Guys, I have a 2000 WS6 in extremely good condition with 160 K miles on her and she is garage kept.
I noticed some oil in the coolent system but, no water in the oil pan.
Plugs look clean.
What gives?

 

I had a very similar issue in my 94 Formula back in 2010. My coolant looked to have oil in it, but there were no other signs of anything being wrong. For me, I decided to do a coolant flush and found that my coolant reservoir had a stupid amount of sludge in the bottom of it. Once I cleaned that out and flushed the system, I never had any more issues. Hopefully it's something simple like that for you.

 

Most likely the factory power steering cooler in the upper radiator hose finally broke and leaked p/s fluid into the coolant.

 

Ding ding ding

 

Do all F-bodies have the power steering cooler? For some reason I thought it was only the 01-02 models.

 

Well, does your car have some weird looking thing in the top radiator hose? If so, you have the infamous F-Body power steering cooler.

 

it was an option in the earlier years and later became standard. Was also standard on certain packages. Example 00 FireHawks have the factory PS cooler.

 

SS's got them. My 2000 SS had it. Yours should.

 

wouldnt this push coolant into the power steering fluid when the engine was shut off?

 

It definitely can, it did on my car. The OP only checked engine oil, he needs to check P/S for contamination also.

 

This is the most likely problem

 

Well, guess what? NO power steering cooler in the upper hose.
SOO now I have to prepare for an engine rebuild.
Any suggestions will be studied as having to puul engine from chassis will offer me the option of a straight rrefit or going the stroker routine to 384 to get a little more ooomph.
I'm in CA so I have to deal with the CARB ***** but there are ways.

 

I'm in California too.
1. Keep it looking stock on the outside except for any CARB exempt mods you may have. A visual inspection is the reason for this.
2. The only other thing checked is plugging into the OBDII port for any codes. You don't want any showing. A tuner can tune out a lot of the things that would do his.

 

Are you sure its just not old Dexcool? That stuff can look slimy and oily after its been in there for 15-20 years

 

I wouldnt be too quick to assume you need a rebuild. You would think you would have a plethora of issues if that was the case. Drain the radiator, run some water through, drain, run some water through, fill with dex. At least thats what I did. Do you have any photos of the coolant? Dex usually looks kind of filmy, and when it gets older it gets worse.. even more so if someone put green coolant in it with the dex.

 

I would certainly look into pressure testing the cooling system before assuming a rebuild or even head gasket is warranted.

 

Take a deep breath, baby steps, easy stuff first. Drain coolant, pull the radiator and water pump, you'll have to anyway for a rebuild, work the problem, eliminate possibilities, dexcool can look pretty shitty when it turns. Compression/leakdown test. Is it overheating, missing, any other "new" noises? Spend a few hours shaking it out, maybe an easy fix. If not, you get to do a rebuild, imagine the possibilities, life is a garden, dig it!!

 

Received new radiator and hoses (old one was found to leak).
No water in engine oil so my mechanic is having a bad week.
I will flush system out this weekend then replace the cooling system components.
I agree with you and think it's bad coolant.
Stay tuned.