Engine oil in coolant-22R

[cnold]

My wife purchased a 1985 Toyota truck fifteen years and 220,000 miles back. The previous owner mentioned that a problem with the cylinder head and/or gasket was corrected under warranty but gave no further details. Recently, oil has shown up in the coolant and the cooling system is loosing fluid but there are no apparent leaks. I seem to remember that it was a common problem but can't find a reference to a service bulletin. Can anyone remember the proper repair procedure? The truck is still in good condition and if it can be fixed with just a head gasket and new head bolts, we would like to have it fixed to haul things that I wouldn't haul in my new Tundra.

[mustang67408]

I would check the timing cover on the inside. When the timing chain guides break, the chain rubs the inside of the timing cover and rub a hole into the water jacket. Most people think that its a blown headgasket. Aftemarket water pumps also may wear a hole in the timing cover from the impellers rubbing thru. I always recommend factory timing components and a water pump.
If you pull the valve cover and look down the the chain. Apply pressure to the cooling system and you might see the leak. If if is a small leak i would suggest pulling the water pump and timing cover and inspecting closly.
22r's were not known for any coolant problems, unlesss they were overheated serverly, they crack in the #4 exhaust port and require a new cylinder head. Other than that i would bet my money on the thiming chain rubbing thru the cover, most people miss it,it looks like 2 grooves worn into the side of the cover.
Good Luck
Victor

[cnold]

Thanks for the tip Victor, but in this case, I see engine oil in the coolant but no coolant in the oil. The oil pressure being greater than the pressure in the cooling system, leads me to believe that there must be a one-way leak between the two systems. I assume that there is an oil passage through the head gasket to oil the camshaft. The loss of coolant is not enough to be visible at the tail pipe but could very well be a crack at the #4 exhaust port and unrelated to the other problem.

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by mustang67408

I would check the timing cover on the inside. When the timing chain guides break, the chain rubs the inside of the timing cover and rub a hole into the water jacket. Most people think that its a blown headgasket. Aftemarket water pumps also may wear a hole in the timing cover from the impellers rubbing thru. I always recommend factory timing components and a water pump.
If you pull the valve cover and look down the the chain. Apply pressure to the cooling system and you might see the leak. If if is a small leak i would suggest pulling the water pump and timing cover and inspecting closly.
22r's were not known for any coolant problems, unlesss they were overheated serverly, they crack in the #4 exhaust port and require a new cylinder head. Other than that i would bet my money on the thiming chain rubbing thru the cover, most people miss it,it looks like 2 grooves worn into the side of the cover.
Good Luck
Victor

When you start the engine cold ---do you hear a noise for a couple of seconds? If you do check the timing chain tensioner --it is operated by oil pressure. It has a check valve that holds oil pressure on the pully. If this check valve fails it will let the chain rub the housing at start up. This will wear a hole in the housing. Dont thinlk it has anything to do with the coolant in the oil but if you check the chain look at this too. ----Buzz

[mustang67408]

Your right, if i would have opened my eyes and read what you stated "oil in coolant", i would have seen that. Oil pressure is greater that the water pressure. sorry, my mistake.
Is it for sure engine oil, or could it be trans fluid (if it's a ATM)?
Engine oil could have come from a cracked cylinder head yes. The heat from the xhaust in the cylinder head may be vaporizing the coolant and thats why you dont see it. Later model 22re's were notorious for leaking small amounts of coolant down the left side of the block, and under the intake manifold. there is a water pipe and a special square "O" ring under there to seal it.
The oil pressure feed for the cylinder head is on the left side of the block.
Let us know what ya find.

[dsrtrcr01]

Its a blown head gasket.(NOT) You are not seeing any coolant leak because it is being burned off internally. I would just take it in and have it checked. We have a special tool which looks sort of like a turkey baster that hooks up where the radiator cap goes and can detect exhaust in your coolant which will tell if the head gasket is blown. Easy to check. The timing chain issue only happens if you ignore a noisy timing chain for a good amount of time. FYI- Running 20w50 oil in the 22r's will help the timing chain last longer.

I was wrong. It sounds like it is the TC cover. OOPS.

[swanng]

I recently rebuilt the 22R in my 84 Toyota truck. Not because I HAD to, but because I thought I might as well since I stripped the threads for the spark plug in cylinder #1, and she had almost 375,000 miles on her. I found the reason for the stripped threads after I pulled the head. There was a very fine (almost invisible to the naked eye) crack running from the water jacket to the combustion chamber on cylinder #1, and the piston crown was as clean as a brand new piston out of the box. That particular cylinder had been leaking coolant for a LONG time, but not so much coolant you would immediately notice (or smell in the exhaust). I just topped off the radiator every six months or so. No other signs of coolant loss were evident, and there were no signs of any coolant contamination. It may very well be that the oil gallery which feeds the camshaft could be pissing oil into the coolant from a very fine crack that may not be visible unless you have the head pressure tested with dye or other methods.

