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From: Frank Burrows (no email)
Date: Wed Dec 01 2004 - 19:41:08 EST
John:
I ran parts and service for a huge GM dealership for 30 years. In the old
days if antifreeze got into the oil it would be a minor inconvenience. The
oil looked like a milkshake. We would find the source of the leak and fix
it. Then just drain and flush all the affected areas and all was well. In
the 1990's we had a problem with the intake manifold gaskets leaking on
some V6 engines (2.8 and 3.1). The design of these engines was such that a
leaking intake gasket would allow antifreeze to leak into the crankcase and
mix with the oil. For some unknown reason the oil no longer looked like a
milkshake but it contained antifreeze. The initial symptom was a high oil
level but the oil looked fine.
In the beginning we would replace the gaskets and drain and flush but the
car would come back a few days later with a knocking or seized up engine.
We tried replacing bearing inserts but they would be back in a few days
with more problems. In two cases we pulled the engines and replaced the cam
bearings. To make a long story short we found the hard way that once
antifreeze entered the crankcase of these engines there was no effective
repair other than replace the engine. Obviously the customer felt that
everything should be free after they paid for the gasket replacement and we
paid for three or four engines.
We found a test kit that we could use to test the oil after a suspected
gasket failure and if the test was positive then we recommended the engine
replacement. A few customers demanded that we just replace the gaskets and
change the oil which we did but invariably the car was on the back of a tow
truck within a couple of days.
We never could figure out what changes caused this to happen. Newer engines
run a lot hotter and the oil and antifreeze compositions have changed but I
could never get anyone to tell me exactly why we could not fix these
engines. If there is any sign of antifreeze in your engine I would deal
with it immediately. It is a big deal!!
Frank Burrows 1979 43' Viking Piney Narrows Marina Chesapeake
>What does the damage to bearings etc - the chemicals in the antifreeze ??
>or because the antifreeze causes sludge in the oil that hinders
>lubrication ?
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