Help! Daughter poured oil in coolant tank

[walterjay]

Dawn is an excellent emulsifier for oils. I would use that as suggested. I have heard of it being used to clean out water wells that had gotten contaminated with oils.

 

[Michael_P]

My old 84 Escort had a bad head gasket. It lived most of its life with oil in the antifreeze.

 

[Eddie]

I'd use a standard radiator flush which is cheap at Walmart..Radiator flush is made for this type of issues. Good to hear that your daughter is trying to learn and even discovered her error. Ed

 

[SwampSurvivor]

The oil cooler failed on my truck and it dumped a few quarts of oil into the cooling system. The pressure bottle sits higher than the radiator so that's where most of the oil ends up. I had to drain and fill the coolant tank 2 or 3 times and it was fine after that.

 

[Chris142]

We use purple power when this happens.

 

[das_peikko]

Originally Posted by Chris142
We use purple power when this happens.


You run it straight undiluted?

 

[rubberchicken]

IMO stay away from liquid dish soap. It causes a lot of foam, and this might cause a problem inside the radiator / water pump / engine. If its just the overflow tank and you rinse it real good, then ok, but otherwise keep Dawn etc out of the engine.

 

[01rangerxl]

Keep an eye on the hoses...oil will soften and deteriorate coolant hoses.

Not sure what exactly happened to it, but I've seen a Tahoe where every single coolant hose was soft and sticky from some kind of oil contamination in the coolant.

 

[EchoWars]

Originally Posted by Eddie
I'd use a standard radiator flush which is cheap at Walmart..Radiator flush is made for this type of issues.
Actually, it isn't. In normal operation, the coolant will never encounter oil. Thus nearly all off-the-shelf flushes are acidic mixes for cleaning up rust/corrosion/silicate buildup. These barely touch oil contamination, so other flush products (more specialized) are geared towards these specific circumstances where coolant is contaminated with oil. These products specifically aid in the emulsification of these oily products, which acids don't do. Fleet maintenance pros see these failures fairly commonly in big rigs, and the Cascade flush (for oil removal) is SOP for a lot of shops. For those who get a warm fuzzy from pre-packaged chems, Fleetguard has two cleaners: Fleetguard Restore for oil contamination, and Restore Plus for corrosion & scale.
Originally Posted by Chris142
We use purple power when this happens.
That would work. So would Simple Green. Both will etch aluminum, so easy does it.

 

[dlundblad]

I've heard of people using Simple Green as a radiator degreaser as well.

The whole thing might not be as bad as you think. Take the radiator cap off and see if any oil got in.

 

[xnicke]

I would drain and refill. Nothing else and no chemicals except antifreeze.

 

[slug_bug]

Thanks for your responses everyone! I feel a lot more confident that major damage hasn't been done.

 

[The motor guy]

This happens when cars blow a head gasket, depending on which part blows.

 

[atikovi]

Originally Posted by Chris142
We use purple power when this happens.


When this happens? So you frequently accidentally add oil to the radiator that you've developed a routine to clean it?

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by Chris142
We use purple power when this happens.


When this happens? So you frequently accidentally add oil to the radiator that you've developed a routine to clean it?


He owns a shop I believe.