oil in coolant reservoir...

[choke artist]

Yesterday I had my hood open and I noticed my coolant resorvoir looked dark...popped it open...and uh-oh...oil.

 

I only had a short ride home so I couldn't see if the truck was overheating. When I got home, I checked again and it was darker and had a bit of "frothiness" to it. When I checked it initially, there was no oil in the radiator cap.

 

It's an '83 720 and it only has 80.000 miles so I hope it's nothing major. I initially thought head gasket but I'm praying for something less terrible.

 

Also, I checked the dipstick after driving and it looked like straight oil- not frothy.

 

The truck is not symptomatic but I'm afraid to drive it and want to get this figured out.

 

Thanks Ratsun!

[datzenmike]

Z24s are known to blow head gaskets at about 100K. Nissan recommends that at every tune up you loosen and re-torque the bolts to 60 ft lbs one at a time. You can do this in any order as only one bolt at a time is loosened. The trouble is that not many owners know this or have the truck long enough to bother. Becaust this cost nothing to do I would re-torque the head bolts.

 

Do this with the engine cold. Remove valve cover and get/ borrow a torque wrench. You can do this in any order, perhaps start at the back and work forwards? Loosen ONE AT A TIME fully, and torque directly to 60Ft. lbs.

 

 

 

Replacing the head gasket is an afternoons work requiring very few tools and actually very easy. Gaskets are $23 to $45 and that it really the whole expense. Be warned that this can turn into a weekend job and more expensive if done incorrectly. Do not start unless you have researched how to block the timing chain tensioner from falling out prior to removing the cam sprocket. Failure to lock the tensioner in place will end up with it falling out and there is only one way to fix this and it involves removing the timing cover, oil pump, distributor, water pump and rad from the front of the motor.

 

Oil from a failed head gasket would be very rare because it is very well sealed.