Hi all,

I am having major problems with this car lately. It has 150k miles.

Right now the problem is little pools of coolant inside the left side valve cover on the cylinder head. I am fully aware of what this indicates.

What I'm trying to figure out is what, if any, repairs recently done to this engine could make this happen outside of the obvious diagnosis of a blown head gasket or cracked cylinder head.

I'm new here and I don't know who all are active members, but I would greatly appreciate any professional technicians who have personally worked on this particular engine to share their experience. I'd be willing to reimburse you for your time with frosty beverages....


Thanks

 

Nobody? Is this a pretty strange post or something? haha

Let me expand a little....
There is no milky color to the coolant. It almost looks as if it was accidentally spilled all over the engine while the valve cover was off. The car runs great. Better than it has in the 3.5 years I've owned it. No smoke. No smell. No roughness. Nice and smooth. That is all directly related to the extensive repairs that have been done to it very recently.
I'm trying to find out if it maybe something as simple as leaving a gasket off/using the wrong one/putting it upside down etc. might cause something like this because I have only driven it a half a mile since the repairs were done, and only noticed this by accident.

 

Have the system pressure tested to see where the leak is coming from

 

Yea, that makes perfect sense, thx. I just checked prices at the local parts stores and it doesn't make sense for me to spend $130 on one and I'm scared to turn the key on to drive it back to the repair shop. It's just weird that there seems to be nothing in the chambers making it misfire, but the oil is green. I'll work on getting my hands on a pressure tester....

 

Is there no "edit" button for posts?

anyway... here is a visual for no apparent reason

 

Has anyone had any experience with leak detection dye in the crankcase? Hard to believe they would make it green, but apparently they do.

In case anyone needs to pressure check their cooling system, parts stores rent em. My local O'Reilly requires a ransom of $150 which is reimbursed when the tool is returned.

 

That sure looks like oil dye to me. Did you ask them if they put dye in there? Let me guess...camshaft seals and valve cover gaskets?

 

That sure looks like oil dye to me. Did you ask them if they put dye in there? Let me guess...camshaft seals and valve cover gaskets?

They did put dye in there. It is red in the bottle, and it came out red when the VCG's were leaking. Since then the car had been driven about a hundred miles. I'm guessing it changes to green after a few heat cycles?

I didn't like it one bit so I drained the pan and as best I could the filter, and put fresh 'oil-colored' oil back in it. I just got back from putting 30 miles on it and it ran fine. Smooth, no smoke, no skipping. Took the oil cap off and it looked exactly the same. Pretty florescent green liquid pooled up in the head bolt, cam tower bolt, and a good bit right next to the valve spring.

Yes cam seals, VCG's, clutch, timing belt, water pump, tune up, radiator.

 

The dye isn't going to hurt anything.

 

I'm not afraid of the dye.

I'm tryin to find a link to send you a pm, but either I'm blind, or too new a member.