'90 gti 8v, oil in water bottle problem

[Scooterist007]

Right thanks for all of you replys, given the answers, I am going to buy the car, I do think I would be a fool not too at this price!

[Scooterist007]

Right dudes, I bought the car! and, there is a lot of mayo going on in the expansion bottle, but still no mayo on the dipstick or oil filler cap, the red water light on the dash is flashing like a christmas tree, and when I start the car up, it struggles when it turns over, which points to a head gasket to me, but why am I not getting mayo in my dipstick and oil cap? I was hoping that it was oil cooler! also, the car doesnt get hot, the temp guage barely moves over the first marking, I do get some warmth through the heater but I feel its not as hot as it should be, also the oil temp never goes above 75. so any ideas, I am hoping somone will tell me its not the head gasket! cheers guys

[...joe]

head gasket aint so bad, the first time i did one i stripped it, had the head skimmed and was driving around by the afternoon. its not too big of a problem and considering how much you paid for the whole car it'll be worth doing or getting someone to do it for you......word!

[wellfan]

Still sounds like the oil cooler to me, exact same symptoms as I had. Why not remove it and have a look. A lot easier than stripping the head to find it as alright. A compression test would be the first thing to do though as it should identify a compression problem in a cylinder pointing to a head or gasket problem.

[Scooterist007]

ok got myself a compression tester from halfords, what should be a good compression reading?

[kniterider]

sounds like a head gasket failure to me........

one of the oil way holes has split into a water way hole, dont think its an oil cooler prob, a compression ceck may check out ok, even if an oilway has split into an waterway hole.....

if you do a compression check and all seems good this would suggest the similar....

Gaz

[Scooterist007]

now im getting really confused, so even if i do a compression test, and it reads ok, it could still be the head gasket?

[wellfan]

Compression pressures are listed in spec. page of Haynes manual, basically if one cylinder is showing a significant pressure reading difference than the three others it would indicate a problem with that cylinder. I am no expert on the subject, just a self taught MkII Golf enthusiast. I have had three cylinder head problems, one Golf, one Scirocco and a Fiat Punto. All had water in the oil. I also had a damaged oil cooler in a Golf and the symptoms were the same as yours, oil in water no water in oil. However kniterider has a point. I am only giving you the benefit of my experience. Another consideration is, perhaps the head gasket has previously been replaced and what you have is residual gunk in the water bottle. Surely someone out there with a mechanical background can give a more considered response to your situation. Because to date all you are getting is opinions.

[Veedubgt18v]

i would start with flushing the coolant system totally, doing an oil change, repalcing the filter, and checking oil cooler. in fact you could do this but the two hoses that go into the oil cooler could be joined together temporarily with a piece of metal pipe to remove the cooler from the equation.then see if it still does it. if it does then its head gasket. if it doesnt then its cooler. i think this would be a good way of trial and erroring it till you find the cause, this is whati would do.