Oil problems.

89' xj 4.0 laredo. 266000 miles on it.stock now. 4inch lift and tires this weekend. Just picked it two weeks ago. Drove it 80 miles home with out a problem. next day got all the stuff and gave it a tune up. while changing out the thermostat i cracked a couple housings. just a quick fixed i dumped a gallon and a half of water and about a gallon of anti freeze. Now Im gettin anti freeze into my oil that was noticed on the dip stick. Oil has also backed up into my coolant resevoir. I first put six quarts in . and im gettin a bad oil burning smell and just put 5 more in yesterday. It got into the 20s when i put the water in. It has not over heated and has not lost power. Would this be from a cracked block or maybe head gasket?

You cracked a couple of thermostat housings? You put in six quarts of oil, and added five more or is it all coolant that you are adding? Sounds like a head gasket. Haven't heard much about cracked blocks, but heads crack and head gaskets get blown out. Did you put in the water without anti-freeze?

It sounds like it could be a head gasket, a coolant pressure test could tell you right away.

This matches the exact symptoms that I see on boats when not winterized (cracked block or head) properly. You may or may not see some external cracking and may or may not see a frost plug popped out partially. That would be the first thing that I would check. It is always a good idea to mix your anti-freeze before installing for this very reason. How did you crack a couple of housings? A pressure test would definately tell you a lot.

Umm yeah I thought that there was only one housing, its at the front of the engine. unless you are reffering to the mixer valve as a housing as well.

Stihl029 said:

Umm yeah I thought that there was only one housing, its at the front of the engine. unless you are reffering to the mixer valve as a housing as well.

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I think that he means that he broke one, replaced it, and broke the replacement, then replaced it with sucess the 3rd time, but I could be wrong.

88 Wagonman said:

I think that he means that he broke one, replaced it, and broke the replacement, then replaced it with sucess the 3rd time, but I could be wrong.

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Yeah thats what happened, I was over tightening them and they would crack. I did that a couple times and by then a lot of my coolant had drained. So just to cover until the next day I replaced it with water. But it got extremely cold that night.

winterbeater said:

You cracked a couple of thermostat housings? You put in six quarts of oil, and added five more or is it all coolant that you are adding? Sounds like a head gasket. Haven't heard much about cracked blocks, but heads crack and head gaskets get blown out. Did you put in the water without anti-freeze?

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I put six quarts of oil right after my tune up. Then five quarts of oil yesterday. Every time I check my oil it reads below the add line. So I keep putting more. But it seems to be burning up. And for the coolant. I put one gallon of coolant and one gallon of water at first. Then when it all kept coming out of the thermostat housing I would just keep topping it off with water.

If you're burning oil like that, your plugs would be fouling. Pull them and take a look. If certain ones are oily and others are good, that gives you more information. But from what you're saying, I'd start looking for a good used motor.