head gasket??

[painter dave]

Hi I have I mk1 2002 berlingo van recently checked to top the water up to find lots of gunk round the cap and in expansion tank and oil mixed with the water, is this head gasket on its way out, if so how long have I got, still runs but noisy sometimes 

Many thanks

[Tomcat3]

Engine size and fuel type would help.

[painter dave]

Sorry it's a 1.9 diesel ?

[polar]

Oil cooler can leak oil into the coolant and is quite common on high mileage 1.9 diesels. But could also be a head gasket. If just oil in the coolant and not losing water, the engine is running right i would go for the oil cooler first.

[painter dave]

Not losing any water, where will I find the oil cooler? Is it easy to replace ?

[jj9]

The oil cooler is fitted between the oil filter and the engine block, it has two coolant pipes going to it.
Easy to change, you just unscrew the fitting that the oil filter screws onto.

.

[polar]

As JJ says ^^

[Ikanpaul]

As others have said try a new oil cooler first , I have had this issue twice now luckily catching it early so only a little oil appeared in expansion bottle so fairly easy to flush out lumps of grey mayo from cooling system .
If you dont do long journeys you can bypass the cooler with a bit of pipe I formed a U shape from 15 mm copper with a couple of straight yorkshire fittings with the bulge bit on each end . 
I drove short trips like this for a few hundred miles before I got a hint of oil in one stub use a cotton bud to probe inside stubs . if it is a bad leak you will soon know as oil will / may run out , this will confirm cooler is duff.
My 1.9 2002 cooler was replaced recently using a NISSENS 90650 item I paid about £40 but its a good brand.

So drain out coolant , drain oil as well remove filter on the exposed threaded part you should find a 27mm nut this is part of the oil flow tube and will come out with the tube , your cooler will now be loose to pull away from block be aware the seal between cooler and block may be stuck a little , remove hoses if not already done so , flush out cooling system properly use a cleaner like forte if bad , fit new cooler do not go mega tight  with nut as you may crush cooler it only needs to squash seal to block a little ,refill oil/water job done .

ITS A DIRTY MESSY JOB BEST NOT DONE ON YOUR NEW BRICKWEAVE DRIVEWAY.

I have known people not to drain oil to do this , but if oil is in water a little water could also get into oil , if your oil pressure is 45psi and your water is 15psi when running the moment you stop the engine the oil pressure is ZERO yet the water system is under pressure for quite a while . 
 Good luck .

[dumdum]

Just a quick one... to clean the water system if you want to get every last bit of oil out, add washing machine tablets to the header tank and run for an hr at idle, this will get the engine to 90 degrees, swoosh the tabs round to break down the oil and allow you to flush it out with a hosepipe after through various hoses, if it’s bad you may need to do it 2-3 times but I assure you it breaks it down and cleans it out a treat

[geoff]

^^^ dissolve the tabs in hot water first, much better.