Oil In My Water - Stuck In Le Mans !!!

OK, had a great journey down to Le Mans car running great, Yesterday I noticed my oil was low while re-fuelling so toped it up with about 1lt, No sign's of any problems at this point. I was then in traffic for about 90 mins and I noticed the water temp was higher than normal but thought that was due to high outside temp and car standing still, anyway when I parked up I lifted the engine cover and saw white mayo coming out of the water resevoir, Lots of it ! Checked my oil again and it was low again, about 1lt gone ? Car was/is running OK, No signs of water in the oil (none on dipstick) maybe a little more white mayo in the oil filler cap but nothing too bad. Anyone got any ideas...?? Supposed to be on a ferry home tomorrow ! Cheers, Kosmo. PS - Limited internet access so I mayt be slow to reply.

Hi Kosmo, It looks like you might have a cylinder head gasket failure. Any smoke from the exhaust? Anyway,It's good that you dont have water in the oil. In the absence of recovering the car my advice is to keep the oil topped up and try to nurse the car home.

Whatever it is its obviously not trivial or good. What car age and mileage Could be a cylider head gasket gone. Is there any steam coming out of one exhaust. Same symptoms for cracked cylider head (quite common 996 problem although usually slowly progressively worse rather than just going) Unlikely but possible is a cylinder liner failure but this would nomally lead to water in the oil as well as vice versa. All in all I'm not sure I would drive it as you dont want to run bearings or sieze it completely. Recovery may be expensive but a total rebuild will make it seem cheap! Sorry not to be more positive.

I think that because there is no water in the oil the chances of the engine seizing are hopefully small. The things to pay close attention to are that you keep the oil topped up, keep a close eye on the oil pressure and make sure that the car does not get too hot. I fear that the engine will have to be stripped anyway- so go for broke and stick to your pre booked schedule.

Car is a 1999 C4, 78,000 miles, FSH, full recent service at an Indy.... Not keen on nursing the car home, will get expensive if total failure. So my next question, who is the best to look at this type of problem in the Midlands area ? Anyone know ideas for getting the car home, anyone been in this situation ? Cheers, Andy.

Autofarm near Oxford or Hartech if you can get it there.

If a cracked liner shouldn't there be a drop in performance and signs of problem from Exhaust, at the moment there is nothing ? Oil pressure is OK.... temp kept pretty constant just above the normal 80 degrees when I drove it back to campsite, never took my eye of the gauge. If I get it back toi UK I can get recovered from ferry port with my UK cover, Moral of the story is pay the money for Euro cover.

Give Hartech a call in the morning they may be able to diagnose over the phone and give you some advice if it can be driven to the UK. They seem to have rebuilt many 996 engines. Tel: 01204 302 809

Sorry to hear about your problem - from experience it is almost certainly a cracked head or - less likely - a core plug in the head that has come out. It can usually be diagnosed if you know where to look - by removing the cylinder head covers, cams and housing. Probably needs a new head as used ones are in demand and then you have one head with new valves and another with old valves that don't seat so well - so preferable to have the other side decoked and valves re-bedded in. You need to get it recovered but I would get whoever repairs it to strip and rebuild the engine as damage can occur to the crankshaft bearings due to overheating and it is probably worth taking the opportunity to upgrade the IMS bearing and carry out a few other preventative jobs. Baz (Hartech)

OK, tried to nurse it home, drove about 10km and noticed the temp rising, pulled over to check it out and more gunk coming out of the resevoir ! So, drove home in 2nd car, picked up trailer and drove back to Le Mans to pick it up, looks like I need a rebuild so now the question is with who ? Hartech are favourites but would like to check out other options ? Cheers Kosmo

Don't waste time ringing around others, get booked in at Hartech and let them sort it. Without fail the best regarded outfit in the country and better value than the only other serious contender Autofarm.

Just got back from getting the car back.... 12 hrs door to door including ferry crosing with a trailer, dont want to do that agian :frustrated: Still pondering on best action to take, if money no object Hartech would be a no brainer, will have to see what funds I can pull together ?

water in oil when i got my car it had had £3ks worth of engine work by horncastle porsche centre...new left hand side cylinder head fitted so they must have had the engine out etc... Rather than doing a few other small jobs at that point like replacing the header bolts on the right hand side headers and replacing the dodgy old coolant hoses they just slapped it all back together and back in the car... When i bought the car i got given the receipts for the work... I spotted the dodgy cracked coolant hoses straight away and replaced the lot... didnt spot the header stud problem looming up an now left with a corking problem see my post... So my advice is when the engines out replace all your exhaust bolts and clamps you can buy the lot for £100 this will save you a lot of pain in about two years... also slap on a new timing belt and check your spark plug HT leads... what I am saying is dont just fix the problem you have take preventative steps as well whilst the engine is out to sort those common issues that you know are coming up... good time for a set of plugs as well... you try fitting a set of plugs yourself engine in car... will take your hours of bending and confined spaces working.. engine out its a 5 min job!!! think on Sad about your engine hope it doesnt prove too costly... :worship: hopefully someone will guide you on all the preventative jobs you should do engine out... it may cost you now but will save you big style later :thumb: