Oil in the water

[anto]

Discovered oil in the water in the past few weeks.
Thought id put up this post to try and get opinions on possible causes and what to check 1st.

Symptoms;

Oil in water
Sludge building on the expansion bottle cap
No rapid loss of oil
No rapid loss of water
No temp deviations from normal
No evidence of water in the oil

My thoughts on possible causes;

1 - Leaking oil sandwich plate
2 - Headgasket
3 - Cracked block between oil and water galleries.
4 - Boost lifting the head (td04 30+ psi)

Going to give the cooling system a flush out to see how quickly the oil returns.

Any thoughts please add.

Thanks,
Anton

PS - Should have added the headgasket was done about 30k miles ago as the car was pressurising the cooling system.
Head was skimmed and a new Payen gasket and headstuds fitted. This was before the td04.

[Jonny b]

could be lifting the head

[ginge191]

You've answered all the possibilities, surely?

[darrenjlobb]

You wont be lifting the head i doubt if your not putting pressure into the coolant.. And if HG has been fine till now, id be surprised its that's started weeping oil / water together, as its normally the cylinders that go, so you would be putting pressure into coolant again if it was...Generally anything head / gasket related will boil the shit out of it everytime you rag it....

Try changing the heat exchanger, or just remove water pipes and bung them and see if it stops / oil comes out the water side....

[anto]

Il give that a go cheers Darren.

Ginge - lol i know, but itl help others seeing all the possibilities when they search as well.