Help! Found water in oil

[JohnB67]

Original repairs completed:

- Vanos repair (Beisan kit)
- Valley pan replacement
- Timing chains and guides replaced
- Head gasket replaced (a bunch of plastic parts fell into intake ports when removing manifold and I was unsuccessful vacuuming them out)

After completing the work, engine ran great for ~3200 miles, then got the p0011 code. Found the timing on bank 1 was indeed off. The p0011 kept coming back and I had to open it up and re-do the timing 3x. Then the p0012 code came up. Finally decided to dig deeper to see what the heck is going on.

1) I removed the bank 1 vanos and found the Teflon seal had failed.
2) I discovered that the Chain tensioner between the intake and exhaust cams had seized up. (I had to clean it with brake cleaner to get it working again)
3) I dropped the oil pan and found oil contamination (pics below)




Final piece of information. I used Autozone’s tool loaner for a reverse torque wrench which was heavily beat up and I was worried was way out of calibration.

I now have a high quality torque wrench and verified that I was under torquing the vanos to the cam.

So here is what I think happened:

1) Coolant leak into the oil contaminated it, that caused the tensioner to get clogged up.
2) The higher friction of contaminated oil caused the Teflon ring to fail, or there were internal cracks (when I used the Beisan press on my vanos with my impact wrench originally) on the plastic parts inside the vanos.
My best guess on the multiple timing issues is the combination of the under torqued bolt and the higher friction of the oil caused the cam to slip slightly.

Uggggh!!!!!!!!!!

I am trying to decide what to do now. There was very little signs of water damage or sludge anywhere. please let me know your suggestions!

[Plattus1000]

1st thing, pat yourself on the back for finding the problems. That usually is the difficult part. I think you nailed it with your theory.

Perhaps you didn't break your car in major ways. Might just be a little thing to do to set it all straight. (I don't know) The pics aren't opening so...

I say sleep on it, let your subconscious work through the problem and see what you think in the am.

[JohnB67]

Thanks for the reply! I have a plan, I’ll update once I know more.

[Poolman]

How did the water get into the oil? That's an indication to me, that a head gasket has given up the ghost. That is the only way , have you tried any tests to confirm ?

[JohnB67]

I finally put it all back together... plan to run it for a week or so before I start testing. With no coolant loss, I’m hoping it was condensation. The amount was very small.