i completely suck i guess. i have 200 miles on my new motor, so i change the oil. green and runny. i quit. why why why?

sorry for posting in two places. i need help/comfort.

Sorry to hear sutch thing :disappoin 4,9 litre engine? Head gasket(s) bad i guess.

OH NO !!!!!!

from what i gather you rebuilt it yourself ? that has to suck , nothing like a motor you built going sour , did something similar to a 4.3 once ..

so whats next man ? gonna pull it again ?

edit : tell ya a little story to make you feel beatter :

2 years ago me and another guy rebuilt a 351 ford , took our time and did everything by the book ,tossed the engine in and broke it in ourselves . afterwards we handed the keys back over to the user , within 2 days it came back with a completly blown engine (i mean rod holes in the block) , turns out the user intentionally blew the engine for fun . talk about 2 angry grease monkeys .....

LacSeville,
If i were you i would PM bbob, and ask him what he would suggest you check first on your engine To find the internal coolant leak. you will need his help , and trust me he CAN help you locate the source.

thanks guys. i opted by buy a reman this time. which is actually better that it blew because i know it was nothing i did... but i still had a ton of time in this motor, painting, externals and installation. i'm not THAT hacked.

i've been talking to bbob and others and they've got me straightened out. they agree that it's probably the intake manifold gaskets. apparently it's the a common problem (relatively speaking) with reman 4.x aluminums. that's okay because the intake manifold is a much easier fix than, say, a cracked block!! i'm going to pressurize the system and track it down for sure this weekend. all is not lost. hang with me.

might fix the leak but what does bob say about the life of the main bearings after coolant was introduced to the oil system ? thats what im very concerned about (happed to me on 6.2 diesels)

how long had you run those engine before you knew you had it in there? i've only run 200 miles on the new motor, and i'm sure that it wasn't in there all 200 of them. what kind of damage occured and how long did it take to "blow up"?

o man lac thats my nightmare come tru sorry it happend to you :disappoin
remember i got my 4.1L at the same place hope i dont have any probs
like that :suspense: i still have a ways to go b4 im ready to pop it in
goodluck :)

just be careful... apparently it's not unheard of for this to happen! i'd make sure the intake bolts are torqued down properly (i didn't) then check fluid levels every 25 miles until 200 miles oil change.

did you buy yours from them directly, or through ebay? hope you got a warranty. it's likely that you will not have any problems though. i'd still buy from this company again, and i have no beef with them. they don't rebuild the engines! how's your project coming anyhow?

"what kind of damage occured and how long did it take to "blow up"?"

it didnt have coolant in the oil for very long ,fixed its headgasket and 3k later it lost 2 main bearings and siezed the engine , we gave up and ordered a crate engine from the airforce supply depot

Coolant really shouldn't hurt the bearings....there is nothing chemically related to cause damage and as long as the engine had oil and oil pressure it should be fine.


Running an engine for a long period of time with coolant intrusion could possibly cause bearing damage but not really likely unless the oil was severely contaminated, very depleted of the anti-wear additives and the bearings simply failed from wear... Sometimes if an engine springs a coolant leak internally and is run VERY hard steam can actually form in the bearings due to the heat which will wipe them out.....I have seen this in race engines and dyno engines but never a passenger car engine.

I have seen dyno engines run on a 50/50 mixture of coolant and oil for hours on end...at heavy load...with no bearing problems. Cams will wear out and distributor gears and such from the depleted oil but the bearings are usually fine.


The most common single cause of bearing failure after an internal coolant leak and intrusive repair is related to the method of repair. It is very common for mechanics to use scotchbrite pads to clean up the head and block deck surfaces for the new head gaskets and/or intake gaskets. The scotchbrite does a good job and seems harmless.....BUT....the aluminum oxide abrasive that is embedded in the scotchbrite material is death to bearings....and using it to clean deck surfaces and intake surfaces almost guarantees introducing it into the oil...and then the bearings fail. The mechanics think it is because of the coolant....but it is really caused by the aluminum oxide particles in the dust from the scotchbrite that was used to clean up the parts prior to reassembly. NEVER get scotchbrite NEAR an engine. Never.

