Hey guys, I change the engine oil in my 88 Firebird yesterday and towards the end of the oil draining I noticed some white streaks in the oil. My question is do you guys have any idea of what the streaks could be and should I be worried?

 

That is usually an indication of water/coolant in the oil. Is your coolant level low? Has the car been sitting for a while?

 

Yeah the coolant level is actually lower than it should be. I actually just picked the thing up last week, and the last guy who had it didn't drive it for a while. I've started it up probably about 3 times in the last 2 weeks, once to test drive it, once to get it on a trailer, and once to park it in my garage.

 

That "milk" you see in the oil is condensation (from sitting) the oil was not warmed up enough to burn it off, so some of the oil has turned into a white sludge.. if you inspect your PCV valve you might see it full of white / brown sludge too..

Oil is lighter than water.. if the car has a bad leak and was sitting the water would have settled to the bottom of the oil pan so when you pulled the drain plug water would drain first.

Otherwise your engine oil would have looked like a chocolate shake if it was run and shut down and drained within a few minutes.

You can rent a pressure tester to make sure the coolant system is not leaking.

Best cure is to get on the highway and DRIVE the car ...

 

OK well I was just curious I had never seen anything like that before and I wasn't sure if it was serious or not. I do plan on driving it I just haven't had the opportunity, since here in Wisconsin the roads are very icy. As soon as they clear up I plan to take it on a drive.