knowing i hadn't been driving it much as of late due to all the rain, and now cold, plus the fact i don't drive it for too long at any one time, i was hoping it was just an excess build up of condensation. I proceeded to drain the oil, put in new oil and filter, and run it for ten minutes to get everything warm. I then drained the oil again and added new oil, and filter for a 2nd time. I let it run for 10 minutes, checked oil, things are looking good. Went out and drove for over 20 minutes, came back, checked oil and can, and it all still looked peachy. I thought ok maybe that was my problem. Two days later i then took the car to work after letting it warm up. upon arrival i checked and discovered **** in my catch can, and the oilpan was turning to chocolate milk again. sad day.

So my thought is maybe the head gasket is at fault. My friend think its more likely a cracked sleeve because "in your engine the block and head are both aluminum, so there isn't uneven thermal expansion between the two, and they use a mls style gasket which generally doesn't fail". I feel like there is truth to that probably, but unsure what that means for my particular situation. My other friend however thinks it's much more likely a head gasket, so i dunno what to believe lol.

Once we get space in one of the garages i will do a cylinder leakdown and then pressurize the coolant system to see if anything ends up in the cylinders. We will figure it out then and/or or when the head is pulled, but figured it couldn't hurt to get some insight now since i can't do anything with the car at the moment due to the space restriction.

If it needs a head gasket then i will check for straightness and throw a new one on, ditch the stock bolts and install some arp studs.

If in fact a sleeve is cracked then i will be pulling the engine and getting block work. Plan is to have Darton mid wet sleeves installed, and then i will install Carrillo pro-a beam rods and cp-pistons to basically finish out the bottom end. An investment i didn't want to make now, but i cannot see putting the motor back together stock if it needs a major overhaul, just to pull it apart again a year from now to build it.


Thank you for following me through this journey, I tried to be as thorough as possible. some will appreciate the detail, and others will just not bother reading, which i can also understand. so here are the


Cliffsnotes:
-Oil turned to milkshake
-Radiator fluid doesn't appear low, oil pressure is good, runs no different.
-headgasket, or something more sinister? -_-

Kohen

are you putting in the right amount of oil? i read if you put too much oil in it can do kind of what you're saying.

Lambo123

You sir have a warped head/blown headgasket.

anothersickhatch

Sounds like the head gasket to me. The head is going to have to come off regardless.

apexi_rsx

ive always noticed my oil catch can with a milky oil all the time when i drain mine. its mainly oil vapors mixing with condensation it will turn milky this is why u have a catch can to catch it. i am not loosing coolant and it does not over heat. but if u check the dipstick and its milky then u do have a blown head gasket. if the oil is good and clear ur good still.

D16SiHatch

yea once i realized the oil in the pan was also **** and not just some under the valve cover cap i knew something else was up.

i see the consensus seems to be blown hg and i do hope that ends up being the problem. I would prefer to put $3,000 into the bottom end over a longer period of time, rather than all that money plus assembly in a 3 month time frame to get it on the road by spring.