Yeap.

I own an old Nissan hardbody pickup which recently showed antifreeze mixed with oil in my last scheduled 3,000 miles oil change.

By searching online I know that the causes are several but might imply a bad head gasket or a cracked motor.

Also, it is recommended to stop using the vehicle until the problem is fixed because the damage inside the motor is imminent. The situation in my case is that the truck is needed, literally speaking, in almost a daily use. For this reason I can't check the cause of the antifreeze going inside the motor, the work schedule is tight and the truck can't rest by now.

The truck itself is dying slowly with other symptoms like noisy clutch, faulty speedometer, suspension problems, etc. I might send this truck to the dump one of these days anyway.

I have a question.

In order to make this truck lasting a little longer, I have decided to change the motor oil more often, and to increase the idle up a little bit. So far, I just changed the oil after 900 miles and it came out with a greenish color but not with the milkshake appearance as it came before.

I have no problem changing the oil and adding more antifreeze to the radiator more often.

Do you think that my truck might last a few more months with this short term oil changes?

 

First thing you do, change the antifreeze to straight water; the damage to the engine bearings caused by the ethylene glycol will kill the engine sooner than later at the concentrations you're talking about. If you live way north and still need antifreeze, then switch to a coolant based upon propylene glycol such as Sierra (from the Peak line of Antifreeze products).

• http: //images.peakauto DOT com/sierra_specs_.pdf

 

Yes, it's a Nissan, but since it's a technical question I'll move this over to General Tech.

 

You might try some coolant "stop leak". These products will occasionally work to reduce/eliminate coolant head gasket leaks. Not much downside to trying a bit. There are many types, but the aluminum powder material is as good as any.

good luck

 

YES YES YES...Alumaseal! she'll go another half million miles with it

 

Thank you for your answers.

I will fill up the radiator with water only for a while, I might try to get an average of 75% water and 25% antifreeze because water alone might causes overheating of the motor in the middle of a long route.

About coolant stop leak products, they do work stopping leaks but also these products clog the several canals or tubes at the long run. Of course the truck is dying anyway because the damage has happened already, so I will use a minimal amount.

So far, the truck sounds and drives like no problems with it, only a sporadic idle going down when leaving it in neutral while driving. The car died once while driving it in neutral going down in a hill and had to use the hand brake to park in the shoulder and start the truck again, for this reason I increased the idle a little bit. I don't know if the idle problem is related with the antifreeze inside the motor but at this time is just to make adjustments to make it work a little longer.

Thanks again.

 

That doesn't make any sense; water is a superior heat transfer agent than antifreeze. If you are having overheating on a long trip with water, you'll have worse overheating with coolant.

 

Good product..we sell a load of it at the Parts Stores..Thanks DoC

 

If you are going to try a "sealer" for the HG.....Blue Devil

 

Thanks for the info, I thought these products also help for high temperatures. Warm and hot weather are arriving fast so I will use water alone for a while then.

I will try the sealer as well, but a smaller amount of what is recommended. A past experience of mine with a Chrysler that developed a crack in the radiator in a Winter season was fixed temporarily with this leak stop product. The leak indeed stop and I replaced the radiator a week later.

A guy in my job told me that I had killed my car already and laughed of me when I told him about the repair. And he was right, two years later the car showed some problems with the manifold and I removed the manifold, the EGR valve, etc to find out that tubes and canals were clogged with the sandy material of the stop leak product I used years before.