323 - Oil in radiator
 

Have 1991 323 - 191000 Km; lots of brown goop top of radiator, smells of oil; question: how to determine if fixable versus putting in used motor versus selling 'as is'?

Thanks

191,000 km? 1991!
I'd sell 'er and buy wine!
Wouldn't trust the rest of the car, unless you do a serious makeover with something worthwhile under the hood and make it a sleeper!

I agree with the poster above. What are your intentions with the 323? I believe several DOHC motors will swap into this chassis with little effort.

Could be a neat little car. Any other issues you can see right away? How is the paint and interior?

Thanks
:)

If you have oil in the rad, but no water in the oil you have a fun issue to fix.

It means you have an high pressure oil leak into a low pressure coolant.

The rad cap set the pressure of the coolant system, so max pressure is 13-16 psi, depending on the cap.

Warm oil pressure at idle is about 20 psi, and oil pressure increase with engine RPM to around 50-60psi, depending on oil weight, oil temp, and oil bypass spring rate.

Brown goop on a rad cap can also mean someone tried to do a cheap repair with stop leak, to try to fix a leaky seal, gasket, rad or heater core, or head gasket.

Thanks all for that. Had a mobile mechanic out and he was of the opinion that it was more likely stop leak.

Have another issue - no spark but will post that as new thread.

Thanks a lot for the great information.