Oil in the coolant

[britinusa]

I screwed up. After completing an oil change I checked the belt tension and the coolant level. It was a little low so I decided to add some.

I pulled the yellow jug of what I thought was coolant - didn't check - it wasn't - it was engine oil.

As I began to pour the liquid into the funnel, I immediately realized it was not coolant  I had probably poured about a 1/4 cup of the oil into the coolant tank.

Grrrrrr.

I used a paper towel to mop out the oil from the surface of the coolant.

I did not start the engine!!

So, how bad did I screw up and what suggestions for dealing with it.

BTW we've owned the boat 8 years and only had to add coolant a couple of times, once after servicing the heat exchanger, never any issues. I don't know how to drain the coolant.

I'm guessing the oil will float to the top of the coolant. Perhaps just filling the coolant reservoir with fresh coolant, the oil would float to the top and I could soak it up with paper towel.

Holding my breath.

TIA

Paul

[KeelsonGraham]

Well, on the bright side it's not as bad as putting coolant in the oil system. Personally, I would overfill with coolant and try to flood out/dilute the oil. Draining probably wouldn't do a lot of good.

[Ron Hill]

Paul : The oil should go to the top of the coolant.  I'd suck off "coolant" from the top until you can see just coolant.  You then should be OK!!
Label your bottles and "read the labels before pouring"!!


A few thoughts

[britinusa]

Thanks Guys.

BTW, just being able to share this issue with the world made it a lot less stressful.

Perhaps just filling the tank and letting it overflow through the discharge port ( name??? ) on the port side of the coolant fill point.

If I put a different hose on that overflow tube and lead that into a jar, then I should be able capture 100% of the liquid and then able to see when it's running clear.

Paul

[KWKloeber]

Perhaps just filling the tank and letting it overflow through the discharge port ( name??? ) on the port side of the coolant fill point.

Paul you are talking about the overflow (to the coolant reservoir if one is installed) that is on the neck of the coolant fill ("radiator cap".)   I would probably suck out whatever I could with a turkey baster, possibly with the end cut off to enlarge the sucker hole.    What you want to do is disturb the oil layer as little as possible and I would not "flood" (overflow) the coolant reservoir (exhaust manifold) because then oil can stick to the inside top of it.  Like fill it just enough to be able to suck out some oil and then keep repeating.

A BETTER WAY would be to remove the short coolant hose running from the thermostat to the exhaust manifold and let the water/oil float out that side hole.  Using that hose (cleaned afterward) or sacrificial clear vinyl tubing direct it to a container so (possibly??) you can gauge how much you have recovered.  Fill using vinyl tubing on a funnel (to fill from the bottom up and disturb the oil layer as little as possible.)

You could use a more exotic way of filling with water/coolant from the bottom up (probably overkill) by a hand pump into the coolant drain petcock on the stbd side of the engine (it has a barbed end so a hose could be clamped on it.) Water pumped into the block that way would find its way to the coolant reservoir via the coolant pump, Hx, and hose to the reservoir so it would be a slower fill, but slow is good in this case.

It's a game-day call, but if it's been a long time since a flush of everything and new coolant/distilled water, that certainly wouldn't hurt before you run the engine.

[britinusa]

Thanks Ken.

I'll check out those options. Always value your input.

Paul

[Jim Hardesty]

BTW we've owned the boat 8 years and only had to add coolant a couple of times, once after servicing the heat exchanger, never any issues. I don't know how to drain the coolant.

About time for a coolant flush and change.  Try to get out as much oil as possible then run it rest of season.  Then think about the flush and change.  That's what I'd do.
Jim

[britinusa]

Thanks Jim,

agreed, it's time.

Paul

[Ron Hill]

Paul : One of the additives in Prestone (beside rust inhibitor) is "Water Pump Lubricant".  So if you haven't changed it in 8 years - it's time to do it.  Every couple of years instead of just adding more Prestone to top it off I add "Water pump Lubricant" .  You can get a small bottle of it at any auto parts store!!

A thought

[britinusa]

Did not know that Ron!

Thanks.

[KWKloeber]

"Water pump Lubricant" .... at any auto parts store!!

Thanks Ron. Who would have known!! 
Besides the lube is there an additive to renew other, say anti corrosion aspects?

[britinusa]

Result!

Ok, went down to the boat, added Anti-Freeze via a funnel inserted into the Coolant fill port. The oil floated to the top and drained out of the overflow and into a capture jug. I spent about 15 minutes adding AF very slowly so that the surface of the oil could drain down the overflow tube.

When done, there was not even a consistent oil surface and it was obvious, looking at the overflow container, that about a 1/4 - 1/2 cup of oil was removed, it floated to the top of the container and measured about 1/8" inch thick. So I consider this a success.

Thanks everyone.  I'll be doing a full coolant flush in the next few weeks.

Paul

[Noah]

Nice bullet dodging!