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I want to know what the problem can be. I have a 2000 Land Cruser 5 cylinder. I had a small oil leak and that was fixed. Saturday it needed oil and I filled it up. Saturday afternoon when I parked the car I noticed that there was oil running from my cooling system. When I checked I saw there was oil in my cooling system, but not water in the oil. What could be the cause of that?

Solar Mike
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Wilgie Swart
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  • Please don't shout. – Solar Mike Jul 11 '17 at 16:33
  • Sory I did not shout, just a header. There is oil in the radiator and was overflowing there. The engine oil spilled into the radiator. Can the problem be the head gasket or the oil cooler? The car did not over heat at all. Only when standing I noticed the oil in the water running out. – Wilgie Swart Jul 11 '17 at 17:21
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    I suspect a faulty oil cooler, you could bypass the cooler temporarily to see if it stops oil from getting oil into the coolant. – Moab Jul 15 '17 at 18:32

2 Answers2

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Coolant-circulation loops will typically operate at a lower pressure than oil-circulation loops.

This is the reason why, when presented with the opportunity to mix (think failed head gasket, leaking oil-water intercooler), the oil loop is relatively free of coolant - the low-pressure coolant doesn't possess the requisite energy to enter the high-pressure oil stream.

Zaid
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As to the why, water –even with antifreeze- has surface tension and won’t flow through small openings. Oil will wet metal and flow through small openings. Water and oil are in proximity in the head, so this is the prime suspect. But the leak could be anywhere the two are close.

TomO
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  • It also depends which side (oil/coolant) has greater pressure or vacuum. At different points where the systems are near, they will have different pressures. Likewise, different designs call for different pressure systems. All these factors play in. – kyle_engineer Aug 10 '17 at 21:12