97 with coolant in oil

[dblank21]

My 97 jumped time in the process of fixing I found coolant in my oil my mechanic said I need a new engine what should I do

 

[SCOTTYINWV]

Pull the heads and check for warping and or blown head gaskets. If it's true and strait with just a blown head gasket, throw in a new set along with intake gaskets.

 

[dblank21]

OK thanks I'll try that

 

[skylark]

Intakemanifold gaskets are extremely common on a Vortec.

 

[superdave]

Miles on engine?

 

[michael hurd]

If you had coolant in the oil, chances are the bearings are wiped. You might put it back together with new gaskets and find out in a week that you have no bearings left in the bottom end.

I would drop the oil pan and pull a few rod caps off to check the bearings just to be safe before proceeding with buttoning it back up. You may be into it for more than you think.

You might be further ahead to swap the engine out for a known good running engine, especially if you lack the resources to set the timing offset on the distributor and can't get it to someone who can.

 

[98_k1500]

especially if you lack the resources to set the timing offset on the distributor and can't get it to someone who can.

I bet i walk 20 people a week thru this on FB groups that have a timing light hooked to it having "weird problems" because it runs like crap and the timing won't adjust. Good point to bring up when considering removing a vortec intake.

 

[ernjohn]

dblank, did you find the cause of the coolant in the oil? cracked head, bad head gasket, bad intake gasket, corroded intaked, cracked block?

just because there's coolant in the oil doesn't mean the engine is immediately toast.... shortly after I bought my '96 I found out about the intake manifold leaking problem with pretty much all the vortecs. The engine started to knock really bad at start for a minute or two then smoothed out. Replaced the intake gaskets, did an oil change and the knock was gone. I also did stick some large magnets to the oil pan just in case there were any ferrous-metal particles still floating around in the oil system - that was 25,000 miles ago.