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Guides and repair information for cars and SUVs manufactured by Kia Motors

Oil in coolant reservior after short track use

Good afternoon

After taking my 2013 Kia Carnival (VQ petrol) to the local track with friends, I pushed it to about 150kph on a 1km straight. When I stopped, I noticed a lot of smoke coming from under the hood.

Looking closer, I found oil had sprayed around the coolant reservoir area. The reservoir itself was about 1/3 full of oil, and the radiator's overflow pipe had come off the overflow valve completely.

I drained the oil from the pan and couldn't see any coolant in it, but when I drained the radiator, there was a little oil mixed in with the coolant. I also found some oil in the air intake manifold near the throttle body.

This model doesn't have an oil cooler (I called Kia for help). The mobile mechanic who looked at it thinks it's probably the head gaskets, but I'm confused - wouldn't a head gasket issue cause coolant to leak into the oil, making it look milky throughout?

The high speed could have created unusual pressure conditions causing a breach where oil and coolant systems interact. but im not sure where to start to find the underlying issues.

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@jacks2000 absolutely can it be the head gasket. It just depends on where it cracked. Other issues can include a cracked head or even a cracked block. Time to do some diagnostics (at least compression test as well as coolant pressure test) and possibly have the head and maybe even the block fluxed to see if you cracked it. You were obviously pushing a lot of oil into your coolant passages so its definitely something major that will require quite a bit of work

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Maybe UV leak dye for engine oil would help identify cracks in the block? Now that assumes it's on the outside - an internal crack wouldn't readily show unless you took the engine apart a bit. 93mph shouldn't have damaged it alone - the engine probably had issues running it hard exposed. You see people push even the risky motors like the 2L Theta II for 70-80+ without them falling apart at long term highway speeds.

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@nick that is why you magnaflux the block ;-). First suspect is a bad head gasket, 2nd cracked head, 3rd cracked block :-)

How many miles were on that engine and what was the overall condition of that?

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@oldturkey03 My guess is heat damage, especially on a street motor that was not built for track use. But at the same time it wasn't beaten on at 100mph+. If OP was running it at 120mph without having a built cooling system, then I'd probably say the speed did it.

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Ill attempt a compression test & UV Dye this week if they're available, its at 130,000km on the engine. The A/C did stop working a week prior but the mechanic was full booked for a couple months and didn't stress that it would be a problem running for the time being.

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@jacks2000 I do agree with your mechanic. There is never any rush to fix an AC based on mechanical reasons. Yes, its uncomfortable but it will not "hurt" your engine. UV dye will only work once you have your engine apart (or at least the cylinder head removed). For now, stick with a compression test and coolant pressure test.

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