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oil in the coolent recovery bottle

jeepme

jeepme

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Dublin California
looked in my recovery bottle last night and noticed a thin layer of oil covering the top of the coolent. I drained the oil i the block and checked for coolent in the oil and no coolent. Could this be a head gasket or something more serious?
 
It could definitely be the headgasket. If you still have your old rad fluid, get it taken to a radiator shop and tested for hydrocarbon content, as this will pretty much clear it up for you...
 
change your oil and your coolant. drive a few days, then check both. If your oil or coolant looks like pea soup, you have a blown head/head gasket.

SimpleXJ
 
What year is it?

Closed or open cooling system?

Did you check the transmission fluid??????
 
It could be remnanets of a radiator-stop leak I suppose, or just oily dirt/grime.

The coolant in the block, heater core, and radiator in my system is bright green. The coolant in the resivoir is always dirty.....I've cleaned out that bottle so many times, nothing cuts it. The coolant in there always gets dirty.
 
same here, I'm sure its not oil, just some mucky stuff. i take my resavoir off every summer, when i flush the system, and stick a hose to it.
 
Same with me as well....coolant in the system was a nice bright green, and there was a solid half inch thick or so layer of just plain ole muck in the bottom of the recovery bottle.

Did a coolant system drain and refill about a year ago, and the muck is back, even though i have no other signs of fluid loss or contamination in the engine oil or tranny fluid....so i'm not too concerned about it.
 
The goo is floating on top of the coolant in the bottle and definately looks like oil. I am taking it to a shop to have it pressure tested and the coolant checked so I ll let ya know. Thanks for all the replies.
 
jeepme said:
The goo is floating on top of the coolant in the bottle and definately looks like oil. I am taking it to a shop to have it pressure tested and the coolant checked so I ll let ya know. Thanks for all the replies.
Click to expand...

I will ask again, did you check the transmission fluid for water?

You might want to drain the block coolant and radiator coolant before running that pressure test to avoid throwing coolant into the engine oil areas. From the sounds of it, you might be lucky and the oil is leaking into the coolant so far instead of the other way around. Note that oil pressure is usually higher than coolant pressure.
 
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If all of his other oil is fine tho - I'd say there's nothing to worry about.

I've heard of this with other vehicles too. Murky coolant in the reisivoir, good coolant in the rest of the system. I don't know why! Perhaps because the coolant resivoir isn't completely sealed from the outside.
 
kcjeep6 said:
Are you sure its not left over ATF from the last disaster? i have a pressure tester and compresion guage if you want to check it out you self
Click to expand...

I dont think so. That was a definate pink color and this is very dark brown. The cooling system has been clean since the trans incident so I dont think its left over since the Jeep has been on a few long trips since then and nothing in the coolant until last week. My neighbor has a shop in Livermore so he is going to take the Jeep tuesday and pressure test it.
 
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