What Causes Coolant to Dilute Motor Oil?

A cracked head gasket will create the perfect conditions for coolant to mix with motor oil. Unfortunately, this mixture can damage your engine if you keep driving your automobile. The engine already has enough damage with the cracked head gasket; it will take partially rebuilding the engine to fix it. This being said, if you fear that you have cracked the head gasket over the cylinder block in your engine, play it safe and have your automobile towed to our shop rather than driving it. Aside from a mixture of motor oil and coolant, here are other signs you’ve blown the head gasket.

Coolant Loss

Aside from mixing with the motor oil, the coolant will also leak into each cylinder. This will reduce the level of coolant that you have circulating through the engine. You might think that you can solve the problem by adding coolant to the cooling system, but the added coolant will also leak into the cylinders until you have the head gasket replaced. Unfortunately, this means driving your automobile will open it up to additional engine damage due to excess heat. In fact, you could crack the cylinder block.

Overheating Engine

So, it’s safe to say that because the coolant is leaking into the cylinders, your engine will overheat. It will run too hot every time that you drive your SUV, truck, or car. In fact, the engine may get so hot that the coolant will boil in the radiator and cause the cap to blow clean off.

The low coolant level isn’t the only reason why the engine is getting so hot. The engine is also being exposed to the heat inside the combustion chamber. Normally, the head gasket would seal off that heat, but the crack in the gasket allows the excessive heat to escape.

This is another reason why you should not drive your automobile until the head gasket is replaced. As we mentioned above, the overheating engine could crack the cylinder block. It can also crack the exhaust manifold and the manifold’s gasket.

Excess Exhaust

In addition to the above problems, the motor oil and coolant will create excess exhaust as they are burned in the combustion chamber (cylinders). The burning motor oil creates blue exhaust, while the burning coolant creates white exhaust.

There you have it. A cracked head gasket causes coolant to dilute motor oil and so much more. Again, call for a tow to our shop to avoid additional engine damage if you’ve blown the head gasket.