Chocolate milk oil & Dexcool

[Jerico]

I'm new here and hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. I've got an '01 Olds Bravada with a 4.3. When I checked the antifreeze it was low. Now the oil looks like chocolate milk. After reading some excellent threads here I went ahead and pulled the intake.

It is a pretty sure thing the intake was leaking. It's an ugly mess. My biggest question is if I should go ahead and take the time to pull the heads. The engine has 120000 miles on it. When I was looking for the leak I pulled the plugs which looked normal. Compression was 145-155 on all cylinders with the engine cold (didn't want to warm it up with antifreeze in the oil).

Also, from what I have read the Dexcool needs to go. Should I ditch the Dexcool and go for traditional green antifreeze? If so, what all needs to be done & what are the didn't think of that things to switching?

Suggestions and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[bespurcell]

First off welcome to the Planet. I would definitely switch your anti-freeze. I went to the universal anti-freeze that's compatible with all types of anti-freeze just in case I didn't get all the dexcool flushed out. Your compression sounds a little low so you need to do a test to see if it's the valves or rings that's causing it. Take out one of your sparkplugs and do the compression test like you did before. Then pour some oil in the cylinder and do it again. If your compression goes way up it's your rings if not it's your valves. Having said this I think your truck wiil be fine even with this compression for along time if you take care of it so it's up to you if you want to do anything about it. I would probably just leave the valves and rings alone for now, but that's just me. As far as taking the head off I'll leave that one for someone else to say. I personally wouldn't.

[bespurcell]

My compression ratio is about 185 psi or more.

[Jerico]

Thanks for the quick reply. I suspect the compression would be higher if the engine was warm, but it was about 45-50 degrees when I tested it. If I pull the heads I'll go ahead and have them rebuilt. Tearing this thing down again would not be high on my favorite things to do list... lol

Would you mind telling me what brand/type of antifreeze you went with? (as long as the mods here will allow it)

[bespurcell]

I just bought whatever NAPA sells. I can't remember the brand. Prestone makes some too. I bought some from O'Reilly's Saturday that was whatever brand they sell. I did this because I just installed a tranny cooler and had to disconnect the lower radiator hose.

[Mikz86TA]

Pretty much whats been said.

The DexCool thing is very perspective and depends on who you talk to. I personally got rid of it. You can search the topic and find alot of info and opinions. The just of it is, when the Dex gets low and air is introduced, a chemical imbalance and reaction occurs causing a breakdown and corrosive traces. Im very particular about maintenence and upkeep of my vehicles.....but I dont need that headache creeping up. I went to green

[Jerico]

Cool, and again thanks for the quick reply. I'll pick some up when I'm getting the gaskets.

[firefighter]

I'm the kinda guy who if I'm as far as you are and I can afford the $$$ and th vehicle down time, I would get the haeds worked and maybe even throw a new perf cam in there. I'm allways looking for the angle to do stuff (I'm married) and on the Dexcool once again a matter of opinion. I've kept it and had no problems I also take pretty good care of my vehicle.

Mild performance valve job + new cam & lifters = much more fun once she's running again.

[firefighter]

Oh and maybe some gasket matching and mill the heads a little to bump up the compression not too much though.

[JONGO8]

I would be thinking how you are going to clean all the gunk
(Chocolat milk) out of the motor first.
Change the intake gaskets put the green stuff in and run it...

[firefighter]

I would be thinking how you are going to clean all the gunk
(Chocolat milk) out of the motor first.
Change the intake gaskets put the green stuff in and run it...


Damn we all got caught up on going faster we forgot about making sure it runs. lol

[87wildside]

mmmmm, chocolate milk

[Jay_Pollard]

Here is what I mixed up when I did my Waterpump a month ago. Its from NAPA, its an All Makes, All Models, Long Life coolant, compatable with Dexcool. Its Yellow in color.

[TreasonAgainstCaesar]

Damn we all got caught up on going faster we forgot about making sure it runs. lol

LOL, well put. :)

[Jerico]

Thanks again for all the great replies. I pulled the intake. The gasket was shot. The only thing that worries me is on the back right side just below the head mating surface is about a 1" round puddle of chocolate milk. Trying to figure out how that got there...

So here's my plan. Clean everything up and reinstall the intake with new gaskets. Hook up only the coolant lines. Fill it up with water and put a pressure tester on it. If it holds pressure hook everything up and I'm done. If not, pull the intake again and look for leaks plus more than likely pull the heads.

Does that sound like a reasonable plan? I just don't want to pull the heads unless I have to...

[bespurcell]

Sounds good to me.

[Jerico]

Update: I managed over the weekend to get everything cleaned up and the intake back on. Today I pressurized it to 7 lbs. So far its holding pressure. Tomorrow if its still holding pressure the plan is to put everything back together, turn it over with the plugs out to make sure there isn't antifreeze in a cylinder, then finish it up.

Thanks for the hints and tips here. I will update with the final results.

[bespurcell]

Good deal!

[Jay_Pollard]

Sounds Good!
G'Luck.