Water in Oil

I just replaced the engine in my 1972 Martinique. I also replaced the exhaust manifolds. Engine starts and runs fine but I am getting water in the oil. It is a 318 Chrysler reverse rotation engine. Help Please!

It was a remanufactured long block from summit racing

sandy72 wrote: It was a remanufactured long block from summit racing

Tell us more. Did you assemble it? Did you do the install? Any external leaks? Is it just water, or is there fuel as well?

Did you replace the engine because you had water in the oil in the old one?

I imagine since it was a long block you bolted on your old intake and timing cover along with many other things.

On your Chrysler you can also get water in the oil from a cracked intake manifold water passage or a cracked timing cover water passage or if you didn't get a good seal where the timing cover bolts to the block or you didn't get a good seal where the water passages in the intake mate to the head.

Swapped everything over and installed. No other leaks noted

On my brothers 460 Ford he had water in the oil, to rule out internal problems I plugged all the water inlets and pressurized the engine with air, ran air pressure up to 35 PSI. Left it for 24 hours. It held 35 PSI.   Now we knew the leak was external.
In his case the water was from inversion.   One of his flaps was shot and exhaust water was coming in.   We also changed the exhaust manifold risor gaskets, might have been another source of water but we ruled out internal with the air pressure test.
Not that hard to do with a few plugs and clamps.   I used a couple hardware store brass fittings and my compression gauge with a shut off valve to watch the air pressure.
Note, I did not apply more than 35 PSI because more than that can blow out your water pump, manifold or thermostat gaskets.   Why did you need a new engine?   Might be the same reason you have water in your oil.   Good Luck

You are correct Tim and that was done first on the 460, he brought it to me asking me to change the head gaskets.   I did the basic tests first before pulling the heads, then I decided to check the ability of the engine to hold pressure.   It passed all tests so we fixed the exhaust and all is good. He has run it two years since then with no water in the oil.
Saved a lot of time not needing to change head gaskets!
Picture below is from a coolant pressure test on my wifes BMW X5 4.8L, they have to be pressure tested before assembly due to internal coolant passages.

Freaking water in the oil man – super infuriating

I don't have a whole lot of experience with the small block Chryslers but I have been fighting intermittent water in the oil on a 413 Chrysler for the last couple years. So I have given that more thought and experimentation that I would like to admit so a few things to check

Possible causes –

Cracked block - where water is entering the cylinders or otherwise into a sump connected area – pretty unlikely in this scenario – it should have been checked before rebuilding and as it was probably an automotive core to begin with its likely never been frozen.   A compression test/looking at plugs would take this scenario from unlikely to super unlikely…

Cracked head – where water enters the combustion chamber – similar to above, also goes from unlikely to super unlikely with a compression test -   

Head Gasket leak from water passage to oil passage - not impossible but unless you overheated it bad not likely – even less likely would be a head gasket leak only from the water passages to the oil passages and not show a loss of compression on one or both cylinders – so once again a good solid compression test should give some confidence.

Intake manifold crack - crack would need to be from a water crossover to the bottom side of the manifold, this part transferred over and has water passages on a 318 (unlike a big block where it is dry).   Not super easy to check, and a definite possibility – who put it on and how closely did they look at it? Some visual inspection can be done through the thermostat housing mounting hole but from there you can’t rule a crack out completely.

Intake manifold failure – again with the intake being reused this could be an issue – particularly if the manifold had significant pitting/corrosion around the water passages – again comes down to who put it on and how much effort was spent – quality of the surfaces and the gaskets?

Timing cover gasket – the gasket for this part is a marine only item and should be one piece that both surrounds the area around the timing chain but also has two water passages heading out/back to the water pump – the timing cover often corrodes between the two and is hard to get a good seal – I end up painting engine, both sides of the gasket, and timing cover with tacky gasket sealer– once doing my best to clean up the timing cover.   Many times people use the 3 piece automotive gasket set – which won’t work – or slather the whole thing with a bunch of rtv and hope for the best.

Exhaust manifold crack/bad gaskets causing water to enter into the combustion chamber through an exhaust valve – less likely cause you replaced the manifolds but any end cap gasket work that was done by you or others can be suspect

Reversion or other water backing up from the exhaust and entering through exhaust valve – on a modern engine with a pyramid type manifold and reasonable overlaps in the camshaft grind – flaps or no flaps this doesn't seem to be a real issue. However on an early Chrysler my experience shows it can be possible.   After tearing the 413 completely apart and replacing every gasket/inspecting every surface/looking for cracks/compression testing, etc. I didn’t completely kick my water issues until I fixed a leaky speedo tube that had me taking in a fair amount of ballast, and added some flaps to the exhaust pipes.   Before I did that it seemed that long slow rides with people only in the front seats could milkshake up my oil – with a leaky bilge those rides would be pretty nose low with the engine pretty close to under the water line.   

Try to work the problem logically, test the big expensive stuff first, then look at the things that carried over from the last build, or anything that you know looked sketchy.

Thanks for all the help! Found the problem. The gasket on the timing chain cover was not sealing properly. Water was running down by the timing chain and into the oil pan. Sealed it up, changed the oil and had a great day on the lake!

Sandy,
Great news and glad it wasn't too serious.

I'm still curious as to what happened with the original engine?

woodyelc wrote: Check the gasket that goes on the front cover as most likely it is not sealing. .

Woody,
You're as bad as I am sometimes!

sandy72 wrote: Found the problem. The gasket on the timing chain cover was not sealing properly.

Will try and make this quick. Replaced the engine 6 years ago due to a bad cylinder. Started getting water in the oil last year and started to take it apart. I waited to long and rust developed on the crank and a couple of cylinder walls. Did not know where the water was coming from so I went with another long block. After transferring all parts and running the engine there was a massive amount of water in the oil. That is when I replaced the exhaust manifolds that were 51 years old. Then there was still water in the oil but not as much. Through suggestions here I started looking at the timing chain cover. After taking the outer cover off I could see that water was getting in there because there was a stain on the cover where water was trapped. I did not take tis cover off when I changed the motor this time so I didn't see it. It was sealed good enough to last 5 years but I installed the wrong gasket 6 years ago. Didn't have a lot of sealant around the coolant ports. Made a new gasket and applied with sealer and no more leaks! The gasket set that came with my first replacement and the 2nd did not have all the gaskets needed. Fel Pro does have a gasket set that does have all the gaskets but bot being a professional tech I didn't notice it. Lesson learned. Everything is good now. Ready for some Fall Boating!