Help!!!

[pwarren]

I found oil in my cooolant overflow this morning. The oil on the engine dipstick looked good. Not milkey or frothy. Nothing on the inside of the oil filler cap either.. Coolant level was normal also. Is my headgasket getting ready to fully blow????

[93 325i]

Do you by chance use water wetter?

[pwarren]

yes i did, but the oil looks the same color as my engine oil.

[93 325i]

It is from the water wetter. People were freaking out thinking they had blown head gaskets but it was determined it was the the W.W. creating that film of oil. I would freak out when you see milk on the oil cap or dipstick

[pwarren]

Originally posted by 93 325i@Jun 22 2005, 08:34 AM
It is from the water wetter. People were freaking out thinking they had blown head gaskets but it was determined it was the the W.W. creating that film of oil. I would freak out when you see milk on the oil cap or dipstick

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It looked like quite a bit of oil in the overflow.. i put a screw driver in their and pulled it out and the oil looked just like my engiine oil.. are you sure water wetter could do that????

[93 325i]

From what I've read, i'd say yes... Do you have a lack of performance? losing coolant? overheating? I tried searching for the old thread but its impossible to find now.. I know "oily" coolant has been caused from water wetter, but I never experienced this first hand (havent used w.w. yet)...

[pwarren]

Originally posted by 93 325i@Jun 22 2005, 10:23 AM
From what I've read, i'd say yes... Do you have a lack of performance? losing coolant? overheating? I tried searching for the old thread but its impossible to find now.. I know "oily" coolant has been caused from water wetter, but I never experienced this first hand (havent used w.w. yet)...

[snapback]355901[/snapback]

No loss of power, oil, or coolant. I will drain some coolant out of the peacock and see what that looks like. oil floats on water so that may not show me anything.

[93 325i]

Someone has to have read what I read a while back and hopefully they will confirm what i've told you. For this very fact is why I havent tried WW yet. Seeing oil in the coolant is very unnerving regarless of what you've read..plus it can hide if you really have a blown HG. I wish I could find that info for you but you cant search "oil" and the 15 pages that come up when you type "coolant" is impossible to sort through.

[pwarren]

Originally posted by 93 325i@Jun 22 2005, 10:59 AM
Someone has to have read what I read a while back and hopefully they will confirm what i've told you. For this very fact is why I havent tried WW yet. Seeing oil in the coolant is very unnerving regarless of what you've read..plus it can hide if you really have a blown HG. I wish I could find that info for you but you cant search "oil" and the 15 pages that come up when you type "coolant" is impossible to sort through.

[snapback]355926[/snapback]

Thanks for your info, I will do more research and fiddle around with the car more before I tear it down. If you find out anything more please post it..I appreciate the help...

[WarNox]

here's my noob question...wht is 'watter wetter'?

thnx

[93 325i]

it's an additive that you add to your coolant. It keeps your car running cooler and improves the overall efficiency of your cooling system. If you do what's called the "fan delete" mod, it is a must to use..

[pwarren]

Originally posted by 93 325i@Jun 23 2005, 05:15 AM
it's an additive that you add to your coolant. It keeps your car running cooler and improves the overall efficiency of your cooling system. If you do what's called the "fan delete" mod, it is a must to use..

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I looked at the car again last night Everything looked ok, I did see again a little oil again in the coolant overflow. Engine oil is fine though.. I pulled out a sample with my coolant tester trying to suck up the oil. The coolant looked great, blue and no particles floating. It's like the oil disapated when it got sucked up and mixed with the coolant. maybe it is not oil, it might be the Water Wetter. I have never seen such a thing..I hope that is what it is.. The car drives fine, no smoke or water out the exhaust.. No loss of coolant or oil...WTF

[pwarren]

I found this on Water Wetter....

Exerpt from a letter to various Miata aquaintences...
.
I don't know if you have ever come across this situation before but I thought I should share the information I received from the technicians at Red Line Synthetic Oil Corporation regarding my recent experience with their Water Wetter product.
It seems that if the PH of your coolant mix is too low the silicates in their product can come out of solution. In my case this manifested itself in the form of pea sized gelatinous globules forming in the coolant mix. These globules eventually float to the surface forming a thick scum. Fortunately, as I pre mix my coolant solution, this did not occur within the radiator. I can only imagine that flushing the gelatinous scum out of the cooling system would be quite a tedious chore, to say the least.

The mix I was using at the time this occurred was as follows...

1½ Gallons Prestone Ethylene Glycol Anti-freeze
1½ Gallons Distilled Water
1 Bottle Redline Water Wetter (makes 3 to 5 gallons as per instructions)

The technicians at Redline suggested that the 50/50 mix is what caused the PH to drop too low and that using a lower percentage of anti-freeze and the minimum amount of Water Wetter in the mix should alleviate the problem.

FYI, changing the concentration of the mix after the fact did not bring the silicates back into solution.

[93 325i]

see there you go man, dont sweat the gasket. Just drain some and add water if the globules dont disappear