Oil in the Coolant

**torcia** · #1 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 02:04 PM

Well today was not a good day..... or maybe somebody can help me make it a little better by telling me that it is not what I think it is..

I replaced all of the speakers in my 87 Milano Verde today as the original factory ones had long since deteriorated to the degree that even talk radio was hard to listen too. So after all the interior was back in I decided to take a little spin. The ARC computer said the coolant was low so I lifted the hood to take a look. Unscrewed the coolant bottle cap and was rewarded with the dreaded milk shake goo. I checked the dipstick and the oil looked fine. The coolant itself looked OK also so I cleaned it up, topped it off and went on my way. After returning home I let it cool off a bit and then pulled the coolant bottle cap again. This time the coolant looked pretty dark and a little thicker than what coolant should be.....

My experience is with 4 cyl Alfas and this Milano is my first foray into the 6 cyl world. If it was a 4 cyl I would say it is the head gasket and that oil was getting past the "o" rings to the coolant passages. Is it the same kind of failure mode for 6 cyl motors? Is there something else I should check? Is it possible that I could retorque the head and things would be OK? I am going to drain and flush the coolant system to make sure that it is not just something leftover from its previous life. I have only owned it for about 3 months now....

Any help would be appreciated......

Del · #2 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 02:19 PM

Never hurts to retorque the heads. The gaskets do have a habit of relaxing a little bit, just enough to let oil seep to a lower pressure area, ie, the cooling system. Did this on my 164S, and cleared up the same situation. 164's are worse than the Milano, as the rear head rarely gets retorqued because of being harder to get to.

**torcia** · #3 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 02:49 PM

Thanks Del ....might be a place to start anyway.

sh0rtlife · #4 (**permalink**) 01-29-2008, 02:54 PM

re-torque re test and if it still does it...its time for head gaskets

**torcia** · #5 (**permalink**) 02-05-2008, 08:19 AM

See related thread on Draining the Coolant.

We shall see if my problem continues