"I have seen dyno engines run on a 50/50 mixture of coolant and oil for hours on end...at heavy load...with no bearing problems."

that makes me wonder , i wonder if we used scotchbrite when we cleaned the headgakset material , we had 3 shifts dealing with the engine so maybe one of our shifts used something that shouldnt have been used .

scothbrite is the little green pads used to clean pots and pans right ? seems like out in the desert(where this happend) we didnt have the little plastic 3m gasket removal discs like i had in alaska , maybe they went to the chowhall and got those pads and used them , i had heard from a couple guys it was a common thing for the cvoolant to destory the bearing and after i seen main failure after coolant was introduced into the oil i belived it wholeheartedly . till your above post , you work for gm and you guys would know beatter than anyone what happens .....

than main bearing i have from that (i keep stupid things) has scrapes the same direction as rotation of the crank that are about = or <.5mm deep , sound about like what happens ? then again its a 6.x diesel.....

did you buy yours from them directly, or through ebay? hope you got a warranty. it's likely that you will not have any problems though. i'd still buy from this company again, and i have no beef with them. they don't rebuild the engines! how's your project coming anyhow?

i saw um on ebay then emailed them and purchased it directly
but no warrentee as yours was dont know if your 4.9 is like my 4.1
all my intake bolts have stacks of 4-5 belleville washers i think bbob
called them and for the project status slowley but surely :) :) :)

...then again its a 6.x diesel.....[/b]This is the key sentence of importance. I suspect it's because of the extreme pressure on the bearing surfaces generated by more than double the compression demands a full, even clean lubricating film between the crankshaft & bearing surfaces. The surest way to kill one of these engines is go more than 2500 to 3000 miles between oil changes.

i finally around to starting on my engine... i opened the lower rad hose from rad and it was a greenish/brownish, (but mostly green) color coming out, but after it set, i could see rainbowy film on the top. could it be a little oil in the coolant? maybe that's just from the rebuild process or worse?

i ordered felpro intake gaskets just in case that is the problem. is felpro going to be okay? i thought the intake was going to be easy to take off and check, but no. let me tell you, it's pretty tough! i've got about 30 more mins before i can tell if it's the intake gasket? will i know for sure if it's the intake gasket by looking at it? should it be pretty obvious?

okay, got the intake off a while ago. the gaskets look fine. there's no obvious holes or tears. there's still rtv on the corners and everything looks good. it was a pretty fast leak, so i'm thinking now that it's not the intake, or could it still be?

should I go to heads or water pump next?

can the waterpump be a culprit ?

can the waterpump be a culprit ?
you know,that is possible, if the front cover gasket was weak near the water passages, you could surly get water into the oil from there. give that a check.

Since you seem to be noticing oil in the coolant as well I would look carefully at the oil cooler in the radiator end tank. Even with some of the possibly failures mentioned for head gaskets and intake gaskets it is unusual for those types of failues to cause oil in the coolant. About the most obvious and likely place for that to occur is in the oil cooler that is located in the radiator end tank.

okay, got the intake off a while ago. the gaskets look fine. there's no obvious holes or tears. there's still rtv on the corners and everything looks good. it was a pretty fast leak, so i'm thinking now that it's not the intake, or could it still be?

should I go to heads or water pump next?
if it was me, since you already have the motor somewhat pulled apart, i would replace all the gaskets, torque them down right, and forget about it. that way, you will be sure that things are the way you want them.

thanks, um all new delco gaskets came in this motor... can i reuse the inktake gasket? I've got felpros ordered, but the intakes look fine. def torque them down acceptably though.

no oil was visible in the rad tank just from looking, it just looked a tiny bit brown coming out of lower rad hose. i just noticed a little rainbow on the floor...maybe there was dormant oil on the floor already? (very likely)

where should I go now? how do I check the oil cooler in the rad tank? anything specifically to look for in water pump gasket? what order to do things?

also, what are those black carbony ports between the intakes? there's a headbolt running through it... just curious.

where are the coolant passages in the intake manifold? they aren't obvious are they?

also, what are those black carbony ports between the intakes? there's a headbolt running through it... just curious.

where are the coolant passages in the intake manifold? they aren't obvious are they?
i believe the carbon filled ports between the intake runners are the EGR passages. the coolant passages will be near the edges of the intake manifold, on the 4 corners of the intake i do believe.

now im really confused , so the external cooler is for the tranny and there is a cooler for engine oil inside the radiator ? i had that reversed ......

now im really confused , so the external cooler is for the tranny and there is a cooler for engine oil inside the radiator ? i had that reversed ......
i believe that the there is a tranny line going into the radiator as well as a seperate cooler for the tranny. the oil cooler tank on the radiator is the only oil cooler that im aware of for that. so, 2 for tranny, 1 for oil, i guess.