oil in antifreeze
 

hi my 04 freestar se 133k miles 3.9l has a small amount of engine oil 30 cc in the antifreeze overflow.can or should i do anything about it.i think there has been a little oil there for at least 1 year.

Are you sure that the oil is infact engine oil, or is it just an oily substance from age as coolant is oily based. Also Ford used to add Motorcraft Cooling System Stop Leak Pellets at the factory. this can aslo causes the oil looking substance.

I would do a 100% cooling system flush of the engine, radiator, front heater core and rear heater core (if equipped). I flush my vehicle cooling systems every 4 years regardless of mileage. I use plain ole' fashion Prestone (Green) ethylene glycol.

I disconnect hoses, forward flush, backwards flush, I mean everything. Then I blow threw evrything to remove as much water as possible. Then I button everything back up and leave the pressure cap off. Then I add 50% of the systems capacity with 100% unmixed ethylene glycol and 1 bottle of AMSOIL Coolant Boost. This way you know that the only thing that needs added to top the system off including after a couple of days driving to fully burp the system will be water. I use distilled water with my antifreeze.

thanks common sense for your timely and sensible response. you may be correct about the stop leak substance. engine oil looks fine no evidence of antifreeze. will flush and watch for oil, thanks.

No problem...Hope all goes well for you. Depending on where you're at, might want to wait for it to warm up a bit...:)

If you get a smell of sweet maple syrup you need to find the coolant leak I have now owned 2 different Ford products that have had coolant leaks that they should not have had, and both were preceeded by the sweet smell of evaporating coolant, ie. smell of maple syrup. The 1st was a 1995 Windstar 3.8L, coolant leak due to sealant failure on a bolt from the waterpump that went in to the water jacket and allowed coolant to leak down in timing cover and on to chain and thrust bearing. With no sign of coolant in the oil pan. 2nd just happened 2002 Ranger 3.0L, coolant leak in timing cover gasket where the water jacket runs thru the timing cover. The leak did not damage engine as it went external. It was some what a catastophic failuer (i.e. all of the sudden) but I beleive that was due to the fact that I add Bars stop leak and water wetter to my autos after 75-80k miles and it was plugging the hole in the gasket until it got so big the coolant ran right out on the ground.

thanks tomb 1269, no new oil in antifreeze and no af loss. oil looks like it came from stopleak.