There should be a law that says no oil jug can be made in the same shape or color as an antifreeze jug.
That way distracted people who grab the jug of antifreeze to top of their trucks radiator won't accidentally dump about half a cup of engine oil in there before they realize they grabbed the wrong jug. ARG!
I'm going to leave it in there, and rationalize it as lubricating my water pump.
Now if only antifreeze still tasted good- you could take a swig and tell right away.
That happened to me one night. I had a car that used more oil and coolant than gas, so I always had one gallon of each in the trunk.
It took me a whole day to flush the cooling system.
foxtrapper wrote: There should be a law that says no oil jug can be made in the same shape or color as an antifreeze jug. That way distracted people who grab the jug of antifreeze to top of their trucks radiator won't accidentally dump about half a cup of engine oil in there before they realize they grabbed the wrong jug. ARG! I'm going to leave it in there, and rationalize it as lubricating my water pump.
Don't leave it in there! I did the exact same thing about a month ago after fixing a small coolant leak. I only got about a tablespoon in before I realized what was going on. I left it in thinking it wouldn't hurt. Checked the coolant again recently and there was a bunch of white grease type stuff (looked like vaseline) on the inside of the rad cap. I assume the oil reacted with the coolant and coated everything with the crap.
old_ wrote:foxtrapper wrote: There should be a law that says no oil jug can be made in the same shape or color as an antifreeze jug. That way distracted people who grab the jug of antifreeze to top of their trucks radiator won't accidentally dump about half a cup of engine oil in there before they realize they grabbed the wrong jug. ARG! I'm going to leave it in there, and rationalize it as lubricating my water pump.Don't leave it in there! I did the exact same thing about a month ago after fixing a small coolant leak. I only got about a tablespoon in before I realized what was going on. I left it in thinking it wouldn't hurt. Checked the coolant again recently and there was a bunch of white grease type stuff (looked like vaseline) on the inside of the rad cap. I assume the oil reacted with the coolant and coated everything with the crap.
Yeah, milkshake is bad juju.... you DEFINITELY don't want it in your oil pan.
I keep my large fluid jugs in two different places in the garage for just this reason.
I'll often read the label, but maybe thats just me...
Helpful, eh?
There should be a law against head boinks. Hang in there, you're doing really well, even with setbacks and minor issues. And at least the windshield survived unscathed this time.
I can't say I've done something just as ignorant, but I use Prestone in the yellow jug so i don't confuse it with oil.
This is why I dislike working on cars.
Everything I do takes way longer than it should because I have to keep double and triple checking things in order to protect myself against my own idiocy.
Of all the bone-headed E36 M3 I've done, I've never pulled this one. Don't take that as a slam. I've done WAY more bone-headed E36 M3 than that! 
spitfirebill wrote: I can't say I've done something just as ignorant, but I use Prestone in the yellow jug so i don't confuse it with oil.
good thing you don't use Pennzoil 
Oh, I figure the white goo will lubricate all the chunky goo in the cap. Saponification, right? It's cold, I'm ignoring it until spring or such.
you didn't notice that the "antifreeze" was dark and poured like syrup?
Autozone puts everything that is there house brand in orange containers. Oil antifreez containers look exactly tge same.
I remember a reading a forum post from someone who'd put a 22oz container of "NOS" brand octane booster in his car and now it was running very badly. The thread went on for a while, then someone pointed out that the "NOS" brand octane booster came in 16 oz containers, but the "NOS" brand energy drink came in 22 oz ones...
In reply to foxtrapper:
Your water pump bearings thank you......
codrus wrote: I remember a reading a forum post from someone who'd put a 22oz container of "NOS" brand octane booster in his car and now it was running very badly. The thread went on for a while, then someone pointed out that the "NOS" brand octane booster came in 16 oz containers, but the "NOS" brand energy drink came in 22 oz ones...
it was a crotch rocket of some sort..
yamaha wrote: In reply to foxtrapper: Your water pump bearings thank you......
No your water pump bearing will never see the oil unless the seal is leaking in that case there's no hope for them any way.
Oil will severely lower the boiling point and worse it leads to hot spots in the system like around the exhaust valve pockets due to the thin layer of oil insulating the metal from the water. Get it out of there quick and be sure to flush with a good cleaner at least twice before a final flush and refill with 50/50 mix. Also the heater will not work as well due to same insulation factor.
wbjones wrote:spitfirebill wrote: I can't say I've done something just as ignorant, but I use Prestone in the yellow jug so i don't confuse it with oil.good thing you don't use Pennzoil
LOL. I quit using Pennzoil long, long ago. But that was when antifreeze came in one gallon metal cans and there were no gallon jugs of oil.
Back in my schoolin' days of package design, the professor brought up the old story of a non-English reader confusing Comet cleaner with parmesan cheese. Not sure how true. But I personally think it's a part of the packaging designer's/company's responsibility to make them distinct.
I was joking about lubricating the water pump.
Oil has a substantially higher boiling point than either water, glycol, or the mixture of water and glycol. Oil is not miscible with either water, glycol, or the mixture of water and glycol, therefore it will not change the properties of them.
Oil has a lower level of heat transfer than water, but it is not an insulator, it is a conductor. It is typically the sole thermal conductor of heat away from the pistons (separate from the transfer of thermal heat to work via motion of the piston). The conductivity and the high boiling temperature is largely why oil is the preferred coolant for ignition coils and power transformers.
Oil will have a deleterious effect on rubber components, such as the hoses. It is just as bad on the inside or a rubber hose as it is on the outside. However, the resulting degradation is not instantaneous or inherently catastrophic. As many a greasy but functional radiator hose has shown.
Forget not, at the most half a cup of oil was introduced into my cooling system. Probably a good bit less. I noticed at the first glug that the color and viscosity was wrong, by the second glug I had tipped the jug back up, at first wondering if this was unmixed glycol (thicker viscosity) or perhaps used (dirty color). Then realizing it was actually oil.
While I agree with the preference of having a clean cooling system and uncontaminated coolant, I am not overly concerned that this engine will self destruct shortly because of the addition of a minor amount of oil. If that truly were the case, a blown head gasket would result in total destruction of engines, and old cars with skanky cooling systems would not be running.
Not at all to be confused with the introduction of ethylene glycol into the crankcase of an engine. That very much can do bad things, particularly to babbitt bearing surfaces.
None the less, on a nice warm day, I do plan on flushing the system. Today, with snow on the ground, a frozen driveway, and other things to do, I will let it go for a while longer.
Oh, so YOU'RE the reason we can't have SuperBlue anymore!
and we get warnings about not drinking paint
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