First, I am GREATLY appreciative of this site. I've started working on my girlfriends 03 Mini and this site has been a huge help to identify problems and solutions.

Yet, I'm in need of some advice dealing with coolant in oil, but no sign of oil in coolant.
The last weekend I replaced, the oil pan gasket, the crank position sensor gasket, oil filter housing to block gasket, dip stick gasket, water pump gasket to fitting and block and did a tune up. I was going to replace the heat exchanger gaskets, but I forgot I purchased those gaskets. I cleaned each item due to various oil leaks. I did install the fuel purge sensor upside down and it flipped a Service Engine light, I picked one of those up and replaced it today.
It runs like a champ! Yet, today the low oil pressure light came on and I started to investigate. The coolant level has dropped and there is now signs of coolant in the oil, yet I cannot find any evidence of oil in the coolant. The car has never been over heated, its hard for me to imagine a head gasket/head issue at this point. I drove the car for 3 days, about 25 miles a day, with no signs of issues.
I'm hoping it is just a bad heat exchanger.
I would be extremely appreciative if someone more familiar with minis to give me another opinion!
I have read a bunch about the subject, but most people have a sign of oil in the coolant, not vice versa.

 

Sounds like a crack in the head as we've seen this before.

Usually when the oil cooler fails you get oil in the coolant.

Sorry for the potential bad news.

 

Thank you! I may start with the cooler just to see, but makes me worry about long term damage. I'm just not sure how the head would have cracked from me changing out all the gaskets!!!!

 

Not familiar with MINIS, just bought my first one. I do have a collection of vintage roadsters, old engines. I would run a compression check to see if you have a low compression or other signs of a blown head gasket on one cylinder.

This is a good article on coolant in oil.

http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/340

another

https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/...rouble-am-i-in

Good Luck

 

Welcome to NAM but sorry to hear about the issue.

Can tell you that Way Motors has been around since 2006. Not only does he sell parts here as a vendor, he also has a full service shop. If I was betting man, I would lean toward what he is telling you.

 

Thank you NolaSafari, Great info!

Whine, I've noticed Way Motors name a bunch, should be getting my new red clip I ordered soon!

I'm tempted to take the head off and have it penetrant inspected at work.

Thank you again for everyone's help!

 

Rcaffey - what have you found?

 

Update!
I pulled the head and replaced it with one that had been rebuilt. I acquired this from a buddy who is part of the local Mini club.
Tear down and reassembly went well.
Upon start up, the rebuilt head was loud as I did not coat it with oil before reassembly, that was my mistake, my have caused extra and damaging wear.
I used a vacuum pump to replace the coolant. Worked well, still burped it, all worked well.
After that we noticed that the fan would not kick on with the AC running, low speed fan out due to common issue, ordered new fan.
Put it into test mode to see the exact temp, noticed that the high speed fan did not come on as well, possible root cause of this issue.
With needing to wait on the new fan, we left the bumper off and drove it 3 miles down the road to our home, as we were at a friends house with a better shop!
Once we got home the OIL LIGHT came ON!!!!
Got very upset and parked the car, noticed a small oil leak and small/medium coolant leak the next day.
Then let the car sit for a few weeks to try to get my head together on what to do next.
Tonight I drained the oil to see if there was any coolant in the oil. The oil was slightly milky but I refilled the oil and ran it up to 112C to see if the high speed fan would kick on. It did work this time(still old fan with no low speed).
No oil light after running for 20 min or so at normal operating temperature.
Drained the oil again, this time it looked a little better then before but still very very slight milky.
The oil does have a very very very shimmer under light, it has metallic dust in the oil on both changes. There were no chips, but like an extra fine dust.
I'm going to put the new fan on this weekend and reassemble everything and drive the hell out of it to see what happens unless convinced otherwise.

 

Oh boy! Metallic particles in oil is not good. They are typically from the bearing shells rapid wear due to oil starvation. There has been folks who trashed their engine recently because of the drain back valve failure inside the oil filter housing. The valve is there to facilitate oil filter change due to the inverted oil filter cup. When the drain back valve fail, it becomes a bypass for the pressurized oil back into the sump, as oppose to deliver to the vital parts of the engine.

Here is an excellent article by Mini Mania on this problem.

I have no idea if your problem is caused by this but better check it out.

 

^^ he's right, i'm one of those people.

NEVER IGNORE THE OIL PRESSURE LIGHT AT IDLE, PEOPLE, IT WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE.

Replacing the filter housing is expensive, but it's MUCH cheaper than replacing a motor.