My mom 04 2WD pacifca had issues over the past weekend.

I haven't looked at the car yet but before I go look at it I wanted to here some ideas.

My dad said he noticed it was real low on oil so he added the 3 qrts it was missing. He then drove it to to a few stores not that far away when he noticed it was running extremely hot. When he popped the hood oil was boiling out the coolant tank. ALOT of oil was coming out and spilling onto the road. He checked the oil again later and it was once again 3 qrts low. It seems as though all the oil went immediately into the coolant system.

My first thought was head gasket but it just seem like to much oil spilled over... also it never overheated that they could remember. Could it be the oil cooler went bad? Do these cars even come with a stock oil cooler?

 

Yes I believe the oil cooler is at the oil filter and I also think you don't have to have an over heat condition to have a bad head gasket. This is unfortunate because as well as fixing the engine (maybe gasket) the entire cooling system will have to be cleaned as well.

I have seen exhaust pumped into coolant, I have seen oil into coolant, coolant into oil etc. You should not drive it anymore as bearings an other surfaces are now compromised. I am not sure how the ol cooling works on these but you may be on to something.

Have a look here
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink