Coolant in oil

[przebor]

I have annoying issue with my Felicia. Amount of coolant slowly and systematically decreases and amount of oil in the engine increases. In a few months coolant tank is empty (starting from MIN level). In addition, there's a yellow pudding under the oil cap. Besides this nothing wrong is happening. Coolant temperature during drive is in normal range.

If I understand correctly, there are 2 possibilities of getting coolant into the oil in 1.3 mpi engine. Through a damaged head gasket or under wet liners.

Do you have any suggestions if I can diagnose something more?
Is it make sense to replace the head gasket in the first place without replacing wet liners gasket? (I would try to do it by myself).

Have you ever had a situation in Felicia where the coolant was passing under wet liners into oil pan?

 

engine 1.3 mpi 68HP

current mileage 53000 km

Edited 1 August, 2018 by przebor

[KenONeill]

@przebor - Your understanding is correct. I can't say whether the failure is oil to water in the head gasket or in the liner seal(s). My experience is that this diagnosis is always a head off job on a wet liner engine.

 

What I can tell is that you should lock the crankshaft before starting to loosen the cylinder head because if the crank turns when the head is off that probably will break the liner seals.

[RicardoM]

I have never seen (or heard) of a Felicia 1.3 engine losing coolant under wet liners. If you think a little you'll understand why is very unlikely on a low mileage car like yours. The head gasket is exposed to tremendous forces and temperatures while wet liners only seal to hot coolant and some splashed oil under the pistons.. Only corrosion may eventually break the seal. In real life we remove the cylinder head and we "read" the head gasket on both sides for evidence of failure.

[KenONeill]

Ricardo, I've seen the liner seals go on a low mileage wet liner engine, but that was due to corrosion, inspired by the prize moron who was "saving money" by running the engine on plain tap water. This being the internet, I'm not ruling out that someone else (previous owner) has done the same here.

[favmac]

Don’t know if this story is true but a Skoda main dealer smiled when he saw my car pull onto his four court.

” Ha ah a Favorit,  not seen one of these for a long time, we sold loads of them back in the day. Changed the coolant I hope “

No I answered .

”I would if I was you, we had a batch of 120 Estelles and a fair few Favorits eat head gaskets by 15,000 miles. We couldn’t understand it and when we pulled the head off it was carnage, the heads was ruined and had to be replaced under warranty.”

Wow that’s unfortunate I answered. 

“The U.K. importers contacted the factory to ask what’s going on and they investigated “. 

What did they find?  I asked.

” Well old boy, the story is that cars coming to the milder climates like the U.K.  had some coolant taken out and the line workers topped up with Vodka as that was inexpensive. The workers had a little thing going selling coolant from the cars on the black market out side the factory “ . 

This maybe one of those tall stories who knows. Needless to say I changed my coolant that weekend to a 50/50 mix.

 

[RicardoM]

55 minutes ago, favmac said:

This maybe one of those tall stories who knows.

It is a joke.

[Papez]

Yes, it's a joke, although believable one

Early Favorits had issue with antifreeze, used in Estelles, was too aggressive for aluminium heads. Even new, less agresive variant was causing head corrosion, until Skoda switched to more modern antifreeze.

[favmac]

5 hours ago, Papez said:

Yes, it's a joke, although believable one

Early Favorits had issue with antifreeze, used in Estelles, was too aggressive for aluminium heads. Even new, less agresive variant was causing head corrosion, until Skoda switched to more modern antifreeze.

 

That’s interesting as I had a Forum hatchback from new for a year and that started to run hot but it went for trade in against a estate . Which I had for ten years with no issues.  ( Skoda must have changed the antifreeze by then) 

[RicardoM]

On 28/08/2018 at 12:09, favmac said:

That’s interesting as I had a Forum hatchback from new for a year...

That is an unique model you had

[favmac]

The colour was “Moostone” like a hearing aid beige with a hint of pink . Very 1980s “Miami Vice”

[RicardoM]

I was talking about "Forum" hatchback

[favmac]

The Favorit Forum Hatchbacks colour was “moonstone” like a pinkish beige. A very odd colour, I never saw any others We did see Forums in a deeper beige, white , red, or blue but didn’t see any other forum hatchbacks in moonstone:  I thought it a bit “girlie” but my wife liked it .