Saturn Vue, cracked block or head gasket?

DeeVeeEight

DeeVeeEight

Fast Pedalphile
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Messages
2,284
Location
Southern New Jersey, USA
One of my G.F's drives a Saturn Vue 4 cyl, 5 spd and has the dreaded chocolate milk looking oil. The damn car runs fine but there is obviously a leak allowing the coolant to get into the oil. Are there any chronic issues with these cars? I asked her if she ever overheated the engine or ran it out of oil or anything like that and she says it has always been fine. I was thinking if it's a crack that I might get away with some Alumaseal in the cooling system, it has worked well for me in the past.
Any ideas?
 
I had a head to block water leak in the vette some years ago....I got pissed and decided to prove the point under air pressure by putting in a soldered up a/c pressure coupling on the heater core side of the water, and using compressed air, just pressure the block/cooling system...and check the leakdown on a a/c lo pressure gauge....to let the radiator cap blow off at 16 lbs, go closed and watch.....

it's how I check ALL vehicles for any cooling gasket/hose/head/whatEVER problems now....

God, I"m LAZY.....:lol::D
 
You could try adding ground pepper to the coolant.
Flush/change the oil. Some dealerships have an oil system flushing machine.
 
Is the head aluminum or iron? IF it's aluminum you might as well pull it and get it fixed. That little 4 cyl Pontiac used (1.8?) iron block and aluminum head- if it got anywhere close to hot it was over.
Pop the radiator cap, start it and let it warm up- bubbles are bad.
GM also had a run of the little 2.0 "Iron Duke" engines that had a thin spot in the lifter galley. Made loads of chocolate milk.
 
MYBAD79 said:
why do you suspect a crack and not just the head gasket ??
Click to expand...


I don't lean either way. I do not know much about the eco-4 cyl. motors except that they like to run at very low rpm's, the damn shift lite is always on unless I am in 5th gear. The motor still runs fine, just milky looking oil. The GF will drive it like that til it blows up - she doesn't know any better. She doesn't want to spend any money either - she's just another push & go driver.
:crutches:
 
Well folks, surprisingly enough, she thanked me for asking your opinions and said that she will make an appt. with her mechanic to get it fixed. :shocking: :clap:
 
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