pulled the plug on the oil pan today, and what did i see? chocolate milk looking oil.
now before i start replacing heads and gaskets, are there any common problems?

its a 1977 350 rocket with 3a heads.
lol i need to get this thing up and going before my wedding in april

 

intake manifold leak. Was it ever replaced with an after market aluminum manifold?

 

Good question.
If your car is stock this is not a really common problem (meaning it happens sometimes but only if poor skills are used to install the new gaskets, or the gaskets are faulty). If the engine is original and hasn't had any upper end work done, you're lucky it's survived this long without having some form of gasket problem. It probably is an intake manifold leak, but could also be internal. What tipped you off to the problem? Was this a routine oil change, or was the car acting funny?

Todays gasket manufacturing standards are quite high and they have better production standards that should minimize quality control issues of the past.

April??? You've got tons of time pal. After you put the new gaskets in, I would change the oil again fairly soon just to make sure all the contamination is out of the journals, and block passages. New oil is one of the cheapest forms of protection you can give a car in the long run. Why, your car could outlast your soon to be bride.

Good luck with your fix. Hope it works out well.

 

I would also suspect the timing chain cover, since it doubles as the back of the water pump. A compression check would show a faulty head gasket, right?

 

If it was a faulty head gasket there would also be other symptoms like overheating (hot idiot light on or gauge pegged upward of 200), noticeable white exhaust smoke, lots of missing coolant etc. Good possibility, but there's little information in the original post to go on. A faulty or partially blown head gasket doesn't always leak coolant into the oil. A Comp test would probably just show which cylinders would be close to the blowout if there was one, or if the rings were bad. But yeah, if you did a comp test and figured that the variance was really significant - indicating a leak of some kind, I'd be prepared to do head gaskets or rings too. You can see where this can start adding up in terms of downtime and parts. It just never ends.... since the heads are off, may as well redo the valves, check the intake gaskets and it's really easy now to do the water pump , timing chain, what the heck new cam, lifters rollers etc.... It's kind of like going to the store for bread and buying 200.00 worth of groceries that weren't on the list.

So, Import extermination. Do what you need to do to fixit. Do what you want for extras. Lots of the mechanical stuff you can do yourself or with a buddy.

 

"It's kind of like going to the store for bread and buying 200.00 worth of groceries that weren't on the list."

Either you shop at Costco, or like me were told many times over the years to do the job right the first time! Even if it takes a little longer or costs a bit more, you'll be ahead in the long run.

 

Umm, both actually. What gave it away?

 

normal running temp was around 180. maybe once or twice it would reach 200 in the extreme heat at a traffic light. but i thought it was just the 1 core rad that the idiot before me put in( have a 4 core aluminum yet to be installed).
none of the idiot lights came on, no white smoke or sweet smell.

i ran across this problem while doing my routine oil change.

ps. allan r, i know i have lots of time till april, but im also in the process of quarters and a few other patches. lol the more i dig the more work i find... but i guess thats a project for ya lol

 

Either way it sounds like you get to start tearing into the motor somewhere. If the intake is aluminum, then it could be suspect. I'm currently doing the water pump job and have seen how bad those timing covers can corrode. It wouldn't take a lot for coolant to enter the motor there.

 

Is the intake an iron cast stock one? That's one thing that has not been answered.....maybe post some pics of the work in progress. Ya know we luv pics....

 

the intake is a aluminum edelbrock performer.

oh ill defenetly post pics !

 

Good to know. I was thinking of going with an Edelbrock Performer kit (intake and cam) for my new 455. I'm really interested in finding out where your leak is now, and what caused it.