97 T-Bird Oil in Coolant

I have 97 T-bird with oil in the coolant system. Would the most logical source be a blown head gasket or just an in-take leak?

Reply to
Gone Fishing
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Most likely just 'tramp' oil that's migrated from the oil filter adapter area into the coolant interface; it was on my '94 Mark VIII 4.6L engine. See:

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Reply to
Sharon K. Cooke

.... engine size???

Reply to
Jim Warman

Reply to
Gone Fishing

Mosy likely source is the oil cooler....

Reply to
Jim Warman

Reply to
Gone Fishing

The bulk of my work is on SuperDuty trucks... you'll have to pardon any errors or omissions on my part....

The common conception for an oil cooler would be oil lines going to the radiator or a stand alone cooler in front of the radiator... In the case of the modular engines (such as your 4.6), the oil cooler is located where the oil filter attaches... To be sure, you should see two coolant lines going to the base of the filter. These will be roughly the same size as the heater hoses..

HTH

Reply to
Jim Warman

No standalone separate real oil cooler on a 4.6L DOHC standard from the factory on a T'Bird, although you can install an oil cooler model of the oil filter adapter plate (F4AZ 6881A) that has discrete oil cooler line ports for an external oil cooler. However, the passenger car 4.6L DOHC engine DOES HAVE a small amount of oil cooling of sorts, since there's an in/out type of arrangement of engine coolant at the stock oil filter adapter plate that carries away engine oil excess heat to the cooling system. Unfortunately, this is a flawed design that keeps the oil flow and coolant separated by a ridged gasket that allows a small amount of

100 psi (cold) 'tramp' oil to be injected into the coolant when said gasket begins to fail. See here for gasket replacement:
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Reply to
Sharon K. Cooke

I'll assume you meant SOHC as I dunno of any 4.6 DOHC's that were factory mounted in ThunderChickens.

The common case is a little oil in the coolant and not vice-versa?

How much damage can be expected? Do folks commonly wink at the problem (like I do my slightly leaky 4.6 rear main seal)?

Cheers, Puddin'

Reply to
Puddin' Man

I thought the last of the T'Birds got the DOHC. In any event, the engine block & adapter plate should be the same. When the gasket went in my '94 Mark VIII, first I noticed an oil film (layer) building up in the coolant overflow, and a few days later the adapter plate started leaking. I drained the coolant, saved the oil (near-new Mobil One 5W30), flushed the cooling system, imstalled a new gasket, and then put the oil back in the engine. I then had to use a turkey baster to siphon the small amount of tramp oil remaining in the reservoir. The oil almost always goes to the coolant in this situation, due to the pressure differential. You do want to fix the problem, since engine oil isn't a very efficient coolant and can make the engine run hotter than normal.

Reply to
Sharon K. Cooke

You mean like the '97 Boid? It coulda got the DOHC for all I know. The earlier 4.6 'Boid's had SOHC. "Standard Duty V8".

Glad to hear ...

Forewarned is forearmed. This is helpful info.

Thanks, Puddin'

Reply to
Puddin' Man

cooler gasket and sure enough it had cracked around one of the bolt holes. Replaced it and the old bird is flying high once again.

Reply to
Gone Fishing

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