Water in oil

M

metro1

Senior Member
I have a 1959 Galaxie with a 292 engine which I bought last year. I removed the intake to replace 2 bent push rods. It appeared to be very clean inside. It has not been on the road yet. I have only been driving it from the garage to the house for rust repair. I do let it run long enough for it to warm up. Lately I've been noticing the oil getting milky. I removed one rocker arm cover and there was condensed water on the underside and milky oil around the rockers. I pressurized each cylinder and #6 was pushing water up in the radiator which indicates a possible blown head gasket. How could this just happen? Is there any way the reinstalled intake could be involved? I don't want to just start tearing the engine down unless I have to.
 
If all the leakage stems from just a leaking head gasket, then not a big issue to just change the head gaskets. While the heads are off the engine, this is a good time to also check them for cracks. Steel shim or composition head gaskets? Steel shim gaskets are prone to coolant seepage issues.
 
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Lets back up a second. You had two bent pushrods? Very bad. Are the valves for that rocker sticking in their guides? If it were me, I would pull both heads, grind all the valves, clean valve seats and replace any bad valve guides, replace bent pushrods too. Clean out oil passages in the heads and inspect play in rockers. Replace all bushings in the rockers that exceed specifications. New head gaskets and all should be well from here on out. This could all be done at home with a few specialized tools.
 
Just to get it straight in my head. You rotated the engine until #6 valves were both closed. Air pressure into spark plug hole, and water bubbling in radiator. That’s a head gasket. Water in #5 or #6 could be a leak the the intake water passage cross over, but not with the valves closed.

Pay attention to Dave’s reply on the bent pushrods. You’re going to be pulling one head, now’s the time to do both. Even if both bent rods were on the that head, I’d rather know it’s right than do it over.
 
I pressurized each cylinder with piston @TDC and valves closed. I also checked compression on all cylinders. #2 had the lowest reading (115). That cylinder also had air leakage out of carb during the pressure test indicating leaking intake valve. I think I might as well do both heads but I can't figure how the head gasket started leaking with the car not being driven. Another issue is how to flush the engine out to remove milky oil without removing the pan. Is this possible?
 
I can't figure how the head gasket started leaking with the car not being driven.
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How long did the car sit without running before you got it? Most likely the head gasket failed as a result of poor coolant (electrolysis) (also check block expansion plugs). Do both heads and have them pressure checked when at the machine shop. You're not going to know for certain until you pull the heads.

Another issue is how to flush the engine out to remove milky oil without removing the pan. Is this possible?
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Does the pudding smell of coolant? Have you drained the oil pan to see what comes out? Depending on how bad the lifter valley looks (crud) maybe consider cleaning what you can with varsol/flush solvent letting the pan catch it (with the drain plug out). The heads will be done at the machine shop. Then remove the pan and clean everything there and check the oil pump pickup to not being blocked with trash.

A lot of that pudding may also be the result of a bad crankcase ventilation system. Maybe consider adding a PCV SYSTEM.

Also maybe consider a heavier grade of push-rods (ARP) as the OEM's are very weak. It doesn't take much to bend one or three.

All of this is subject to TED EATON's approval. He overrides me ... ;)
 
You can get a coolant test kit from any chain auto parts store. It consists of a rubber bellows on a clear glass tube with balls inside that float up to markings on the tube telling you what temperature the coolant can prevent freezing.
Make sure you drain enough old coolant to add enough fresh antifreeze to meet the frost needs in your area.
Do NOT attempt to straighten the bent push rods by any means I know of. Once they're bent, they are considered ruined if you ask most mechanics. As far as I know, most replacement push rods are thicker in diameter than the OEM ones and less susceptible to bending, but if those are operated in heads that have sticking valve guides, there will be other problems such as badly damaged guides, damaged piston tops and ruined camshaft. Sticking valve guides cannot be ignored.
Some time back, I took a set of Y-block heads out to a good engine mechanic and he replaced any components he found that didn't meet OEM specs for only a couple hundred bucks.
 
miker98038 said:
You’re going to be pulling one head, now’s the time to do both. Even if both bent rods were on the that head, I’d rather know it’s right than do it over.
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One thing that I think is deficient on the forums here is that there is no "upvote" feature which would indicate other commenters agreement to your comment.
 
I was paraphrasing my old mentor in the business world. “We never have time to do it right, but we always have time to do it over”

Check the remaining coolant for antifreeze. You probably didn’t run it long enough to be a problem, but some anti freeze is corrosive to bearing material. Drain the oil and the water, refill with oil and a new filter, and spin it with the plugs out till you get oil up top. Just to be safe. This is still a good idea even if it’s plain water.

I’m sure this is a disappointment, but it’s kind of part and parcel of old cars.
 
I got the car last year. The first thing I did was to remove the intake and replace 2 push rods. One was bent and another was broken in half. The valve stems were a little gummed up which I believe caused them to move too slow causing the rods have too much clearance. I cleaned them up then moved on to the brakes. The engine has been running good until recently when I started seeing signs of water in oil. I replaced all brake lines with copper nickel line, all cylinders, shoes ,hoses and converted to a dual master cylinder. Most of my time has been welding in new sheet metal. LOTS OF RUSTY METAL ! I think most of the bottom body metal was rusted out. I have most of that done. Looks like I'll to shift gears and go back to the motor. But I was looking for a project car so I got what I asked for.
 
I removed the heads today found a crack coming out from the intake valve seat on the bad cylinder. Can this be repaired? Just wondering but I'm going to use the ones on a 272 engine I bought recently. They are ECL A heads. according to the chart they are 1955. Apparently the ones on my engine in the car have been replaced. I have a 1959 engine (EDB B) but the heads are ED-ECZ C from 1956. Everything seems to be the same (valve size) so I'm going to have them reworked. When I disassembled the one in the car I found that someone had used one of the long bolts in the middle of the head. That was not on the side with the crack but the bottom threads were a little squished . I'm going to replace all head bolts with grade 8 ones.
 
Whether the crack is repairable depends on its location and extent. I have a G head with a crack in an exhaust valve pocket. I took it to a couple of shops that repair cracks in cast iron but no joy. They couldn't access the entire crack.
 
If I’m reading John’s chart right, those ECL A’s are a little lower compression. But that might go away when you mill them for flat and true, or just because you can. You can eyeball the port sizes, but either way I doubt you’d feel the difference in a more or les stock engine.

Check the pad height on both sets to see how much they might have been milled. Mismatched heads or even different ones on each side isn’t an uncommon find on these old engines.
 
I dropped them off at the machine shop today. He said they apparently have been reworked not too long ago. They have shiny copper spacers under the springs and not much carbon on valves. The strange thing is all of the umbrella seals are broken already.
 
Just noticed today after cleaning tops of pistons there is either 060 or 090, depending on how you look at it, stamped on top of the pistons. This engine must have been bored out sometime in the past.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I hope to get it back together next week. Also there was a 4 barrel intake on the spare engine that I will eventually install. What's a good carb to use on it?
 
There will be a number on the 4 barrel intake. The early ones are for a small bore 4 barrel, the 57’s use the larger bore like the more modern 4 barrels. A new carb on it will require the 57 up distributor, which you should have on a 59. Post the intake number (just to be safe, so many parts got changed over the years) for proper carb suggestions.
 
The 4 barrel intake is ECZ9425-B. The distributor in the car now is EU7 12127-M. Another number on it is 74B.
 
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