Dangerous coolant to oil ratio

[John@RED]

Hi, how much should be a bearings dangerous coolant to oil ratio?
Engine was not eating coolant, that's why I wasn't able to discover it immediately, while the water got mixed to oil in the turbo and then to the sump.
I'd like to avoid opening the engine if not mandatory, engine ran for an hour with no load and up to 4000 rpm.
Thanks

[ProPower engines]

How much coolant was introduced to the oil by volume?
Generally any antifreeze that gets into the oil enough to change colour will cause issues if run for any length of time under load will eat the bearings but you could flush the engine a few times with clean oil and be sure that the oil temp is at least 180 degrees between flushes to get it clean and you should be fine.

I would not suggest doing this to a customer's engine for liability reasons just to be on the safe side as I have seen bad thing happened to bearings when torn down later for other reasons.
JMO

[peejay]

I had a Subaru engine come in that had mostly coolant in the sump thanks to somebody mixing up a coolant line and the oil drain. It took forever to get all the oil out of the cooling system. Bearings were fine.

More recently, I had a Mustang that added about a gallon of coolant to the oil over a period of about 3000 street miles. Bottom end was fine. Blew the head gaskets sky high from running with less than half of its coolant capacity, but the bottom end was ok. Car is still on the road, too.

[engineguyBill]

Most modern antifreeze contains silicate (aka SAND). Sand circulating through the oil (lubricant) system will take out the bearings very quickly. The only way to determine problems such as this is to disassemble the engine and visually analyse the effected parts . . . . .

[midnightbluS10]

I had a Subaru engine come in that had mostly coolant in the sump thanks to somebody mixing up a coolant line and the oil drain. It took forever to get all the oil out of the cooling system. Bearings were fine.

More recently, I had a Mustang that added about a gallon of coolant to the oil over a period of about 3000 street miles. Bottom end was fine. Blew the head gaskets sky high from running with less than half of its coolant capacity, but the bottom end was ok. Car is still on the road, too.

If it ever happens again, run some dawn soap through the cooling system. It worked for me every time I had a GM car with a busted oil cooler or an intake gasket leak that would put oil in the cooling system.

[mag2555]

You have nothing to loose at this point by flushing it and running it, but if it where me before doing so I would send out the oil to get tested if you have the time to see if any bearing material shows up.
I once a girl friends Toyota or Mazda ( I forget which) blow out a pressed in plug under the Cam ( yes, factory plug!) and the motor of course over heated and the oil was a thick Chocolate Milkshake!
I flashed it all out and that motor ran for another 2 years in daily 45 mile commuter usage before she traded it in!

[peejay]

Most modern antifreeze contains silicate (aka SAND). Sand circulating through the oil (lubricant) system will take out the bearings very quickly. The only way to determine problems such as this is to disassemble the engine and visually analyse the effected parts . . . . .

Oh? I thought one of the big deals about newer coolant formulations is that they are silicate free.

There are about 14 different flavors of coolant nowadays, it's hard to keep track of them all. I have books to remember it all for me.

[pdq67]

Most modern antifreeze contains silicate (aka SAND). Sand circulating through the oil (lubricant) system will take out the bearings very quickly. The only way to determine problems such as this is to disassemble the engine and visually analyse the effected parts . . . . .

Oh? I thought one of the big deals about newer coolant formulations is that they are silicate free.

There are about 14 different flavors of coolant nowadays, it's hard to keep track of them all. I have books to remember it all for me.

Does the old standby green coolant Ethylene Glycol have silicates in it?

My wife's 2004 Buick La Sabre has, Dex-Cool in it and only has about 18,000 mikes on the odometer. I am afraid to flush the shit out and put the green stuff in it.

Would I be OK flushing it out?

I have read so many horror stories about Dex-Cool through the years is why I ask.

pdq67

[Dan Timberlake]

Back in the 80s I had a daily driver with an all aluminum 4 cyl engine with wet liners. It always had a slight internal coolant seep/leak. As I recall I never let the oil get bad "looking". The symptom was pretty much a gradual loss of coolant. Over time a valve or two started hanging (and the engine missing) until the engine warmed up. Varnish/sludge was the coolant-in-the-oil tale passed widely around shops in the area before it happened to me. All we had was the green stuff back then. When I had the engine apart later, some varnish or thin hard sludge formed . I forget if it was on the valve stem, or the guide ID.

[peejay]

Most modern antifreeze contains silicate (aka SAND). Sand circulating through the oil (lubricant) system will take out the bearings very quickly. The only way to determine problems such as this is to disassemble the engine and visually analyse the effected parts . . . . .

Oh? I thought one of the big deals about newer coolant formulations is that they are silicate free.

There are about 14 different flavors of coolant nowadays, it's hard to keep track of them all. I have books to remember it all for me.

Does the old standby green coolant Ethylene Glycol have silicates in it?

My wife's 2004 Buick La Sabre has, Dex-Cool in it and only has about 18,000 mikes on the odometer. I am afraid to flush the shit out and put the green stuff in it.

Would I be OK flushing it out?

I have read so many horror stories about Dex-Cool through the years is why I ask.

pdq67

The main problem with Dexcool is when you get air in it. You get air in it when the plastic intake gaskets fail and suck air in on engine cooldown. Not a problem if you fix it right away, but most people ignore problems until the car stops moving under its own power, especially pickup owners. For engines that don't have failure prone intake gaskets, the coolant works just fine. Hell, I am doing timing chains on a 200k mile Cadillac that still had the factory coolant. Inside of the engine and radiator is immaculate.

Another source of air ingestion is worm clamps. The OEMs use spring clamps for a reason: they get a 360 degree seal. Worm clamps have two places, one under each side of the base, where they don't clamp. They may be able to seal coolant from leaking out, but they can't seal air from leaking in, and air gets into the coolant that way.

One more reason why worm clamps are the devil. and I feel even more justified in throwing them away and replacing them with spring clamps.