Hey guys,

I love my jeep and want to fix it badly. Heres whats going on. I have discovered oil in my coolant. Jeep runs awsome still. oil is clean and looks new. Coolant is coffee milk colored like the headgasket went. my buddy said i may get lucky that the radiator may cool the tranny oil and that the rad may be bad.

does the rad sound likely or is more like the headgasket is gone. Either way i think its repairable i just wanted to go in the right way rather then guess.

also my other mechanic buddy said the piston rings go bad shortly after a headgasket faliure. would i be better off just throwing a scrap engine in the jeep...????

Did you check your trans fluid and see if there's any coolant in it? I assume you have an auto.

Did you check your trans fluid and see if there's any coolant in it? I assume you have an auto.

no i have a 5 speed does that mean no tranny cooler?

Yes, that means you have no tranny cooler. So the oil must be from the crankcase. Have you recently overheated it?

Yes, that means you have no tranny cooler. So the oil must be from the crankcase. Have you recently overheated it?

no everything was running awsome and i went to change the oil and found that mess.

You could have had the head gasket fail, just due to shear age! Have some one pressure test the coolant system. This will give you a difinative answer to the problem. If it turns out to be the Head gasket, then I recommend doing a little more work and lapping the valves and installing new valve seals. I did this on my 89 w/ 150K and it runs great! Much better accel and power. Also use the heavy duty head gasket from Napa. A little more $$ but worth it, being that overheat is the XJ's number one problem.