Tell me about mayo in my oil!

[LowStandards]

Right, its starts with a little story...

I bought a Suzuki SJ413 a few weeks back to use for off roading, she's been say on my drive since then awaiting work. After we had 'all' that snow i went out to do a little bit on her and found that the previous owners hadn't put any antifreeze in her and she was frozen solid. Now its defrosted i've had chance to have a look and i've found the inlet manifold is shot, the 'stat is housed in there and its got a hairline crack all the way through it. Put off, but not detered i started her up and she runs a treat, sounds supurb, I ran her for about a minute (no longer as she was losing water fast), when i turned her off i noticed mayo weeping from the crack in the inlet

Here's the question:

Can the head gasket blow across the oil/waterways and not interfere with the cyclinders? Its just that she sounds so good and when i've had gaskets go before its been backed up with it running and sounding like a bag of nails.

Or do i just sit back and cry cause the blocks cracked? (no core plugs blew)

[guz]

i recently bought a polo which i was told
had a knackered head gasket, collected it from
Bath, drove 140+ miles home, temp was fine,
lost no water, pulled like a train, when it came
to dumping the lump we found at most half a litre
of oil left in it, lost the rest on that run.

what i'm saying is that i've had H/Gs go in all
sorts of ways and had different syptoms.

[LowStandards]

Do you think its likely the block would be cracked though? I'm gonna whip the head of tonight and have a looksee.

To be fair it did rip the inlet manifold gasket apart, so i imagine it could do the head one, i hope so, i'm not in the mood for changing engines in the coldest month of the year!

[paul4be]

If you think there is water in the oil, it could very well just be down to condensation in the engine after standing in the cold weather. Often happens and a decent run should clear that.

It's possible for head gaskets to go between oil and waterways. Also is possible that the block is cracked if it froze soild, but I would have expected 1 or more core plugs to go if that was the case. Is it an all alloy motor? Just that lack of antifreeze will lead to corrosion in the waterways, which could be part of the problem.
I'd be tempted to sort the manifold 1st if there are no other signs and run it up to see exactly what is happening.
Surely an engine change would be easier than pulling everything apart for a HG swap in an SJ??

[BenzBoy]

Sorry to hear about that . The HG can go between oil and water galleries without affecting the cylinders, yeah.
I'd have thought that the core plugs would have blown when the coolant froze but then I'd assume it's possible that the block cracked instead.
Does the inlet manifold have coolant flowing through it? Is this why it became damaged when it froze?

Not meaning to state the obvious, but even if the engine runs fine, the water / oil mix could wreak havoc on your bearings etc and eventually sh@g the engine.

[LowStandards]

The inlet manifold houses the thermostat and 2 large waterways! Its is made of alloy and has cracked around the thermostat housing (where the casting is the thinest)

The engine is iron and like i said no core plugs blew, I've picked up a head gasket for a few quid off ebay and the engines really accessable with not much bolted to the head, so I reckon its worth changing just to take a look...

[vicsmith]

Is there any oil in the water?

[Mr K]

vicsmith said:

Is there any oil in the water?

2002gimp said:

when I turned her off I noticed mayo weeping from the crack in the inlet

Doesnt sound like it does it, but sounds like somone has put a egg based sauce into the cooling system. a possible result of using eggs to fix a leaky radiator?

[BenzBoy]

If the head gasket is cheap and replacement is relatively easy, it might be worth doing it then getting the cooling system pressure tested?

Alternatively why not replace the inlet manifold, flush the oil and coolant, fill it with fresh stuff and give it a short run. You might have got away with it! Like Paul4be said, condensation can give you mayo, particularly this time of year when it's cold and damp.

Does it have a header tank? Sticking a finger in there and seeing if there's a slimy residue will point to a blown head gasket.
My dad had a Rover 400 that had this problem - the thing ran fine as the gasket around the cylinders was intact. But water in the oil did for the tappets I think. Slimy khaki coloured gloop in the header tank.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

A bit of mayo is not the end of the world is it, just spoon it out and keep it for making prawn cocktail.

[Pillock]

remember to refrigerate it, goes off very quickly and can cause quite bad stomach upsets.

I've seen head gaskets go in every conbination..... you've got the combustion chambers, oilways and waterways and depending where's blown you get different symptoms.

eg oil-cylinder you get smoke and oil loss
water-cylinder you get steam and water loss
oil-water you get sludge in oil filler
oil-bread you get some nice balsamic vinegar and start dipping.

[King Maz]

Mine just went and all it ever did was get slightly warm and lose a bit of water occasionally.
99,000 miles of loyal service beforehand though.

[lordyoung1980]

All this talk of eggs and mayo is making me hungry

[briandamaged]

Escort's got more mayo in the rocker cover than a Hellman's factory, uses no water though and hardly any oil so I'm saving it up for some 'Breather Pipe Mayo Wanging Olympics' at the summer shows....either that or I'll sell it to some porn film makers for use as fake 'gentleman's gel' :-)

Easiest way is to run a compression test on it.