So i picked up a 92 SE 5 speed for 800 dollars, it runs great i drove it when i went to pick it up and haul it on a trailor back home. The guy said that the headgasket was starting to go bad and thats why there was oil getting in the water.

My understanding of things was when the head gasket goes bad water gets in the oil, but on this car oil gets in the water. When i got the car home and was taking a look at it the radiator is all messed up in the car, its not sitting straight or up high enough. I am wondering if there is a possibility that it isnt the headgasket. The compression on the cylinders is all normal, and the engine runs better than my 90 GXE did, and it only had 99000, this car has 206000. So any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. Thanks fella's.

 

Can go both ways. I think it's a HG

 

But the car doesnt smoke one bit, and i always thought that smoke was involved with a bad HG.

 

look at a headgasket.
see all those holes?
the space between any of them can crack, break/whatever. that would cause the mixing of fluids.
the only time the smoke will happen is if the coolant leaks into the cylinder which is not always the case.
Do a pressure test on the radiator.

 

You may have a bad head gasket and you may have a bad radiator. One thing for sure is that you are not getting oil in your water because of a bad radiator, as it doesn't have any way to do so. Your radiator may be leaking coolant, but it can't let oil in.

 

The only way the radiator could get water in the oil would be from the transmission cooler. Can you tell if it's engine oil or atf? Otherwise, it's gotta be a head gasket.

duh, my bad, he said 5spd. Blows that theory.