I have a 99 Subaru Outback with 160,000 miles I bought it with a replaced enigine in swap for 30,000 Japanese engine car has always leeked oil and we were looking under hood about a month ago and found that the coolant reserve was filled with oil . we flushed reserve and emptied radiator where there was no oil, just in the reserve. Put new coolant in and when checked a few days later the oil was back. Does anyone know if this is a head gasket problem. Would appreciate some input. Thanks!!

I assume that coolant isn't getting into the engine oil. I suspect you have a leak in the tranmission fluid coolant coil. You may need to replace the radiator if that is the case.

First thing you need to verify exactly what is going on.

 

Are you positive it's oil? If that much oil is getting in it, then you'd notice SIGNIFICANT loss of oil in your engine oil - on the dipstick. I doubt you're seeing that, so I doubt it's engine oil.

 

The coolant reservoir/radiator may just be dirty and getting blackened in there? Or you're positive it's something else? You need to find where it's mixing (engine or trans) or what else is loosing fluid.

 

If it's NOT mixing then something else is loosing fluid for it to end up in the reservoir. Find out what is loosing fluids - engine or trans.

 

I'm thinking what he's thinking - the radiator may need replaced. The engine was replaced once, so it was probably overheated which does bad things to hoses and radiators too. So not out of the question for the radiator to be bad.

 

Have you checked your Automatic Transmission Fluid level? Of course it might not be low, it may have coolant in it?

 

Once fixed you'll want to clean any contaminated systems - radiator, engine, trans, etc, whichever were mixing.

 

That being said, the "japanese" motors are nothing special and not the best solution in my opinion, i've had them come with special features like blown head gaskets. what good is a low mileage motor if it has blown head gaskets? In their defense they offered me two new headgaskets....for ME to install:rolleyes:

The long and the short of it is, Check the oil, and check the transmission fluid. If either one looks like chocolate milk, then that's where coolant is going and the "oil" is coming from. I'd suggest not driving the car until you get this fixed. Antifreeze doesn't make a good lubricant for engine / transmission bearings.

Unfortunately, it's one of the symptoms of a leaking head gasket. My 98 O/B had the same problem and sure enough, the gaskets were toast.

With the motor running, take a look inside the coolant bottle, you'll probably see bubbles. That means that pressure from the cylinders is getting into the coolant passages in the heads.

You're looking at ~$1K.