Hey guys. This is actually the motor I'm using for "Project GS". It'* a stock long block from a 2002 Regal GS with 54k miles or so according to the yard I bought it from. I bought it a few months ago in September I think, will have to dig up the receipt. Its been sitting in heated/insulated storage since then. Anyway, I didn't really check to see what the oil looked like and drained it tonight...

Um, it looks like coffee with cream in it. I saw no "normal" oil drain out of it.

Tell me what I should know. Thanks.

There was water in it. Bearings could very well be toast.

yep water in the oil, any number of thing could have caused it. Cracked head, blowed head gasket, bad intake plenum. It could be serious. Good luck


Tim

Thanks guys. I'm willing and able to fix the issue that caused it...head gasket, cracked head, whatever. I guess my concern now is how can I tell if the bearings and all are shot? I don't know if the motor has been run in this state. Being that I haven't really worked on the lower end of a motor before, can I pull the pan and inspect the bearings quickly and easily? I know one might not be able to tell over the internet, but are we talking just bad crank bearings or everything?

Oh yeah, treat it as if it was sitting with coolant in the oil since July...dipstick at around the full mark

If it were me I would start by draining the block, and go through and clean everything really well. You'll have to get the bad oil out either way so start there. Mind you I am going by what I have read on other posts. Do a search and you'll get some answers.

Good luck,

Tim

Thanks again.

I've cleaned the coolant/oil mix out of the pan and wiped up all I could of the lower end. I didn't find any particles, pieces, etc...no obvious looseness either. I took a sample of the mix from the oil filter and sent it to Blackstone Labs yesterday; they'll be able to say if there'* bad damage or not.

I removed the trans it was mated to and put a starter to it. Tonight I'm going to jump the starter and check the compression. If both tests are good, I'd say that aside from repairing the problem (intake gaskets I'm thinking) I don't have any damage other than that to worry about.

I've got a positive jumper cable lead to the top terminal on the starter, then a little jumper wire from the little terminal to the positive jumper cable, then negative to the block. The battery is in another Reatta. It'* pretty new and has over 12V according to my multimeter (and the car has normal electrical power). Tried a boost pack instead as well, but for some reason it seems like its turning pretty slow. I removed the spark plugs and it turns faster but not much. I can whip the motor with a rachet by hand, but it feels like it has the right amount of resistance (from what I remember my LN3 spins with about the same resistance). My compression gauge, known to be good, shows negligible compression on all cylinders.

So

Either my rigged up starter setup is spinning too slow (tried a good '89 LN3 starter too, same thing) or I really don't have compression. Am I doing something wrong?

This is how it'* turning over (plugs in it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A44GE3wGDws

Do you still have what was drained out? If so, has it sat long enough to seperate so you might measure the volume of water? If the water wasn't too much, it might not have been in contact with the bearings and rod caps. It would sit at the bottom of the pan. You MIGHT get lucky (in a car sense, not recreational sense).

If you don't know, you're in a big risk category. I personally wouldn't continue any more work. You have some pretty good odds of a motor failure within 30-90 days (this is typically the timeframe an L36 would puke after a UIM repair if it happened 'too late')