I've been having heater problems lately, and after doing some investigation, I found out that I had not antifreeze or coolant. So I put some in and ran my car to try and fix the heater. The next day I look in my overflow tank and all of the antifreeze I put in was gone. I took off the radiator cap and ran the car and whenever the antifreeze went down in the radiator I filled it up thinking it was an air bubble in my radiator. Still not knowing where my antifreeze went I checked my oil and it was a "Milky brown" color (this could be because I had just bought the car and I have NO idea the last time it had an oil change). I have heard this could also be cause by water leaking into the oil. So this leads me to one sickening question, is my head gasket blown? Could it be because of cheap oil?

 

Coolant is getting into your oil. Could be a bad gasket, or a cracked block or head.

 

Sounds to me like a blown head gasket.

 

Very unlikely it's a blown head gasket.

More likely an intake gasket leak into the lifter valley, or a cracked block.

 

I have had a combination off all 3 happen.

The 1st Engine had a bad head gasket, but if you pull the plugs you will see which cyl is leaking because the plug will be a different color almost super clean. Some times you will see Antifreeze leaking down the side of the block. Some times you won't. It will burn it off. It is extremely hard to get milky antifreeze from head gasket unless your rings are shot. Most of the time, it will dump into your exhaust or burn off.

The 2nd Engine which is likely was the intake gaskets were bad.. Antifreeze will like the moderator says, "run into the valley and into the base. This would be my 1st thing to change.

The 3rd Engine had a bad water jacket.. Not so easy to check. Had to do a 100% tear down and have professionally check. Cost was up there a little bit too.

And if you are going to change the intake gaskets. Since the intake is to be removed. Pull the rest of your plug's, do a compression check.

Once you change the intake gaskets and put your intake back on, Fill up your radiator and pressurize that system.

 

Don't run it until you fix it. Antifreeze will destroy the bearings.

 

Agreed... especially if you have an aluminum manifold.