I checked out my dipstick. I am a little low (no suprise there), but the engine oil is dark and shows no sign of water mixing. I usually use 10-30W Castrol GTX and reading the back of the bottle it does say that it has Detergent Action. Barring the grease from the water pump, what failure would result in a one way leak of oil into the Antifreeze but not the other way around?

As for blowby, from what I have seen from an extra B16 I have in the shed, you can't remove the oil pan on these things without first removing the flywheel. So replacing the rings would require removing the engine. My second B16 is in totally unknown condition, I picked it up from a local parts place for 70 bucks complete.

I guess I will start with a flush and an oil change, I had wanted to get my radiator rodded, but I wouldn't want to do that unless I had my oil mystery solved. No point gunking up a freshly cleaned radiator.

Thanks for your responses,

Mario m.

>you can't remove the oil pan on these things without first removing the flywheel

Jack up the engine and the oil pan comes off.

Of course you are right. I don't know why I thought that, but I do remember something being kinda screwy when I took the flywheel off. Maybe the issue was that I had to take the oil pan off to get the flywheel off. Oh well, I can look tomorrow. But now that I know that the pan is easily removed, how easy would it be and how effective would it be to re-ring this engine?? Would it only be effective if I had broken rings?? I assume that if I had blowby and the rings were good that cylinder machining would be the proper course. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I am on an extremely tight budget (unemployed student) so I am interested in budget solutions which fall somewhere between hacks and rock solid reliability. At my disposal are two B16s the one in the car has probable blowby and a suspect head gasket, the other is a complete unknown, I also have a bunch of engine gaskets that I purchased when I had more money, a B18 with a cylinder that has been gouged by a loose wrist pin but with a recently rebuilt head, and a spare M40 transmission that I would be able to use once I find a good countershaft for an M41 that could go into my 122. So I have a lot of options, but I am confused as to what direction to go. It just has to be cheap. I could patch up the engine which is in the car, or rebuild the spare B16, or find a countershaft for the M41 so I can replace the M40 in the 122 and get the B18 cylinder resleeved and put B18/M40 combination into the 210. Oh my head is spinning. Any ideas would be appreciated.

mario m.

If it turns out your oil issue won't go away, I'd strip the "extra" B16 head and have a local shop inspect it for cracks/wear/warping. If the head checks out good then put is on the running engine. You can inspect your bores when you do the head swap and plan for the future based on what you find.

I don't think you have a ring issue as that wouldn't cause any oil in water issues at all (but a cracked cylinder would, of course you would be getting a LOT of bubbles in the radiator and white smoke -steam- from the tailpipe and boogers in the sump). What were the compression results again (I don't remember seeing any).

For now I advocate flushing the cooling system and watching it. Do a compression test for your info/peace of mind. Check the dipstick frequently for boogers.

Insofar as re-ringing goes, Once you are that far into an engine, you may as well do a rebuild or at least "freshening." A decent re-ring requires that you hone the cylinders which just about requires complete tear-down so you can wash it properly, etc... Heck, at that point new bearings are ultra-simple and I'm certain that you will find things that could use replacing once you start to look carefully at them!

Mike!

A half done job will be repeated until completely done.

I'd give your spare B16 a careful looking over. Perhaps hook a starter up to it so you can spin it round quicker and give it a compression test. If it seems healthy just put it in. Probably a not bad idea to pull the head and inspect the bores for evil looking things (like evidence of cracked rings or excessive wear). Possibly pull the oil pan and at least eyeball the bottom end. I don't know if it would be worth the effort of pulling the rod and main bearings apart to have a look at them - I'd just guess that if the cylinder bores looked reasonably decent that the bottom end probably is in decent shape too.
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I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

Don't get ahead of yourself.

If you're not seeing water in the oil, keep driving it and observe what it does. If you get more oil in the radiator, you know the head needs to come off. Once it's off, you can evaluate what else might be done at the same time.

I am getting quite a bit a head of myself, but I just like having the big picture in mind before I move forward with things so I don't inadvertantly screw somthing up for the future. I really appreciate the comments and ideas. I will keep messing with the B16 in place for a while till I figure that the head must come off. And then before I have any machine work done on anything, I will bring the parts from both engines to the machinest so that they can inspect them and go from there.

Mario;

How many miles are on this engine?

I wouldn't sweat the detergent vs non-detergent issue. No engine was "made" for non-detergent oil. The so-called problem arises when an engine has been run with ND oil for a length of time and then is changed to detergent type. This can loosen gum, varnish and nasty particles that will now swim around in the oil and can clog the filter.
The only cars on which this is a critial issue are those without filters (like air-cooled VW and older Porsche engines). Otherwise just change the filter regularly and you will be OK.

Vapors are a part of an infernal combustion engine. Gas "shooting" out of vents is a problem, however!

Head leaks are "funny." It is possible (but unlikely) for oil to get into the cooing system in very small amounts and accumulate over the heat/cool cycles the engine undergoes daily. Ditto for water in the oil but in very small amounts it will evaporate before the "milkshake" occurs. Guaranteed it won't get better.

I do hope it is the water pump but I expect it is about time to "freshen" the mill anyway and some attention to the head's condition is entirely warranted, ESPECIALLY if you have been experiencing cooling difficulties.

Mike!