oil in water?

[froggy]

Hi, There is a Xantia, T.D. for sale, near by. There is oil in the water! should I walk away? or is it worth buying? is it a resonable price, any thoughts, Terry .

[froggy]

sorry it should say, IT IS a resonable price

[CitroJim]

It depends Terry. It could be just a duff oil cooler. They can let go and cause oil to mix with the water. If this is the case it'll be clean black oil. You can tell by bypassing the cooler on a temporary basis and they're not hard to swap.

Or, it could be a head gasket letting go. Possibly them the oil will look like mayonnaise.

To check the head gasket do the normal tests like looking for bubbles in the coolant and seeing if the top hose goes rock hard almost as soon as the engine is started...

Another good question to pose is if it is loosing any coolant on a regular basis...

[froggy]

cheers Jim

[froggy]

I would say you are right Jim. It looks like the oil cooler. is it an easy job? never done one before, cheers Terry .

[CitroJim]

Yep, oil filter off, pinch the two coolant hoses, disconnect same and undo the big nut holding the cooler on.

The bigger job is ridding the rest of the cooling system of oil. I've no hard and fast advice but some sort of soap solution flushed through. I've heard of people using laundry detergent (bio or non-bio!), some using dishwasher detergent and advice against either. Perhaps even well diluted Gunk or patio cleaner might do the job. Whatever, all traces of both the oil and whatever you use to remove it will need to be very well rinsed out afterward...

I'd be inclined to listen to some more advice on that matter though...

[froggy]

cheers Jim

[citronut]

yep sounds like oil cooler to me,
as Jim says the worst part of the job it getting the oil out of the cooling system,

i have done a very bed one before, not on a citroen but a Saab,

i disconnected top and bottom rad hose's, remover thermostat and disconnected both heater hose's at the engine end,

then flushed it out every which way and back again till cleanish water came out everywhere,

reconnect all the hose's and fill with clean water and add one can/bottle of coolant flush, follow instruction on the container,

then flush out with a hose again, then run a second coolant flush through the system

[xenton]

I've heard people recommend the holts 2 pack stuff, but that is aimed more at de-scaling and rust removal really.

Most coolant flushes - Wynn's, carlube etc.. are non foaming detergent based, so would be as effective as washing up liquid without having to fill and rinse a bunch of times to get all the bubbles out.

[Old-Guy]

Been there - replaced the oil cooler, but as Jim says, despite lots of flushing, the whole cooling system has acquired a coating of engine oil which slowly floats to the top (i.e. the header tank).

Like Jim I'm very wary about the idea of using detergents in the cooling system because those that are really effective at emulsifying oil are strongly alkaline - death to light alloys! I'm currently exploring the idea of using oil absorbent pads - the idea being to cut up one to the cross-section of the header tank and float it in the top of the header tank until it's soaked up the oil. One possible problem could be the 50% anti-freeze mix - technical enquiries currently outstanding.