Blown Headgasket?

[fastdonkeys]

I have a US 1999 C2 coupe 6 Speed with 58k miles. About a week ago I noticed a tiny drop of oil in my coolant reservoir. It was so minute that I decided that it was nothing to worry about. Today I decided to check again and found another tiny drop of oil floating on the top. I know there should not be any oil in my coolant even if it is only a little drop. My car does not smoke, does not lose coolant, does not go low on oil, and runs perfectly fine. I'm just wondering if this is early signs of a failing head gasket, or worse a porous block, or possibly a sleeved block. Is there any way to identify the blocks from the factory that were not up to par, say vin numbers or engine codes. Its kind of giving me a scare and I dont want to experience catastrophic engine failure any time soon. Thanks for your help in advance.

Edited May 17, 2007 by fastdonkeys

[Chuck Jones]

I'm probably more paranoid about this potential issue than most folks...but there is a lot of information available through archive searches on the subject of "intermix" of the oil/coolant. There are some God awful horror stories out there of the damage done by this failure and the heartbreak it causes the unfortunate owners.

Apparently, there is little if any warning that this is happening...so if you are just now seeing little drops of oil, you may be seeing the problem at the onset. You might try draining the oil....since oil floats on top of the water, if there is water in the oil, it should come out first...then you can jam the drain plug back in before you drain the whole thing. Were it me...I'd have that car in to a dealership or an indy in a flash. If it's just starting to occur, I'm not sure what can realistically be done, because the condition requires the replacement of the engine due to the conditions you cite in your post. There is a company in England that rebuilds these engines when this happens....if you PM Nathan, he can give you that info...but it means shipping th engine to England. You'd think that there would be a company here in the states that did what the English are doing.

As I said at the onset of this response...I'm probably more paranoid about this potential problem than most folks....because of all the things that could possibly go wrong...this is the one that raises my anxiety level the most because the failure is so dogone catastrophic. With regard to trying to identify the engine blocks most susceptible to this condition....the only thing I've read is that cars with a pre-April 99 date of manufacture were the ones that seemed to encounter this problem more than others. Whether this is true or not I don't know. Since Porsche had a policy of simply replacing the engines, there were none torn down by local dealerships to look for a cause so I don't know if there is any authoritative information available that would help you track this down and isolate by VIN or lot numbers. Since the time that the warranties have elapsed, Porsche has been very closed mouth about this whole issue because of the potential of class action suits.....their reaction is denial that any problem exists and denial of any claims related to this "alleged problem". I sincerely hope that what you are seeing is an anomaly explained by something other than an intermix problem. Keep up posted....I for one am very interested in this issue. Best of luck to you.....Chuck

[viper501]

Another potential cause could be impending failure of the oil cooler.