I just finished my engine swap b/c the old one finally died. Anyways, get it up and running only to see oil in my coolant overflow. Bad news. Coolant in the oil as well. white smoke out the exhaust. Problems. I'm guessing that I may have installed the MLS upside down but I can't imagine it making that much of a difference since it's pretty much symmetrical. From searching here though it appears it may matter. I've read (only once) that the letters/numbers should be facing up. Can anyone verify this AND take a look at the pic below. I don't see letters or numbers, so maybe it is upside down.

BTW, the car has only run for ~3miles and maybe 10 minutes. The mixing of the fluids is so bad though I have to tear it down now. I barely had any oil left b/c it had all gone into the coolant. Any other ideas, suggestions?

TIA for any help you can provide. I'm sick of working on this thing at the moment.

From what I can tell it looks like you have it upside down and 180 degrees off.

I'm not sure about the lettering. But you have to make sure that the oil feed holes have a passage to go through the HG. The oil feed holes are next to head studs 7 and 4. I hope this helps.

Originally posted by mkerley
I just finished my engine swap b/c the old one finally died. Anyways, get it up and running only to see oil in my coolant overflow. Bad news. Coolant in the oil as well. white smoke out the exhaust. Problems. I'm guessing that I may have installed the MLS upside down but I can't imagine it making that much of a difference since it's pretty much symmetrical. From searching here though it appears it may matter. I've read (only once) that the letters/numbers should be facing up. Can anyone verify this AND take a look at the pic below. I don't see letters or numbers, so maybe it is upside down. BTW, the car has only run for ~3miles and maybe 10 minutes. The mixing of the fluids is so bad though I have to tear it down now. I barely had any oil left b/c it had all gone into the coolant. Any other ideas, suggestions? TIA for any help you can provide. I'm sick of working on this thing at the moment.

You most definetly have the gasket on upside down, you see the tiny oil hole on the gasket next to the left hand corner bolt hole on the front of the motor?

It should be at the back of the motor, on the side opposite the starter and yes unfortunetly it does mix oil and water in a major way.
You could change the rod and main bearings and leave the rest alone if you drove it that little.

Is it necessary to change the bearings? Are they already shot just b/c of that? I'd have to pull the whole stupid thing for that again. I'm trying to avoid that if at all possible b/c I have to have it running. However if it has to be done, I'll do it.

Thanks.

the bearings should be good. aslong as you dont run the car anymore. prolly want to pull the pan, and make sure all the coolant is out from down there. def instaled the oil feed hole on the oposite side, so hopfully you got oil to the head, somehow. time to pull the head.

Cool.. I was hoping to hear that. One last question then. I've read several things on how to change the HG while the engine is in the car. I didn't put the T belt cover on at all (neither piece is on the car), so I shouldn't have to remove the side engine mount bracket or PS pump bracket, right? I think I can just remove the UDP and the T belt tensioner and then remove the belt from the cam gears and pull the head (after all the associated wires, wirelooms, and other random bolts and just are removed), correct?

Thanks.

The bearings will be fine.

The headgasket in the picture is on upside-down. Easiest way to tell is by looking at the coolant ports in the gasket in relation to the waterpump - the smallest holes will be closest to the waterpump, the largest holes furthest away.