my daugter has a 1985 hond accord coupe. yesterday she broke down and had the car towed home.
the problem is the cooling system has engine oil in it and when running the engine the radiator over presurizes.
how ever there is NO water in the oil or engine sump. or transmition gear box. i have never herd of this happening to an engine before. can any one out there help with this diagnoses. before i start pulling the engine apart.
i beleive that the cooling system is a presurized one but i dont understand why there isoil in the cooling system and no water in the sump.
any help appreciated.

al

 

Generally speaking, getting oil in your coolant points to a bad head gasket, or a cracked/warped head. There are some known cases where the transmission cooler (inside the radiator on some Honda automatics) is damaged and will cause the same symptoms.

 

I've heard of cases (not seen firsthand) of different anti-freeze being incompatible and making some kind of strange mud as the mixture ages. Any chance there was DexCool in the radiator & mixed with something else? That stuff apparently doesn't play nice with other types.

But like Cobey said, it's most likely engine oil leaking. There's several places that are always pressurized so it'll pretty much leak one-way.

 

COBEY thanks for your reply.
the main intrusion of a head gasket worn or corroded is identified by the compression rates of each cylinder.
our spec manual states that the compression rate for each pistion is 171psi. all pistions tested at 169psi. this suggest to me that the head gasket should be ok.

JIMBLAKE
in answer to your advise. yes we do use an anti freeze in our cars here although it doesnt get very cold here in queensland. anti freeze is used primarily as an anti corosive for allo heads. and as the system was thoughlly flushed before adding the coolant we dont think this would be the problem. however i thank you for your input.
what we did find is that the thermostate had jammed close this would explain the pressure back wash in the radiator. but we are still lost as to why there is engine oil in the cooling system. yet no coolent in the oil.
im still looking for an answer. if any one out there has had this problem before.
thanks
al

 

Well, if it overheated then the headgasket is back as a good suspect. Maybe it just happened to breach at one of the passageways that delivers pressurized oil to the head?