While replacing the lower intake manifold gasket I decided to remove the driver's side valve cover to clean it. Unlike the passenger side, I found that everything under it is tinted orange. Does anybody know why? My only guess is that I have a leaking head gasket and that the color is due to Dex-Cool entering somewhere; however, I have not observed any signs of a head gasket leak. This is holding me up from re-assembling my ride...

 

if coolant was in the oil, it would be a creamy milkshake in there...i don't see any trace of oil/water sludge formation.

 

I only see age

 

@tech2 Yeah, nothing appears to be abnormal with the oil.

@kevinkpk That's what I'm gathering from other discussions. It's really strange that one side just looks like metal and oil, and the other side is SO orange. Everything is orange from front to back.

 

Very strange! It looks like they have a uniform beautiful coat of rust. Can you wipe it off? Would make me curious to dig deeper on that side.

 

It's similar in color to rust, but I'm pretty sure that it's not. I did try to rub some off, but to no avail. I'm ready to re-assemble the engine, but as you alluded to, I want to find out if it's normal or not before I proceed. On a different site somebody sent me a pic of their '94 engine that has never had Dex-Cool in it, and it was orange too. He claims that it's normal. which I'd like to believe. It's very strange that one side doesn't have orange tint at all while the other side is universally orange.