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« on: 09 August 2014, 15:43:22 »
Are there signs of oil mixing with water (light brown milky fluid) in the header tank, or on the oil dipstick? If its losing fluids, they have to be going somewhere..
Does the car have smelly white smoke from the exhaust, even when fully warmed up? This will indicate coolant getting into the cylinders and burning off. Drips from the exhaust back box are condensation inside the exhaust, and certainly no indication of head gasket failure.
Also, the v6's are quite prone to getting a bit of sludge around the filler cap, its quite normal.
For clarification, did you overheat the car? If so, how bad/how long?
As others have said, the oil cooler is prime candidate for oil/water mixing.
IF you have blown the head gasket, then it is quite an involved, time consuming job, but not desperately complicated. The worst bit is getting the engine timed up properly when fitting the new belt.
Costs involved will be a new gasket set, a timing belt kit, skimming the heads, spark plugs, oil and filter, fresh coolant. Lets say that lot will be somewhere in the region of £400, plus there is the labour. I personally would allow a full day, possibly longer to do this job. A garage might quote you 6-8 hours maybe..
If the heads need skimming (which is a good possibility after an overheat), you may well have to take all the valves etc out.
Plus there is the danger of snapping exhaust bolts, and other unforeseen dilemmas.
If this all sounds a bit doom and gloom, well, it should. Omegas are not worth a great deal even in great condition and full running order.
There will be those who are the type that'll keep a car forever and fork out for the job.
Then there will be those who might choose to chuck another complete, good engine in there. That is, if the rest of the car is really good with no rot and sound drive train.
It pains me to say that the most practical course of action is to perhaps buy another sound car, and maybe swap around good bits from yours and sell on parts from the other to recoup the investment.
Having said all that and depressed the hell out of you, there is still a good chance it might be something relatively simple like the aforementioned oil cooler..
How attached are you to that particular car...?
