Hey everyone, I'm going to appologize before hand for this long post I'm putting up.. And thank those of you who are willing to help me out!!

I believe I may have a slight head gasket leak in my brand new crate engine. I am about to start a war with a local Aamco, because I know they are responsible for overheating my new engine when I brought my truck in for a transmission rebuild. I told the techs before hand that I have electric fans on a manual switch, the dumbasses still managed to overheat my engine saying "some coolant spilled from the overfill, do your fans come on automatically?"

Anyways, I noticed the next day my coolant reservoir was empty and there was a greasy/oily mess caked on the inside of it. I figure the reservoir emptied out because Aamco never properly burped the system when they topped off my coolant.. So I cleaned the reservoir and drained out all the coolant and topped off with fresh coolant and distilled water, it already looks murky 2 days later.. There appears to be oil in the coolant, but no coolant in the oil, is this possible!?

 

So today I did some tests to determine if I have a head gasket leak, I'm hoping you guys can give me some expert opinions on the results of my test..

Here's a list of my cylinders compression results
#1: 159 (needle was just barely shy of 160)
#2: 170
#3: 165
#4: 165
#6: 165
#7: 165
#8: 175

I also ran a chemical block test, I'm sure many of you know the solution is blue and is supposed to turn yellow if gases are present in the coolant system.. My test results showed the solution was still blue after almost 10 minutes of testing, but that it had slightly faded in color. Could the steam off the coolant be enough to slightly change the color?



Before the test





After the test

 

My oil, right before I preformed my fist oil change on my new engine, today.





A sample of some coolant from my radiator





Oil from my engines first oil change, got a little over 4 quarts back after 4k miles

 

If I weren't really sure that I was seeing oil in my coolant, I'd drop some UV fluorescent dye into the crankcase and after running long enough to get a few thermostat cycles and then letting it cool take the UV light to the opening under the radiator cap. If there's oil floating on the surface flashing UV back at you, and with those compression test numbers looking so nice as they do and no combustion gases being in the coolant, it's a bad day for you.

How much runtime did that engine get before you foolishly let AAMCO's monkeys at it?

 

Is it possible the trans cooler in the radiator ruptured? They should have flushed it. What's the trans oil look like.

 

I assume a UV dye would be safe in the crankcase? I'm sure you wouldn't suggest it if it wasnt, but I'm always skeptical on putting things into the engine. Sounds like a good idea though, in theory!

Only reason I had it at Aamco to begin with was because of their free diagnostic check, then I got suckered in by the salesman who really sounded like he knew dodge transmissions. Monkeys is right!!I only had about 3k miles on the engine before I brought it to them, I just did my first oil change today at 4k miles.. The engine is running champ, if there is something wrong with it I have yet to experience any performance related issues.

 

Yep. Just follow the label directions and it'll be fine. That part of it, anyway. It's the need of it that could lead to consternation.

Live and learn, eh? Pretty much every non-racing transmission shop I've seen will do free diagnostics, and the more disreputable among them move a lot of unnecessary (and usually poor quality) rebuilds that way. Personally, when circumstances won't allow me to do the work myself I want to see a busy independent shop that's been in business for at least 20 years doing their own rebuilds in-house, in a garage that's stained everywhere but dirty nowhere, and where I'm welcome to enter at any time while the work is in progress.

If you can find it somewhere online, take a gander at what AAMCO says about the traits of the most successful franchisees: They're people with a quarter million dollars or more to invest, with strong sales skills and some kind of management skills acquired elsewhere, and who have no significant experience in the automotive industry at all. That's the friendly way of saying financial opportunists who care more about your credit card than your car. That's not just a ding on AAMCO, though, because pretty much every big franchise whose marketing literature I've seen, and that's almost all of the franchises whose names you know and a bunch more you don't, says pretty much the same thing whether it's an automotive franchise or something completely unrelated.

I'd expect that to have been time enough to expose any defects in the build. Sometimes minor defects will wait ten thousand miles or more to become major ones, but usually you find them in half that or less.

There's normally more pressure in the oiling system than the cooling system, so you usually only see coolant in oil when combustion chamber pressure helps to push it there -- and with those compression numbers and no hydrocarbons in the radiator, the combustion chambers aren't compromised so it should run well for the time being.

So now it's just a matter of figuring out what's really happening in there and deciding nothing further until that's done.

 

With the fans off, it got hot enough to push some fluid out, but probably didn't hurt anything.

 

I think I'm going to follow your advice with the uv dye. Thanks a lot for your input, you gave me some really great advice and helped explain a lot I would not have figured out on my own. I was not planning on getting sucked into an Aamco shop, but like you said "live and learn." Funny part is so far, the trans feels great.. I might have actually had a good experience to report with Aamco if they hadn't messed up my brand new engine!! I had a racing shop install my engine, they did a fantastic job!! I guess next time I know to go to them again when I need a major job done. Like you, I like to tackle everything I can on my own.

Is it normal for the hydrocarbon solution to slightly change color but still show a negative result? If you can tell from the picture the solution did slightly change, but it still looks plenty blue to me.

 

That's certainly what I'm hoping for!! You think it's possible I'm just seeing a lot of built up funk in the reservoir/filler neck from my old cooling components? There's not much that's old cause my engine and heater core are new, and tranny fluid looks good!