Coolant-oil swapping

[Joshua Van Tol]

>I'm helping a friend work on his car ('88 Isuzu Trooper, 4
>cylinder--just imagine it's an 80 ;), which has had a large amount of
>coolant go into the oil. The oil cap is covered with a thick, milky
>grime, and he even saw lots of water burst out the exhaust one time when
>it was started. The engine still ran but idled poorly.
>
>The troubles started with a leaky radiator that let the engine overheat.
>His dear wife didn't notice anything was up and just kept on driving.
>
>We figured it was the head gasket and set to removing the head. Now that
>we have the head off, we don't see anything wrong. Both faces look flat
>(though we haven't checked them properly) and the head gasket doesn't
>show evidence of fluids crossing its boundaries...
>
>Might a cracked block be a likely candidate then? I would have thought
>that the head would have problems first, it being a cast-iron block and
>aluminum head.
>
>Oh well. We had a good time getting the head off.
>
>Thanks,
>Wallace
>'87 5kcstq 169k

You'll never, even with the finest eye, be able to see a warped head 
without a streight edge, and a quality machinist's straight edge at 
that. Take it to the machine shop, and have them check it out, also 
have them look for cracks.

On most 4 cylinder heads, being able to get a 0.004" feeler gauge in 
under the center of a straight edge calls for having the head dealt 
with. Our audi 5's are probably around 0.006".
-- 
Joshua Van Tol -- josh at spiny.com