Antifreeze in oil, blown head gasket or oil cooler?

my oil..this was from my first oil change on this vehicle and honestly on any vehicle in a while.

I think I mistook the slightly brown shade as coolant/oil mixture..

 

I've seen mixed coolant and oil, it's a nasty milky brown, not like that at all. Very distinctive.

You just have dirty oil.

 

Looks pretty good to me.

Yeah, and more opaque to boot.

 

Agree - oil and coolant mix forms a milky emulsion.

 

Sooooo....I got hit by the car gods in a wierd way.

The truck overheated again after I replaced the radiator. Shortly after I pulled the oil stick and it was definitely the mixture we hate to see...

I should have took a picture but I was definitely heart broken.

I took it to a family friend mechanic. Turned out it was not the head gasket but a head bolt had cracked. I wish he would have stopped his work there and just replaced the bolt but he opened the heads, replaced the gasket etc..

Now its back together, but the engine sounds crazy like the valve timing is off. I dont have the actual engine code, I will be taking it back tomorrow. First I will be removing the ignition interlock I have on it since it is a pain for any mechanic to work on it/start it.

Ill keep you all updated.

Side story.
Now I'm driving around my parents old acura rdx. The car was not in good condition. It had not been driven in a while and the battery wouldnt even turn anything on. I got the battery charged up and got it running but found a whole list of issues.
First the car died on me at a stoplight. Luckily it was around the corner from my house, my friend came and jumped me but the car dies as I turn down my street just a few blocks away from home. Turns out the alternator took a crap.
Got that fixed hoping it would fix the mis-firing when idling. Turns out all that needed was an oil-change.
And the car made crazy noises when I was driving/stopping. I pulled up to a friends party and a mechanic there told me I needed new rear brakes. Took it to him for a new set of rotors and pads and now the noises are gone. Now the car is running great and the only known issues are a loose heatshield, and the A/C is not working.

 

Well, not that its a fair trade....

But now you know what oil in coolant actually looks like.

 

What the heck is a cracked head bolt? I've known bolts to seize and bolts to break, I've seen bolts in iron keels that you wouldn't believe and bolts that have stretched but cracked?

 

This was my question as well? Snapped head bolt, maybe? It'd let water/oil mix some, but as long as nothing got thrown and no excess water compressed, I don't see the problem in pulling things, swapping the head gasket(s), and going about the day...

 

Yup. Or at least ordinarily yup because I’m going to hazard a guess that these things have got interference heads and OP’s ‘engine sounds crazy, like timing off’ is not a good omen!

 

* We Brits do use the term ‘cracked the bolts’ meaning to loosen them but the context here doesn’t make sense for that.

 

Yeah, I've got to admit, I have no idea what the OP means by cracked bolt either.

 

?broken head bolt?

 

I don't understand guys. If OP said the head bolt was "fucked", you'd probably know what he meant. Apparently the head bolt is no good. It's broken. It's beyond its service life.

The head bolt is bad.

 

Yeah, I hadn't meant for my post to turn it into a microscopic analysis of a fubared bolt.

 

Thank god you’re here to clear that up! I haven’t been able to sleep or eat since OP mentioned it.

 

It's generally a good idea to replace all head bolts when you remove the heads for any work. Also make sure there isn't any coolant in the block bolt holes, otherwise you might have more bolt issues.