Help with a friends 2000 grand

My friend at work has a 2000 grand cherokee that keeps loosing the coolant in the resevior. I looked at it a few times and cant for the life of me find a leak or water marks in the engine compartment. the radiator still is full but the bottle is empty. The oil is 5500 miles old but looks like chocolate. I once ran oil that long but it was black. He said it doesn't over heat, and it runs strong when he gets it running (takes 2 or 3 times turning over). The bottle goes empty in a day when he fills it. Its been empty for 3 days now but no over heating. I told him to change the the oil right away and if it looks crappy right away it might be a head gasket. If anyone could help out it would be much appreciated.

Other Idea I had was I heard of stuff you put into oil that makes it glow in a black light. Would they have something like that for coolant?:helpme:

Mutant_Xj said:

Other Idea I had was I heard of stuff you put into oil that makes it glow in a black light. Would they have something like that for coolant?:helpme:

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Dont know about your problem, but they do make a dye for the coolant also.

If the oil looks like a chocolate milkshake, thats a classic head gasket, or worse, cracked head (especially if it's the 4.0 we're talking about...cause I believe they also had the 0331 heads on them).

An oil leak that fast, that's not leaving any puddles on the ground, is either getting used in the crankcase, or getting burned up in the combustion chamber....but at that rate, I would suspect you'd see a lot of steam coming from the pipe if it were being burned in the combustion chamber.

He said water drips from the exhaust. Its a 4.0 and he just told me he thinks the PO wrecked it. He said it runs smooth so I dont think it would be a head or head gasket. I'll have to go try to find some of that dye for him and check that out. Thanks

x2 on it likely being a 0331 and prone to craking. the chocolate milk-oil you described with no physical leak puddles under the car is a pretty classical presentation of how the 0331's crack and have coolant disappear. check under his oil filler cap and see if that is discolored as well.