Having just had the fuel pump replaced on my 99 4wd LT I decided to replace a bad wheel hub myself which took me a couple of hours. The car was running great and the wheel noise was gone. Fast forward a week and my wife comes home from church and tells me the car was overheating and she barely made it home. She said she had to stop and put water in the radiator and that it took over a gallon and it was empty again when she got home (10 miles). I let it cool down and tried to start it but couldn't.
I pulled the air cleaner from intake and it was covered with milky oil. Checked the dipstick and found the same stuff. This morning (Monday) I drained 3 gallons of gunk that was supposed to be oil and filled the crankcase with oil from a change a few weeks ago. I just wanted to see if the engine would start which it did...but badly and the check engine light is on. Since I didn't see any smoke/steam coming out of the tail pipe can I assume it's a catastrophic failure of the manifold gasket and not a head gasket? I didn't run the engine long enough to heat things up....only 3 times for about 10 seconds each. I'm going to assume that the milky oil is all over everything inside the engine so one of my questions is what is the best way to get all the interior parts clean again. I know the best thing would be to pull the engine and do a full disassembly and rebuild but only having one car makes it hard. Will changing the oil 2-3 times do the trick? Pouring diesel fuel down the block? Any tricks I don't know about?

 

You can try seafoam do an oilchange run the engine adding seafoam as directed and follow instructions on can for running vehicle and then afterwards do another oil change. That milky oil will be moisture in the engine. Its still possibly a head gasket failure,with any luck it will be the intake gaskets. I have a set of intake gaskets for that engine I would sell for like $35 plus shipping. They are the felpro 98002 for $50 plus shipping, I'll include 2 blue rubber reusable felpro valve cover gaskets with new centerbolt plugs and the upper intake gaskets which you likely won't need anyway.

 

Yeah just change the intake gaskets and the oil. Then change the oil a few times earlier than the recommended 3000-5000 and it might be ok. These engine are notorious for spinning bearings so be gentle with it untill things get oiled up.

 

Thanks, One of my neighbors is driving me into town today to pick up the felpro gasket set. I read somewhere about using a mixture of 2 quarts of oil, 2 ATF, and 1 Seafoam..run for 10 minutes then drain and refill with oil. I know that everything inside the engine is going to be coated with the oil/coolant mixture so my main concern is getting as much out as I can before reassembly. Once the manifold is off should I do a heavy spray of degreaser and let it drain out the oil plug or would that cause contaminants into the bearings ? I've stripped down a few engines many years ago but it's a lot easier to clean parts when they're not attached to the car.

 

I would be careful once the manifold is off i lay a towel in the lifter valley. You want as little debris to fall into the engine as possible. Many have changed a intake gasket only to have a bearing spin and knock after they are done due to carelessness with debris. I think sea-foam would be enough personally just follow what it says to do and change your oil a few times and you'll be OK if there already hasn't been any damage that is.

 

Thanks, my wife just left with the neighbor to pick up the parts and seafoam is on the list. I was planning to cover the interior when cleaning off the engine surface. So far today I've got everything off except the distributor and fuel lines...almost there. I just had a sandwich and being old it's time for my nap.

"if there alreay hasn't been any damage that is"
You really know how to build up the confidence of a senior citizen<grin>.

 

Sorry to give ya some bad news but i always like to prepare for the worst. Then when things go good i am relieved lol. Its just that water in the oil is never good and you say she might have overheated it and added lots of water to get it home. If she overheated it bad your in for more problems im affraid. I hope it goes well for you and my fingers are crossed for you too.

 

Although I'm not really up to speed on all the new computer stuff I don't think the basics have changed in 100 years. My main fear is that one of the head gaskets is blown. I'll do a compression check when I get it back to together. My wife said it only went a couple of lines past 200 degrees so if she isn't fibbing the heads should be good. Just before sunset I got the manifold off and found about a 1/4" gap in the gasket on the front drivers side going into the valley which is where the oil and coolant were pouring into the block. If I didn't find that then I would be real worried about a cracked block or head.

Although I was slow the only real issues I ran into were getting the stupid distributor cap off and finding the bottom bolt holding in the AC/Power steering assembly. Of course one of the little tangs on the dist cap was broken but I was replacing it anyway. At least on my 99 I did NOT have to remove the fan or any of the idler or tension pulleys.

Tomorrow I'll start the cleanup an reassembly then coming back here crying when I can't get it started. I did find a couple of nice guides with pictures that were a big help.

 

You'll know after you get it started if the heads are cracked. If it runs OK and don't overheat its probably OK . Be sure to get the dist back on time and don't bend and pins when putting the injector plug back on the intake and it'll fire right up and run better than it has in awhile .

 

Thanks, I spent a couple of hours this morning cleaning the manifold and engine then got it back on. There was no pitting on either surface. The distributor went in fine and the whiteout lines matched. I got most of the back portion reassembled. I'm leaving the PS pump and Alternator for tomorrow. As for the injector plug...you have to have faith. You don't know if they're bent unless you take it back apart...then you have to put it back in..then take it off again to see if any are bent. You could spend all day doing that. If it doesn't run right when I'm done...it's time to find a beater.