[mustang67408]

A good machine shop should be able to test all of these excellent ideas.

[Ford Boi]

I have a 84 celica gt. with a 22re. with an insane oil to coolant and coolant to oil leak. but no smoke and cylinders dont have any cracks. i just replaced the head gasket and all the intake gaskets. drove it for about a day and a half and it was ok, ran 10 times better but there came the coolant and oil mixing in no time.. and the old gasket looked fine so. i also hear a noise on cold startup. who thinks its my timing cover ??

[mustang67408]

Originally Posted by Ford Boi

I have a 84 celica gt. with a 22re. with an insane oil to coolant and coolant to oil leak. but no smoke and cylinders dont have any cracks. i just replaced the head gasket and all the intake gaskets. drove it for about a day and a half and it was ok, ran 10 times better but there came the coolant and oil mixing in no time.. and the old gasket looked fine so. i also hear a noise on cold startup. who thinks its my timing cover ??

Sounds like a very good thing to check. A worn timing chain with broken guides will rub a hole thru the cover in no time at all.
Make sure the water pump also did not grind thru the timing cover.

[azredliner]

Originally Posted by cnold

My wife purchased a 1985 Toyota truck fifteen years and 220,000 miles back. The previous owner mentioned that a problem with the cylinder head and/or gasket was corrected under warranty but gave no further details. Recently, oil has shown up in the coolant and the cooling system is loosing fluid but there are no apparent leaks. I seem to remember that it was a common problem but can't find a reference to a service bulletin. Can anyone remember the proper repair procedure? The truck is still in good condition and if it can be fixed with just a head gasket and new head bolts, we would like to have it fixed to haul things that I wouldn't haul in my new Tundra.

Check your timing chain cover. There is a thin wall (about 1/4 inch) that seperates the timing chain from the cooling passage. When the timing chain gets slack from age, it will rub a hole in the cover and water will get into the oil.

An easy way to see if there is slack in the chain is to check the timing with a timing light. If the timing mark wavers, then the timing chain assembly is faulty.

[Ford Boi]

me again with the same old problem. after replacing the head gasket, and then removing and closely inspecting the timing cover and all related parts and replacing with all new gaskets, i STILL have the oil and coolant mixing, although after the front end job it was alot slower leak. I have the head off again, and cant find any sign of cracks and there was no sign of a leak on the head gasket. the cylinder walls look fine, and so does the block. all i can suspect is hairline crack in the head to small to see. I'm going to rip the timing cover off again too, since its easily accessible and gaskets are cheap. im semi-fed-up with this motor and thinking of buying a used one. despite the fact that this one runs absolutely mint and nothing is even worn in it. if any of you have more ideas about what might be wrong, let me know. thanks.

OK get this. i just wrote this thing and decided to go back out in the shop and mess with the motor a bit more. i figured i'd take out the valves and look again form ANY sign of cracking on the head. as i was looking at it, i noticed one of the damn plugs uner the cam was QUITE loose, i actually gave it a couple turns with my fingers and it came out. and the threads were full of oil and so was the area inside the water jacket below. so I'm guessing this was my problem all along. how stupid is that? could it possibly get any stupider????? maybe this could add to the other ideas you guys had of internal coolant/oil leaking problems.... dont even ask why or how this stuff happens to me.

[tnau664]

Originally Posted by cnold

My wife purchased a 1985 Toyota truck fifteen years and 220,000 miles back. The previous owner mentioned that a problem with the cylinder head and/or gasket was corrected under warranty but gave no further details. Recently, oil has shown up in the coolant and the cooling system is loosing fluid but there are no apparent leaks. I seem to remember that it was a common problem but can't find a reference to a service bulletin. Can anyone remember the proper repair procedure? The truck is still in good condition and if it can be fixed with just a head gasket and new head bolts, we would like to have it fixed to haul things that I wouldn't haul in my new Tundra.

Hey Graig. Did you ever find out how the oil was getting into your coolant? I'm suffering through the same issue of lost coolant. I'm loosing about a pint every 30 miles with no leaks. Sounds exactly like what you described here.

Thanks
Terry
Piedmont, Alabama

[CGriff]

I don't know if people are still replying to this thread but I have a 97 Toyota tacoma, structuraly this machine is in very good shape but I checked the coolant today and noticed the resvoir was pretty well empty and at the bottom there was like dark oil looking fluid. From what I read on this thread this is very bad as it seems oil has entered my cooling system, to make matters worse I checked the tail pipe and there is dark liquid comming out there also . Does this mean I have a blown head gasket? or is this even worse than that.
Ty guys I eagerly await you response.
CGriff

[Tennesseestorm]

My grandpas 1990 Mazda 929 had oil in the coolant... it never overheated and it never had coolant in the oil. It was a blown headgasket. It was repaired, but still has oil in the coolant. Obviously not repaired properly.