Today, after driving around my car, I noticed water had shot out of it. It ended up being a cracked upper radiator hose. Last week I just finished up replacing the head gaskets, and everything has been going fine until today. I checked the oil in it and it turned to sludge again. It's ran fine, and hasn't done this at all till now. It has been perfectly fine until today. Could this be a fluke or could there be another problem with it?

 

Could be the head gasket inproperly installed. Could also be that you didn't get all the water out of the oil after the gasket was replaced.

 

Could the head gasket be the only thing, could it maybe be the intake manifold gasket?

 

Its a possibility, but it has to be a really bad leak to leak internally into the lifter valley.[/align] [/align][/align][/align]What model is the vehicle?[/align]

 

1996 4.3. The reason I say the intake is I didn't pay as much attention to it as I did the heads when I did the gaskets. Also don't think I put enough rtv on the coolant holes in the gaskets.

 

Yeah. Not enough RTV may be your problem. You have to have a pretty thick bead on it.[/align]

 

The issue with not enough silicone should only affect oil leaking externally via the valley part of the intake. Or am I missing something? Its been a while since i've done one of these

 

There are 2 coolant holes on each side of the head that dead ends at the intake. My best guess is not a good enough seal around these holes will allow water to seep by into the lifter valley, and effectively into the oil. Also, I can't find my book, so if someone has the torque specs/ tightening sequence on the intake manifold for this model and could post it, that would be great!

 

Yeah. Let me find my repair manual...

 

< Front of engine

12 5 4 2 7 10
--------- - -----------
11 6 1 3 8 9

35 ft/lbs (all except bolt9)
41ft/lbs (bolt 9 only)