History of the car/motor: I bought the car (1984 318 w/ swapped 2.7i) at the end of September with ~ 12k on the rebuild and just cleared the 20k mark. Motor is a B27 block that was pressure tested and magnafluxed, but is otherwise a stock eta bottom end. The 885 head was also pressure tested and resurfaced, so I am having a hard time believing there are problems with the rebuild. I havent had any issues at all with the car, runs like a champ.
The only stupid thing that Ive done is the last time I drove to California, a month ago, I put the oil cap back on halfway. Dont ask me how it happened, it was 4am and I had been on the road for 12 hours already after spending a day at work. The cap sat like that for ~100-150 miles until I reached my destination. The car idled like it was on 5 cylinders and after pulling all the plugs I found one saturated in oil and it was directly below the oil cap. Cleaned everything, put the oil cap back on and was back to normal.
I just drove back from California (850 miles each way) and checked oil and coolant resevoir each time I stopped for gas. I spotted some frothy, foamy crap on the top of the dipstick, but the oil itself looked fine. Resevoir was low so I filled it up. This was repeated on my second stop for fuel. When I added water to the resevoir it didnt look oily at all. This confused me and after being on the road the whole day, I had plenty of time to think about what happened. I would expect that if water was getting into the oil, then the opposite should be happening too, but with no signs of oil in the resevoir or in the coolant at all, I am unsure whats going on....
So, fluke? excessive paranoia? early signs of headgasket failure? Im going to change the oil here soon and am hoping to get a better idea based on what it looks like coming out.
thoughts?
The only stupid thing that Ive done is the last time I drove to California, a month ago, I put the oil cap back on halfway. Dont ask me how it happened, it was 4am and I had been on the road for 12 hours already after spending a day at work. The cap sat like that for ~100-150 miles until I reached my destination. The car idled like it was on 5 cylinders and after pulling all the plugs I found one saturated in oil and it was directly below the oil cap. Cleaned everything, put the oil cap back on and was back to normal.
I just drove back from California (850 miles each way) and checked oil and coolant resevoir each time I stopped for gas. I spotted some frothy, foamy crap on the top of the dipstick, but the oil itself looked fine. Resevoir was low so I filled it up. This was repeated on my second stop for fuel. When I added water to the resevoir it didnt look oily at all. This confused me and after being on the road the whole day, I had plenty of time to think about what happened. I would expect that if water was getting into the oil, then the opposite should be happening too, but with no signs of oil in the resevoir or in the coolant at all, I am unsure whats going on....
So, fluke? excessive paranoia? early signs of headgasket failure? Im going to change the oil here soon and am hoping to get a better idea based on what it looks like coming out.
thoughts?
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