This is after a 30 minute break in of a new motor and a 4 mile drive. I ran straight water in the system (the car never got above 170 idling in the garage ) but it now looks cloudy and yellowish like this.

Could this just be crap in the motor/radiator or is there something serious going on?

 

Mmmmm... looks tasty. That looks similar to oil when water gets in it. I'd flush the system and try it again. If it's not any better, then you have a problem with your new motor.

 

if its an old block and radiator i w*ouldnt worry about it, oil has a film on the water.

 

Well, I stuck my hose in the water neck (tstat out obviously) and kept spraying with no different result. Water eventully came clean from the rad but kept looking this yellow color from the waterpump.

What could be the problem?
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TraviZ you just beat me to a reply...

The block is defnitly a factory roller block from the late 80's and the rad is new(er).

Could this be a crack somewhere?

 

i think your fine mine looked the same about 500 miles ago when i first fired up my engine i ran just water just in case there was a problem that i would have to drain. and when i flushed my water it looked just as dirty. now i have coolant and its green as can be.

 

mine looked the same way from all the rust and scale buildup in the block from sitting on a stand, i wouldn't worry about it. drain the oil and see how it looks and flush and refill the radiator with clear water and it should clean itself up, unless it really would be oil in the bucket, which could be determined by leaving the bucket undisturbed for a few hours/days to see if the water separates from the oil.

 

I hope everything is cool...too many problems with this new motor. The oil is so nasty (metal shavings & silver sheen in actual oil) I can't tell if water is getting in...I don't think so, however.

 

Anyone else have an opinion? This look normal or should I worry some more?

 

You would have noticed water in the oil by now.

 

Yea after about 45 minutes of running a hose through the motor it finally started to come clean. Me just worrying to much, but with the problems I've had so far I'm allowed to

 

Great scott for a second I thought you said that came out of the engine! (like, the oil side..)

 

No, I am sorry, you have reached your maximum allowed worriage. There will be a service fee placed upon any further worrying.

 

Yea, I think I'd have problems if that happened!

Well, Stek...Who do I make the check out to. Put me down for the Economy Bag of worry so I can save money

 

make it out to Cash and send one check for a minimum of $150.00 to everyone who posted a reply in your post...

Hey look, now I'm included in that!

 

After flushing the block with water for 30 minutes it came clean...after the motor started again it now looks like it did before.
Is this just more oil residue washing off or is there a chance something is wrong?

Also, after three starts and three oil changes there is still white residue in the valve covers. I'm thinking assmebmly lube but I figured it would be all gone by now.
Is this a blown headgasket...??

 

What does the oil look like when you drain it? If it's cloudy then you're getting water into the crankcase. Water in the crankcase is bad, it's not a lubricant and will destroy your bearings. You mentioned that you found slivers of metal and it had a sheen to it. Well the sheen is normal especially if you used moly lube and you're bound to have some metal in the oil after a rebuild. Slivers of metal on the other hand are bad. You need to do some serious investigative work and find out what's going on. If you had something in the cooling system, it should have been flushed out by now. If your getting oil in there somehow then you've got problems.

Start with a leakdown test. This will tell you if you're losing cylinder pressure through a cracked cylinder wall or head, bad head gasket. If nothing there, then pressurize the cooling system. This will point you to a cracked intake or bad gasket. You may be getting oil in through the trans cooler too and this test would tell you so. Wherever the oil is getting into the system one of these tests will tell you where.

 

Manual tranny so no trans cooler. The oil doesn't look like it has water in it, just a lot of metal particles. I think I may just be seeing oil residue somehow. This is the third oil change but its only been run for maybe 1 hour and 4 miles of driving. Don't want to get off topic but the metal is my main concern (I'm seriously thinking a bearing).

If you wanna help more head to here https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ml#post2940008