Cleaning out Emulsified Oil

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 08 Mar 2011, 07:58

Hi all..

Customer has a Xantia Estate with 1.9 XUD Turbo...

The oil has mixed with water and is quite messy, its not the head gasket as theres no cooling system pressure and the car runs far too well and smoothly so Im pretty certain its the Oil cooler..

My Q is, whats the best way of clearing out the old oil ready to put new in??

Drain, fill with cheap oil, drain then refill?? Or is there another way of dooing it??

Cheers
Paul

addo · Post by **addo** » 08 Mar 2011, 08:08

Hi Paul, the only problem with that diagnosis is - oil galleries run at a much higher pressure than the cooling system (50+PSI v. 14PSI). An oil cooler that's been impact damaged might leak, but generally the other direction due to the pressures described.

Could some numpty have put coolant in the oil filler?

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 08 Mar 2011, 10:04

No deffo not... It cant come from any were else, the gasket is fine..

I guess its worth bypassing the cooler, to try, but clearing the old stuff??

Would it work by putting old used oil through a few times? Ive got pleanty of that, then finishing with Fresh new oil...

Paul

Chris570 · Post by **Chris570** » 08 Mar 2011, 10:10

personally if it was me i'd drain the old oil out, refill with some asda special or some such cheapy oil get the oil nice and hot then drain and swap filter and put good oil in. use the cheapy oil to pick up the crap, if it is a dirty system i'd change the filter twice.

just how i'd do it

citroenxm · Post by **citroenxm** » 08 Mar 2011, 10:15

nice one chris... what i thought

Paul

HDI · Post by **HDI** » 08 Mar 2011, 11:46

Use flushing oil to clean out the engine.

Post by **myglaren** » 08 Mar 2011, 19:12

If you get the oil really hot the water will be evaporated off.
If the emulsion is very bad the risk is that some of the finer oil galleries will be clogged, which won't be appreciated by the camshaft bearings, etc.

Post by **Peter.N.** » 08 Mar 2011, 19:42

As long as you get most of the oil out Paul, once you have refilled it and driven it at normal engine temperature for a bit, any residual water will soon eveaporate.

Peter