Blown Head gasket (I think) - KCR408

[Texas-Saluki]

Olddog,

I have an Oil cooler but it is separate from the main radiator. I am going to be pulling a lot of things apart on Saturday

[olddog]

I got to thinking about this. It makes perfect sense that the oil pressure is higher than the water pressure so the oil pumps into the water. However when you shut an engine down the oil pressure goes to zero nearly instantaniously, while the water pressure in the radiator may take an hour to come down. Water being thinner than oil would easily squirt through the same crack that the oil came through. So with this being said, there should be water in the oil, too.

I think if it were me, I would look real hard for evidence of water in the oil. If I found zero water there, I would clean and flush the radiator real good. With the radiator/engine drainded, I would do a pressure leak down test. If it held pressure, I would refill it and see if the oil came back. You never know about dirty tricks. It is possible that someone poured the oil there, and there is nothing wrong with the car.

[Texas-Saluki]

Well not sure if everyone saw but at the meeting in Austin we determined it was a cracked block... or certain enough to warrant pulling the engine

it is now back at the KCM hospital and Keith is trying to determine what is going on. The T.I.T. helped with the extraction process on Saturday and I drove the engine to AR on sunday. I spoke with Keith a few times today and they are still scratching their heads on what is going on... he can only determine it has to be the block has a crack that expands enough under temperature. Has a round of more tests to run before the complete diagnoses is published

Pictures of the engine extraction can be found here

More information to follow as I learn more