Oil in coolant resevoir ?

Hello,

'99 Saturn, SOHC, 112,000+

Car overheated, doing about the city speed limit, 35-40, heat gauge
went all the way over, motor never knocked, very little steam when i
raised the hood.

Looking at the engine, the coolant resevoir blew an oil like substance
on the underside of the hood, and was oozing out of the resevoir
container.

It smells like oil, has the consistancy of syrup, medium brown, not
foamy at all. Checked the oil. Oil is clear, no foam, very slight
condensation on the bottom of the oil cap while the engine was still
hot.

After a half hour, put some water in the reseroir, restarted the
engine, within 5 minutes heat gauge was up to the half way mark,
(normally stays at the quarter mark), stuff starting oozing out again.
Shut it down, mopped up the mess, walked home.

Im going to have the car towed to my mechanic on monday, i have checked
the archives, looks like its a headgasket if im lucky, or a cracked
head if im not. OR it could be some kind of lubricant that GM uses in
their coolant system.

Anything i need to tell my mechanic to be aware off concerning this
model Saturn ?

Thanks for any help,

Wiley

 

Please do a search of this NG for this, it is posted many times.
This is a common symptom of a cracked head on SOHC.
If you search here you will find all the info you need about it.

marx404

 

Definately a cracked cyclinder head. I just changed one. Mine cracked near
where the water outlet connects. I bought a remanufactured cyclinder head
for half the price as a new head and its been welded in the exact spot
where my head cracked. It's a defect, Saturn should be ashamed for
producing such crap.
In a way I'm glad that the rebuilt head has the weld because it should
hopefully be stronger in this area. I did all the work myself. I've been
driving it for about a month, so far so good.

 

Definately a cracked cyclinder head. I just changed one. Mine cracked near
where the water outlet connects. I bought a remanufactured cyclinder head
for half the price as a new head and its been welded in the exact spot
where my head cracked. It's a defect, Saturn should be ashamed for
producing such crap.
In a way I'm glad that the rebuilt head has the weld because it should
hopefully be stronger in this area. I did all the work myself. I've been
driving it for about a month, so far so good.

 

Definately a cracked cyclinder head. I just changed one. Mine cracked near
where the water outlet connects. I bought a remanufactured cyclinder head
for half the price as a new head and its been welded in the exact spot
where my head cracked. It's a defect, Saturn should be ashamed for
producing such crap.
In a way I'm glad that the rebuilt head has the weld because it should
hopefully be stronger in this area. I did all the work myself. I've been
driving it for about a month, so far so good.

 

It was a cracked head all right. I bought a new one from Clearwater
Cylinder head,

http://www.cylinder-heads.com/

New for $355 w/ all rockers, springs , cam etc. $20 delivery from FLA
to NC, w/ a $75 core charge. They send you a UPS Pre-paid pre-addressed
label to send the old one back for your core refund... my mechanic said
it was a good part and a good price... Autozone wanted $519 for i
suppose a re-manufactured one.