Saturn Repair: oil and coolant mixing, blown head gasket, saturn dealer


Question
I was told that I had a blown head gasket. There was oil in my coolant reservoir. I took the car to a private repairman because of the prohibitive cost that the Saturn dealer quoted me. This private mechanic replaced the head gasket. After a few days, I was going to change the oil and filter, when I noticed that the oil looked like chocolate milk. I opened the coolant reservoir, and the same substance was in there, also. I took the car back to the garage, and quite frankly, this mechanic is stumped. He claims that everything was done properly, but he failed to use new bolts when putting the head back on. The head was milled, and .007 was taken off. He is thinking that the car may have a cracked block, or he claims that one of the engine sleeves may be leaking. He told me that all Saturn engines have the pistons sleeved, unlike older cars without aluminum engines. I don't know too much about this sort of thing, but I have heard about problems arising from not replacing the bolts with new ones, and tightening them in the proper order. If it helps you, the mixing of the oil and coolant was much more vigorous after he changed the head gasket and put everything back together again. He also told me that none of the pistons were showing any signs of water contamination from the coolant being run through it. He said that if a head gasket blows, you will usually see evidence of water being run through the piston, and it will sort of get cleaner, with some of the carbon being washed away. He said that none of these signs are evident. I thought that cracked blocks were a thing of the past, and usually uccured because of freezing. Anything that you could suggest would really help. Thank you.

Answer
Hi the head it self is cracked he wont see it but it is i he want to look for it take the head off pull the cam out and pop out the frost plug in the end of the head and look very very carfully through the frost plug hole into the cam journal there will be a hair line crack ....i prommise. almost all the saturns will have it ..so the only thing he did wrong was that he didnt have the head pressure tested and plained that would have found the problem ALL ALUMINUM HEADS U MUST PRESSURE TEST AND PLAIN PLEASE LET HIM KNOW THAT but that is your problem good luck