Oil lubricates the sliding and moving parts. Oil is petroleum-based products. Coolant carries heat away where it is dissipated to the environment in a radiator or other heat exchange device. Coolants are a combination of water and ethylene glycol mixed to raise the boiling point and prevent freezing and corrosion.
A Coolant leaking internally from the intake manifold gasket or cylinder head gasket can end up in one of two places: mixed with the engine oil or burned with the air-fuel mixture in the exhaust. But any significant coolant consumption can strip oil from cylinder walls and etch or corrode aluminum pistons.
Coolant circulates through your car and extracts heat from various components, keeping their operating temperature within normal parameters. Without coolant, there's nothing to extract this heat, and these parts quickly overheat and break down.
How Can I Tell If Water Is in My Motor Oil?
- Remove the engine oil dipstick. Bubbles on the stick, a brownish residue just above the oil level, or milky-brown oil with a thick consistency are all indications of water in the oil.
- Check for white, sweet smelling smoke coming from the tailpipe.
- Turn the engine off and let the vehicle sit for a few hours.
How to Tell If You Have a Blown Head Gasket
- External leaks of coolant from under the exhaust gasket.
- Overheating under the hood.
- Smoke blowing from the exhaust with a white-ish tint.
- Depleted coolant levels with no trace of leakage.
- Bubble formations in the radiator and overflow compartment.
- Milky discoloration of the oil.
One of the most common causes is a blown head gasket, in which the air pressure inside the cylinder heads is transferred to the cooling system. This escaped air causes bubbling in the coolant/antifreeze reservoir, which can often be mistaken for boiling.
The reservoir has a fill range marked on the side. If your engine is cold, the coolant level should be up to the cold fill line. Loosen the reservoir cap just a little, then step back while the pressure releases. If the coolant level is low, add the correct coolant to the reservoir (not the radiator itself).
There are many stop-leak products that are only designed to be a temporary fix, but not ours. A blown head gasket fix can be as easy as dumping a bottle of sealant in your radiator, and you're good to go. The seal created from our product is as permanent as replacing the head gasket, but with less money and time.
Never ever do such things as adding dish soap to the coolant system to flush. Any soap in the system may start eating the engine blocks and could cause a catastrophic failure.
First, the most common cause of a blown head gasket is overheating. If your engine is run hotter than it was designed to, things will expand further than intended causing both the breakdown of the gasket material and the metal in your engine to warp causing a blown head gasket.
Contaminated coolant: A bad head gasket or cracked cylinder head can allow oil and coolant to mix, resulting in sludge. In vehicles with automatic transmissions, the engine-cooling system also cools the transmission. A breach in the system can contaminate coolant with transmission fluid.
Here are 8 Warning Signs of an Engine Going Bad:
- Check Engine Light Illuminates! This light generally illuminates when detecting engine problems.
- Loss of Power!
- Decrease in Gas Mileage!
- Annoying Noises!
- Engine Stalling!
- Odd Odors!
- Engine Continues to Run after Ignition is Turned Off!
- Rough Running Engine!
However, when the fluid starts to break down, it doesn't lubricate the parts as well so you'll hear louder engine noise. If you ignore the increased engine sounds, you'll start to hear knocking, rumbling, and even roaring to let you know that your vehicle is in dire need of an oil change.
If you just add oil to your car's engine periodically, that's far better than letting your car run out of oil, but you're still going to create a lot of problems if that's all you do. You have an oil filter that needs replacing. So, again, let's say you keep adding oil to your engine – but you never replace it.
Changing your oil offers a lot of noticeable benefits, as well. Regular oil changes improve your car's gas mileage. As the fresh oil moves through the engine, the lubrication of the metal parts increases your engine's performance and helps it run more efficiently with less work so it doesn't eat up as much gas.
In fact, if you wait too long for an oil change, your smooth and clean oil will turn into dirty sludge. When this happens, your engine must work harder to fight through the buildup of muck. It loses its lubrication, and decreases heat absorption. This means that your car will be susceptible to major issues.
6 Signs Your Car's Oil Needs Changing
- Check Engine or Oil Change Light. The most obvious alert that there's an issue with your oil will come from the car itself.
- Engine Noise and Knocking.
- Dark, Dirty Oil.
- Oil Smell Inside the Car.
- Exhaust Smoke.
- Excessive Mileage.
- Change Oil Promptly.
A vehicle that's low on oil tends to overheat because the oil removes from 75 to 80 percent of the "waste heat" in your engine (in addition to doing its other job of cushioning the moving engine parts).
Some of the most commons signs of low engine oil are as follows:
- Oil pressure warning light.
- Burning oil smell.
- Strange noises.
- Weaker performance.
- Overheating Engine.
