2002 Saturn Vue Oil in the Coolant

[brokenhammer]

In our 2002 Saturn Vue, which we recently purchased, there's oil in the coolant. When the coolant tank's PSI increased too much, excess oily coolant ran out through the pressure relief hose. Can anyone shed some light on the possible causes of this?
The vehicle has about 115,000 miles and is an automatic.
thanks for any help.

[Tom92SCm]

Which motor?

Sounds like a bad head gasket.

[BobbyP]

If it's the GM 3.0L V6 it could be the oil cooler...

[brokenhammer]

The engine is a 3.0 Liter V6 24 Valve.
Is the oil cooler inside the radiator? Can someone tell me how to test to see if in fact it's the oil cooler and not the head gasket?

thanks

[far2grumpy]

The engine is a 3.0 Liter V6 24 Valve.
Is the oil cooler inside the radiator? Can someone tell me how to test to see if in fact it's the oil cooler and not the head gasket?

thanks

One test for blown head gasket - valid for vehicles without pressurized reservoir and perhaps for Saturn with pressure reservoir - is run engine until normal temps are reached and watch for air bubbles entering the reservoir through the radiator overflow tube.

Bubbles are a product of one or more cylinders leaking pressure into the water jacket during the compression stroke. If the head gasket leak (or cracked or warped head) is great enough you can push lots of coolant out of the system in short order.

I don't have a 3.0L engine and can't explain how the oil cooler can cause oil to mix with the coolant.

[ssicarman]

Engine oil cooler. It is located in the V of the engine.

[BobbyP]

http://www.trademotion.com/partlocator/index.cfm?action=getJointLocator&siteid=214643&chapter=&Sectionids=0,2308&groupid=5459&subgroupid=5459&componentid=0&make=31&model=Vue&year=2002&graphicID=ID02095&callout=1&catalogid=2&displayCatalogid=0

This is a common problem with this engine.

[IMkenNY]

Ill 3rd the oil cooler, I just did one in a 2003 3.0 vue.
New oil coolers are now stainless steel :)