jason

My son and I are working on a1968 Olds Cutlass S. We rebuilt the 350 last year. Recently we found some problems that we need help with.
1st. Coolant looked really bad kinda brown color/ whitish.
2nd. Front timing cover leak.
3rd. White oil sludge under valve cover.
We resealed the front cover, drained and flushed cooling system. Changed the oil and filter.
Know I have what appears to be white/ creamy colored oil on the dipstick. Coolant looks fine still.
Not sure if it is intake or head gasket problem. Heads were magna flexed with no problems.
Any ideas?

rjohnson442

It's leaking somewhere for sure. you might be able to tell if it's the intake by just taking it off and looking before you dig further into the heads. I suspect you'd smell burnt coolant if it was the head gasket. As for the white "cream" under the covers. I wouldn't be worried about it, this happens from sitting and the covers holding moisture inside.

jag1886

Creamy oil in the Valve cover quite often is caused by just not driving the car long enough at a time and there is naturaul condensation being caused by the heat and cooling cycle of the engine and you have to run it long enough to basically cook the water out of the oil. I've seen this many times on engines that get used a lot for short trips around town.

rjohnson442

I just saw your other post. Was the oil and coolant ok before you re-sealed the timing cover AND now it's mixed? If the covers pitted really bad all the sealer in the world won't help ya. No matter what you decide to replace you'll have to change the oil again so this may become a MAW timing cover, intake and heads gaskets. in that order.

jason

No the oil and coolant was a problem before plus had coolant leaking out the bottom of the cover. I again have coolant out the bottom. Lots of pitting around the coolant ports.would my problem be more with timing cover rather than intake or heads? Does not appear to be a lot of water in the oil and not smoking out the exhaust. Thanks

Fun71

You might have some deep pits in the timing cover that are letting coolant leak into the block. I had that happen back in the '80s and it drove me crazy trying to figure out where the leak was.

rjohnson442

it sounds like it's time for a new cover then.

jason

Well I have cover resealed and appears to have no visible leaks. However the water looks dirty almost like a rust or brown color. Engine was drained radiator flushed, so not sure why coolant is bad. Also after running engine a couple minutes oil seemed a little foamy with maybe a little white color. Is that a problem?

oldcutlass

You may have a blown head gasket or possibly an intake gasket issue.

jason

That's what I was wondering. Is that why the oil is a white faomy color and the water so dirty?

oldcutlass

White foamy oil is water contamination. If you feel it's not residual from your last repair, you can try and pump up each cylinder with a leak down tester, remove the radiator cap and see if you get air into the cooling system to rule out a head gasket before removing the intake. Also check the torque on your intake bolts, if any are loose then it could possibly be the intake. It's tough to diagnose as you said the exhaust does not smell like coolant and no white smoke.