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Just rebuilt engine and there's water in the oil?

B

BabyBlue240

New member
Joined
Jun 14, 2005
Location
Mountain View, CA
Posted this in my project thread but it'll probably get more views here.

alright, today i go to start the rebuilt b230ft for the first time and as would probably be expected with someone starting on Megaquirt, it doesn't start. pull out the plugs to check if its way flooded or something, and there's water, not gas, on the spark plugs, like if you slung it, drips would fly off, that much. take off the oil cap, and im heartbroken to see this:

IMG_1392.jpg


now i just rebuilt the motor, it hasn't ever run since it was rebuilt. the block was decked and the head was shaved by the machine shop, and the place has a good reputation locally, so i don't think thats the problem. but i used a new elring head gasket and torqued the head exactly how the greenbook says to. i guess the water and oil could mix somewhere else (the 15g or the oil/water cooler that im using off the late 940's) but the fact that there's water on the plugs makes me think the problem is at the head gasket. it's so wierd though because like i said, it hasn't ever started, so neither the oil or water system has really gotten up to pressure, yet the oil still looked like this when i drained it. i mean i probably cranked it a total of 30 seconds over different trials before i discovered this.

IMG_1389.jpg


i mean, it seems like something is REALLY wrong and im missing something because i dont see how that much water can get in the oil that fast. any ideas? its a real bummer.
 
Oil in water

The chances of that much water going from a water port to an oil port via the headgasket is highly unlikely. I would suspect the oil cooler as the oil pump could displace a lot of water in a short time. Lines correct? Had to ask. How it would get on the plugs is a mystery to me, unless the much thinner water vs oil is going down the valve guides. A pressure tester for the radiator would let you pressure the cooler on the water side and see if it comes out the oil inlet/outlet. I hope it is something simple and easy to fix.
 
volvo 4 life said:
Take the head off and check the head gasket. Hopefully that's all it is. I guess the coolant passages could have been shaved too thin but I highly doubt it.
Click to expand...

not possible to shave the passages to thin. i cant think of anything causing this that quick eather... i hope you figure it out, i feel bad for you. try the turbo first. then i guess pull the head and put a straight edge on it. when you pulled the head off for the rebuild did alot coolent drain down in it? know thats a very far fetch but im hoping teh best for ya. good luck and post what you find as soon as you can.:-(
 
Which components that contain oil or water are new/untested on this rebuilt engine?

Is the coolant dirty with oil, or is it just one way contamination?

Did you prime the oil pump and prime the oil feed line before hooking it up to the turbo before even attempting to start the engine? I'm curious if you had clean oil at some point prior, or if maybe this started as soon as the oil system was pressurized.
 
compression check? if theres water in the CC it seems like that would point to rings and or head gasket. From my rebuild **** up past i can tell you that you will save yourself a lot of time and effort if you just buckle down and pull that head off and check for stuff.
 
towerymt said:
Is the coolant dirty with oil, or is it just one way contamination?
Click to expand...

...is the key thing to find out.

In a 30 second period of cranking, the only thing that gets any pressure up is the oil. And that would put oil into the coolant, not coolant into the oil.

SO, you have a problem where the coolant can gain passive access to the crankcase...

....'possibly' a prob at the head gasket mating surface...and about the only thing thataway would be a defective or wrongly installed HG...

....the oil-to-coolant oil cooler sandwich would put oil into the coolant as soon as the oil pressure built up. For coolant to get into the crankcase via the sandwich, that unit would have to be badly cracked, allowing the coolant to gravity feed into the oil passages before the motor was cranked.

...the turbo would likewise put oil into the coolant once oil pressure built.

All these things point to knowing whether or not the coolant is oil contaminated or not.

BEFORE you pull the head, do a cooling system pressure test...with the oil drain plug off and a drain pan underneath.

...IF there is a crack somewhere in the cooling system passages of the head or block that will allow coolant to passively get into the crankcase, a pressure test will speed that up.

...you could pull the turbo drain pipe from the block and put a container under that prior to the cooling sys pressure test.

...the same would go for the oil filter itself: to see if the coolant is escaping from the sandwich into the oil filter, and then into the crankcase.


If there is no cooling system contamination from oil, then you have to find out where the coolant has been getting into the crankcase.

...the above test would help eliminate the cooler sandwich and the turbo from the list.

...then you have to look at the HG, the head, and the block.

good luck

TF
 
Before you start pulling stuff apart make sure it isn't something dumb and easily cured, could you for instance have swapped over a coolant and a breather hose at the back of the engine?
 
I was told one time that if the head/block was shaved enough, that the dowel pins that locate the head on the block would need to be shortened as well. Otherwise, you could torque to spec and still not be compressing the head gasket on the one side. This true of Volvo motors or am I really out in left field?
 
thanks for the input.

yeah the coolant is completely clean, no oil whatsoever, which rules out some things and makes others more confusing. really good point about the alignment pins, and id suspect that except that the outside of the block is completely dry. the odds that the head gasket would be failed on all 4 cylinders (every spark plug had the water on it) but sealed against anything going to the outside of the block seems very unlikely to me. does anyone know of any plugs or anything inside the block that could have been left out that would give the water passage into the oil. its a squirter block if that makes any difference.

im starting to think that maybe all this happened before i ever cranked the engine because like stealthfti said, there's way more pressure in the oil system than the water system when cranking or running. so, any cracked passageway would mean oil would get in the water, not the other way around. i have no idea, im just thinking aloud right now because im really confused.

oh, and the block was pulled from a wrecked 940 at the junkyard and the oil looked normal and black when i pulled everything apart, so i dont believe anything is cracked. and it was rebuilt just because. it may have run fine, but it was part of my resto/Megasquirt project so it needed to be solid.
 
That is very bizarre. Is it possible that somehow the heater core lines got mixed up with the breather box line? This could put water in the oil, but not oil in the water (at first). That's the only thing I can think of that wasn't mentioned when I skimmed through.
 
wildmanben said:
That is very bizarre. Is it possible that somehow the heater core lines got mixed up with the breather box line? This could put water in the oil, but not oil in the water (at first). That's the only thing I can think of that wasn't mentioned when I skimmed through.
Click to expand...

this seemed like one of those *DOH* but possible things. What doesnt make sense to me is the water (or coolant? or are you using water as coolant upon start up?) in the CCs (all 4).

could the heater core lines and the breather box lines have been swapped to the extent that you would end up with coolant/water back in the intake side of the turbo which would then lead to water in all CC's as well as water back in your crankcase (and then your head?)

maybe just run out and check some hoses and pop an intake hose off and look for water?
 
500dollar744ti said:
how about a bad oil cooler.. you have the water to oil cooler from the 940 right? did you check that, could be something stupid like that.
Click to expand...

still gotta address the water in the CCs...could be separate issues, but seems like too coincidental.


im frickin curious now!
 
what all was involved in this rebuild?

did you get the block checked by a machine shop? or was it a re-ring/clean up/shave head only?
 
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