So as I was changing my oil today, i noticed that there was a decent bit of pink to what was going into the oil catch pan. What would cause ATF to go back into the engine? and no, I did not accidently put ATF in the engine.

Odd, there is no point where the trans and engine fluids meet. Have you checked to see if there'* oil in the trans fluid.

Also, I know the car has head gasket issues, would this be related to the ATF being where its not supposed to be?

2 weeks ago when i replaced a blown tranny cooler line, i also put all new fluid in and saw no engine oil in the old ATF. I did just get off the phone with my dad, who said he added a quart of oil when he borrowed it while i was out of town, when he gets here ill make sure and ask him if he managed to add ATF instead of engine oil.

You will need to check with him. The trans and engine are to separate units. The fluids never get close to each other.

That is the only logical explanation in all honesty. The closest that ATF comes to oil is the torque converter, which will dump oil into the bell housing and to the ground, or the radiator, but that is usually just supercharged cars, never mind there is a ton of coolant between the two.

I will believe that he added ATF until somebody can prove differently.

Only other solution would be red coolant, that is getting in to the crank case, but that would make a bigger mess then just red in the oil.

I am having some head gasket issues, and i do use red coolant....

I've not seen head gaskets fail on these engines. LIM gaskets yes, but even then it'* only a seep. UIM failure is more likely if you have a NA engine.

We have the ATF issue in our crank cases.. but I think its different with a diesel then a gas car. If you had coolant in your crank case it would be milky and messy.

I would say he put aft in the oil

1) what is UIM and LIM?

2) for the past few years, when it is very cold outside and the engine has not warmed up, coolant wil drip from the engine onto the exhaust manifold and burn off, never been to bad, maybe a gallon of coolant between october/november, till march. however since i last topped off the coolant 3 weeks ago, its gone through maybe half a gallon. and potentially 2 quarts of oil.