My brother in law has a 96 integra gsr with 140k miles.He noticed he was out of oil on his last oil change. He was not leaking (he did notnotice any puddles) and he was not burning oil.He then noticed that he had a rusty brown color sludge in his radiator and overflow tank. We took the head off and had it checked for cracks. Everything checked out ok. Head gasket was fine and replaced. Water pump checked out ok and was changed. Also thermostat was checked and changed. Anybody ever experience this or know what it may be. Thanks in advance.

so you removed the head because you had bad coolant in your radiator?WOW when you get brownish colored fluid and sludge in your radiator it is the coolant breaking down and going bad and turning to sludge you just needed to flush your cooling system replace the thermostat and put new coolant in there not remove your head.WOW

What do you mean he was out of oil? Was the engine making any noises?


For all those forum readers who need to know, there are test to perform that help diagnosing engine leaks.


Do pressure check the cooling system. If the leak is external, you should be able to find it. Don't forget the heater. If the leak is internal to the engine, you might find it by removing the spark plugs or you might find it in the oil pan.


Do a chemical check of the coolent for fuel contamination.This will confirm a blown head gasket.


When water gets into the oil,the mixture gets homogenized intoa creamy tan or gray colored goo. I have never seen oil get into a cooling system.


I think your missing oil is still a mystery that should be solved.


https://www.acuraforums.com/smileys/smiley16.gifEdited by: alangrwd

yeah i think he needs to remove the engine and dissasemble it to find why he had no oil....lmao / couldnt hurt he already pulled the head...lmao

was the oil lite on ?? engine noise ??

there is 2 reasons why engine would be out of oil,, oil LEAK.and engine burning oil .
did you look under the car for any evidence of oil leaks ?? depending on what is leaking you might not see a puddle under the car
I wish you would have come here and asked before you did all that work ..
You guys jumped the gun on pulling the head off because of brown colored coolant ,, that meant that it had not been changed for a very long time , and like mechanic said all you needed to do was a cooling system flush .. but aside that you need to find out where the oil went

And on a final note ,, YO mechanic ,, i DO NOT think that it is very nice that you LYAO just because someone is not as experienced and knowledgeble as you seem to think you are ,and made a mistake upon removing the head .

My guess is that the engine is burring oil or you have a leak of some kind. How long ago was the level of the oil checked? Only thing you can do is top it up and keep an eye on it.

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http://www.RideAdvised.com

My son once run the oil down to where a Nissan pickup (that was mine and became his) began to make squeaking noises under the hood. I think there was just enough in the pan to put some lubrication along with some air into the engine as the oil circulated through. It showed no oil in the dip stick.


Four quarts later the squeak was gone and the engine seemed to be okay. After a lecture on vehicle care, he managed to get another 50K miles before rollingthe old hardbody over the side of a hill in our back yard.


The Japanese sure build great engines!


https://www.acuraforums.com/smileys/smiley16.gifEdited by: alangrwd