Coolant in oil :(
 

ive been burning coolant since i bought this car. did a head gasket job on it, still burning coolant. Just got my head inspected and tested, came back good. Do i need a new block or is there some other reason coolant is getting in my oil...

Do you know if the coolant is coming from the engine coolant or your intercooler system? If it's in the oil, probably coolant. But you can double-check. If you're burning coolant and it's not from the intercooler, and you know it's not the head or head gasket, you're likely looking at a cracked block (or sleeves).

Prob the junky oil cooler.

Not the intercooling system. I mean sometimes the level on it seems a litttle low but one little splash every once in a while will top her off so im thinkin i need a new block :/

That would put oil into the coolant but not coolant into the oil because of the difference in pressure between the systems.

until you shut the car off. yes, when running you have 50+ psi of engine oil pressure and 16 psi coolant pressure, so the oil flows into the coolant. shut the car off and you now have 0 psi oil pressure and still have 16 psi coolant pressure, until the car cools down or till the pressure all bleeds off into the oil.


if the engine is burning coolant, as in there is white, sweet smelling smoke out the exhaust it has to be a cylinder head or head gasket sealing problem, or the intercooler system leaking into the manifold (however you have pretty much ruled that out). if coolant is getting into the oil it could be a number of things, likely not a head gasket or cracked head. the 08-09 lnf blocks are known for cracking causing coolant to get into the oil, but they are the only ecotec blocks that have that issue, they are a completely different casting than the lsj block, so i doubt thats your issue.

my first thing to check would be the oil cooler. in the past couple years there seems to be several cases of them failing.

Guess it wasnt safe to assume OP doesnt have oil in the coolant.

How does the coolant look?

Coolant Looks fine from what i can tell

To clarify is your coolant level dropping accompanied by increased fluid level on your dipstick and possibly milkshake? Your post title says coolant in oil but your actual text reads that you are burning coolant. I'm just trying to figure out if your verified there actually is coolant in the oil and if so how much?

Not too long ago I had a problem with my coolant level dropping intermittently accompanied by coolant in my oil. However, there was not enough coolant in the oil for me to observe personally. The only reason I found out there was coolant in the oil was after I sent the oil off to Blackston Labs for analysis. Even though I carefully watched the fluid as I pulled the oil pan plug because coolant should sink to the bottom and be the first to come out I didn't see any indication of coolant. I even captured the first part of the oil change into a clear jug which I let sit for a few days and still didn't see anything separate out. Along with the coolant level dropping the other phenomenon I was experiencing was high pressure in the coolant system. I could let the car sit for days, crack the cap on the coolant reservoir and it would let out a big hiss from the pressure built up in the coolant system. So my coolant system would have passed the typical pressure test even though I was burning coolant and small amounts were getting into my oil.

I have since replaced my head gasket along with a freshly surfaced head. No longer is my coolant level dropping though I haven't had my oil analyzed I would assume that with constant coolant level there shouldn't be any in the oil. I also don't have the phenomenon with high pressure accumulating and storing in the coolant system. My head gasket didn't have any visible burn marks or anything but I assume it was breaking the seal under certain conditions and the combustion pressure was pumping into the coolant system. Long story short if you do have some small amounts of coolant in your oil it is possible that is caused by a head gasket issue like I did.

Yea so sometimes (when I’m gettin on the gas) I can smell it in my car burned. Also yes on my dip stick I can see creamy color. Under my oil cap there is some and when I popped my valve cover there was a lot on the underside of it. So... ya I also heard that maybe I didn’t clean to surface of the block before putting the new gasket on. So gonna give it another try and really clean it up well

Yeah with that much coolant it could be more serious. No harm in taking the head off to see what's what.