Rear Main needs "Depends"

[Dutch]

Quick view of the patient and symptoms. 87 GW with 185K has 62K on .30 over rebuild and heads were pulled again less than 5K ago for 3-angle valve job. Sig. says the rest if pertinent. Did use a metal valley pan each time intake was pulled. Symptoms were low coolant level which was last checked probably a couple months ago and at that time was normal. When I saw it was low I went looking for the culprit and could find nothing. Made my way to the back of the motor and saw an oily leak from the rear main seal (not surprising) but what I didn't like was the obvious signs of green coolant mixed in with the oil. I have no symptoms other than mentioned, no power loss, no funny exhaust (that I can tell) and had it not been for the low coolant I wouldn't have even noticed. BTW, all hoses 2x checked and most are less than 9 months old so I don't think it's an external leak/blowby. Should I be worried or let it ride?

Whaaaaaats Up! :eek:

Dutch

[ibnfe]

What does the oil still in the engine look like? Does it have the "I am sludgy" look? If so, definately worry about it! If it does, then you may have a head gasket bypassing coolant into oil, intake gasket doing the same, several problems could be the culprit. If there is no sign of coolant in the engine oil, try to isolate where the coolant is leaking from and decide from there.

[Dutch]

Going to change the oil next Saturday, will closely look for signs of contamination from coolant. If not... what else.

Getting a little worried
Dutch

[Mud Thrasher]

I saw a post recently where someones timing chain cover/water pump housing had a pinhole leak in it allowing coolant to get in the oil. I'm no mechanic but this sounds like the same problem.

[Veepster]

I thought about this post as I was under my FSJ yesterday.....could you have a leaking freeze plug?...I noticed one of mine was weeping yesterday and it was mixing with my leaking rear main oil......hhmmm

[Dutch]

Never thought about the freeze plugs but that's a good one. I replaced one about 2 years ago for the same reason so I will check others as well. Still need to do the oil but we had a series of storms over the weekend and lost our power for most of Sunday (darn near lost my frozen steak reserves as well!)

Dutch