2002 accord se , F2.3A1 engine, I just bought a couple months ago.115K miles Nice clean ride,could tell it had been taken care of. I changed oil and went to syn, as all my other cars have in them.(Mobil 1). One week later I have oil in the coolant, but no coolant in the oil. Any opinions would be helpful, I've had a couple shops say head gasket,but I've read about porosity issues as well. Help! Thanks, Shooter58

 

The change to Mobile 1 had nothing to do with the oil in the coolant.

The head gasket would be the prime suspect in my mind, however, something justs doesn't "feel" right with this issue.

 

Agree w/ Shipo that synthetic oil is not the cause.

Overheating is a typical cause of failed head gasket, however not always. I had a head gasket failure on my 94EX w/o overheating which allowed coolant into combustion chamber. It only caused missing on hot starts and was driven for a month or so while gathering parts.

good luck

 

Check the trans mission fluid. It sounds like there is the potential that the radiator has failed internally which would mix transmission fluid with the coolant. Assuming you have an automatic that is.

 

Good call; the manual transmission bigot in me always forgets about the tranny fluid intercooler in the radiator.

 

If you only knew how many Toyota's I have worked on with that problem, but I will say it is rare that I see a Honda in with that problem, but it is not unheard of. If the transmission fluid is contaminated they are such a pain to get cleaned out. Oh-to-joy...

 

Given how many maintenance issues become "non-issues" when a car is equipped with a manual transmission, I'm still amazed at how few stick drivers there are out in the world (at least here in the U.S.).

 

I did consider trans cooler, would the color of the goo in the cooling system be milky yellowish or would it have a pink/red tint? The car has a fairly new rad,upper and lower hoses all other hoses still feel good (not soft & squishy) like an existing problem that got passed to me. The car never overheated and was driven easy, for the 1000 miles I've put on it, as I have a T-Belt and water pump ordered for it,Not knowing the history I thought this would be a good idea when this problem slapped me. The goo that's in it is milky yellowish and slippery like oil,but at this point I'm just not sure which way to go, other than pulling it apart and see what I find. Thank's to all, I'll keep ya posted as to what I find : Shooter58

 

You should have some of the oil or ATF inside the coolant reservoir. It will stick to side of plastic and should be readily identifiable as oil or ATF. From your description, suspect it's oil.

good luck

 

Thank's again to all that have replied, I vacuumed tested the trans cooler and it held 18 in's of vacuum so I have to think it's OK. Pulled the head and took to machine shop, they wanted the cam and rocker arm's off, so back to the house for that and back to shop. They checked it while I was there, about .003 out in center around oil galley. I won't get it back till monday. Can someone please give me the torque spec's for the cam caps and end cap's(smaller bolt's on end cap's). I have spec's for head thank's to this Web site and you great people on it. I did get OE head set and new head bolts as they are TTY bolts.Thank's again for all the input. Shooter58