Hi Guys, last weekend i pulled the plenum to redo the valve cover gaskets because i was getting a vac leak from the VCT solenoid, while i had the plenum off i did the water hose bypass (under plenum hoses and metal lines were clogged with crap) & replaced all of the pcv hoses. This fixed my vac leak, but it was still running a bit crappy, no longer hunting idle, just running rough. Also spat a bit of water out of the exhaust, not coolant so i wasnt too worried. So this weekend i got it to running temp and changed the oil (oil was fine, bit dirty only). Went to take it for a test drive and it wouldnt rev past 2500, so checked for error codes, turned out to be maf. Replaced maf with a spare i had and tried again, engine started but would die straight away without revs, so thinking it was vaccum, tested the vac system again, all was fine. I checked coolant level, seemed good & green. Took oil cap off and found milky oil around the cap, checked the dipstick, didnt look milky to me. I havent drained the oil again to see if the whole lot is milky. Is there a chance i have stuffed up the plenum water bypass? I used the guide from Z32wiki. I dont have an egr so i skipped that bit. Both turbo coolant lines are now connected to the heater core as per the guide, and the hose from the balance pipe is routed to the carbon canister. What i dont understand is: If i have made an error with the bypass and coolant was getting to the oil, i should have seen milky oil after the 1st time i ran it?? It didnt overheat, so i doubt it would be head gasket. Also the coolant doesnt have oil in it and the level is still fine. Any ideas?
Light milky oil under the cap is often just condensation from the engine cooling down. I would recommend doing a complete coolant service though, blow it out and maybe replace the hardlines at the turbos if they're full of junk too.
Huge thank you to Adam, seems some idiot (me) hooked the washer upto the balance pipe by mistake, double oil change in progress, hope i haven't damaged anything from my stupidity :/ Thanks for the suggestions, i will definitely flush and test the cooling system at some point. And the MAF error is gone for now, but might be worth rewiring anyway, plug looks ok but may aswell do it anyway. Thanks again peeps, huge sigh of relief its not a head gasket or other engine out type stuff.
any consolation, my first rebuild (done by professionsals:bash sufferred the same fate. they took no responsibility. so at least you haven't spent big on a build to see it go down the drain due to some one else. still not nice though, take a time out, maybe a good 2nd hand engine will come up. Depending on your personality, a rebuild maybe very expensive:br:
mate that really sucks. sorry to hear about your predicament. hope the rebuild produces a substantial power pack and no reliability issues
