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oil in cooling water!???


swift1894

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2 minutes ago, swift1894 said:

My friend just found oil in the cooling system header tank. Any advice please

 

One possibility is a split head gasket, another more serious, but less likely, is the possibility of a cracked block. Has he 'boiled up' at at all ?

Is there water in the oil (take off the filler cap and look underneath it - does it look like creamy youghurt ?)

 

Whatever it is is will not 'heal up' by doing nothing, it will only get worse -  it needs looking at

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Presumably this is the engine cooling. The first thing I would think of is the head gasket but if the engine has an oil cooler - unlikely- it could be that and if it has a gearbox oil cooler - more likely- it could be that, Worth taking the oil filler cap off, if it has that horrible creamy grey gunk all over it then it is unlikely to be anything other than the head gasket. What engine?  Many engines in boats are reasonably straightforward and accessible so a long, hot days work could fix it. Has it overheated recently? Edit. Crossed with Alan's post.

Edited by Bee
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Hold up with the doom, although nothing Alan has said is wrong.

 

Colour of oil? If black it's engine oil, so for an inland boat Alan's diagnosis is probably correct. If amber, then it may be hydraulic gearbox oil and that will come from a split oil cooler.

 

A few inland boats and  a lot of sea boats might have an engine oil cooler, so that might be the source of engine oil except such boats are more likely to have indirect raw water cooling, so any engine oil is more likely to end up coming out of the exhaust.

 

Make and model of engine, type of boat, type of cooling system, make and model of gearbox to illuminate the above.

 

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I once had a customer put engine oil the brake fluid reservoir on a Rover 2000. It went ok for a bit and suddenly the brakes all ceazed on solid as all the seals swole up. Had to flush out with meths and renew all the caliper, master cylinder and servo seals

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2 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

Hold up with the doom, although nothing Alan has said is wrong.

 

Colour of oil? If black it's engine oil, so for an inland boat Alan's diagnosis is probably correct. If amber, then it may be hydraulic gearbox oil and that will come from a split oil cooler.

 

A few inland boats and  a lot of sea boats might have an engine oil cooler, so that might be the source of engine oil except such boats are more likely to have indirect raw water cooling, so any engine oil is more likely to end up coming out of the exhaust.

 

Make and model of engine, type of boat, type of cooling system, make and model of gearbox to illuminate the above.

 

He's been in touch with Deutz. New oil cooler probably. Engineer coming to check tomorrow.

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I had oil in the coolant on my Beta 43.

 

In my case the cooling for the PRM160 gearbox fluid (oil)..went into a brass tank which was inside the top coolant tank on the engine...a common situation. 

 

What happens is that your engine coolant tank is only half full and thus there is a ',tide line' on the brass gearbox coolant tank. Over time..it corrodes along that line.

My engineer did source another tank. 

On more recent models..you can blank that off and have external cooling.

Edited by Bobbybass
Missed a bit
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