1995 Volvo 950 NA, oily substance in the coolant reservoir

Post by **rspi** » 04 Apr 2014, 21:37

A guy I meet up the street has a '95 850 NA that seems to be running good but there is a lot of oil or something getting into the coolant reservoir. Where can this stuff be coming from?

The oil is good and clean, the motor is running pretty smooth, I helped him flush the system a few days ago but the reservoir has some oil substance back in there???

No misfire codes but compression is low: 120 - 155 - 165 - 145 - 138 (#1 wet was 285, #5 wet was 240).

AVIP · Post by **AVIP** » 04 Apr 2014, 21:53

If the head gasket is fine it is most likely internal engine damage. Not sure exactly though but my friends dodge had to have its head redone because of the same issue

Post by **mecheng** » 04 Apr 2014, 22:15

I have the same problem, I just did a comp test: 180-185 psi across the board! Very healthy motor.

I think the problem stems from the rad.

Post by **scot850** » 04 Apr 2014, 22:36

The 2 end cylinders look low, and if when wet they are higher, you could be seeing the start of a head gasket failure.

Is the car an auto? Does it have an engine oil cooler? You can tell by looking at the back of the radiator (side nearest the engine). If it is an auto, it has a pipe feeding into the top and bottom of the driver's side of the radiator. If it has an oil cooler it will also have 2 pipes feeding into the passenger side end of the radiator.

I have heard of the radiators failing and allowing water and the oil mixing. May be worth removing the radiator and having pressure tested. It may be cheaper to fit a non-OE radiator and seeing if the problem goes away. Make sure to do a thorough flush again of the cooling system.

Neil.

Post by **erikv11** » 05 Apr 2014, 06:42

What those guys said ... this is a very common symptom in these cars for failure of the seal between the internal oil cooler and the rad. The oil cooler is much higher pressure that the rad, so you don't get any leakage back the other way (not coolant into the oil).

Post by **rspi** » 05 Apr 2014, 09:07

The car is NA so it does NOT have an oil cooler. Most of what I have read about trans cooler side leaks is that it destroys the tranny in days, he has been driving this car for about 2 months like this.

We may pull the rad and have it pressure tested.

Post by **erikv11** » 05 Apr 2014, 12:13

oops I don't seem to read so well ...

yeah the trans cooler lines are very low pressure, the coolant will leak into the trans fluid and kill it.

Nowhere in your post does it say anything at all about trans fluid; is it clean?

Post by **precopster** » 05 Apr 2014, 15:43

If the fluid in the trans isn't clean and is blackened due to lack of changes it's very hard to distinguish from motor oil.

My 960's radiator failed causing coolant entry in the transmission. In a matter of 2-3 weeks (could have been less) the transmission failed.

I replaced the transmission and bypassed the radiator with a B & M transmission cooler.

Post by **rspi** » 05 Apr 2014, 20:06

Did the PCV on the car today. Also replaced the thermostat and ETC. Afterwards, I changed the oil.

When I drained the coolant it was normal and clean. I guess the bottle had some remaining gunk in it and has the bottle nasty. The rest of the system was nice and fresh.

The trans fluid is dirty, the oil was nice and dark.

Post by **JimBee** » 05 Apr 2014, 21:07

On my 96 855 manual trans I noticed some gunk in the coolant bottle, cleaned it and have found a little more soon after. It was like that when I bought in 2012, the coolant itself looks clean and has flushed clean. I've driven the car cross country a couple years ago with that condition. Didn't have any problems. Am I just lucky?