I picked up a '96 F3 a couple weeks ago as track bike project, it was advertised as "runs excellent" well it wouldn't even start when I went to look at it. Started going through it yesterday and discovered milky white oil in the case, only about two quarts came out. I took the drain bolt out of the water pump and what little amount of water that did come out was clear and clean. I'm guessing this means a blown head gasket? Since the water out of the rad was clean it wouldn't be oil cooler related, any chance it would be seals in the water pump?

 

Most likely the o rings that seal the cooler to the engine. Pretty common thing to happen.

 

That would be great, assuming that's much easier than a head gasket. I'll give that a shot and see what it does. I also have the clean the carbs, 3 out of 4 looked like this.

 

The cooler rings are pretty simple. The only thing is that usually they mix oil into the coolant there due to the oil pressure being higher than the coolant pressure. Now the water pump seal is the other way around. The coolant pressure is higher than the oil pressure there...

 

Thanks for helping me out Demon, I appreciate it!

I'll take a look at both when I get home today. Since the water that came out of the water pump drain bolt was clear my assumption was the oil cooler seals weren't at fault, and it was either head gasket or water pump seals. I don't mind changing seals on both the oil cooler and the water pump as this is my winter project and I enjoy the work. Quick question on what I need to order as I'm still waiting for my service manual to arrive.

For the oil cooler am I just looking to replace item #12 and #35?



And for the water pump, item #5 and #15?

 

The oil cooler gets just 36. There should be 2 of them, and are just o rings that can be matched up at any decent auto parts store for a few cents each. That's where the oil and coolant cross. The others would leak externally.

For the water pump, replace it. The internal seals are not replaceable. Usually coolant will get to the weep hole before it gets to the crankcase, but not always.

You should be able to pressure check the cooling system to see where it comes out, or at least hear air in the area it's leaking.

 

A check of the dipstick probably would have revealed the issue before purchase...but yeah, oil cooler leaking is hopefully the root issue.

 

Ok, stupid questions time.

I took the right side crankcase cover off, does that need to go back on before doing the pressure test? I would assume not but wasn't sure.

So when i pressurize the system and it drops pressure, if I don't see a leak what would that tell me exactly? If the coolant is leaking into the engine I wouldn't expect to see a leak. Just thinking out loud here

And yes a check of the dipstick would've alerted me since it was bone dry when I pulled it, and the oil pan drain bolt was un threaded halfway... I only paid $400 so I'm not upset about it, can always part out.

 

The cover can be off, probably better that it is. Leave the system empty when you pump it up so you can hopefully hear air somewhere.

 

So I borrowed a pressure tester, hooked it up with the system dry and couldn’t get any pressure to build. Then I decided to pour some water in the radiator, put about a half gallon in and before I could get the whole half gallon poured in water started running out of the oil pan drain bolt. Not a trickle either, I could see the water sitting in the oil pan, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Obviously this amount of water at such a quick rate indicates a big leak. I ordered a used water pump off eBay so I’ll try again when that arrives. Would a bad water pump or even a blown head gasket let water into the engine that quickly? I hate to think there’s more catastrophic damage in there...