Ok people I am hoping someone here can give me some direction. I have an EF Futura which recently has been loosing coolant at a rate of about 1.5 litres a day. Also the coolant resevoir has a coating/amount of some sort of oil in it. It's a brown/green sort of colour.
Now there are no obvious coolant leaks so immediately I thought head gasket.I checked the engine oil for milky appearance but the engine oil is fine. So my guess was that the gasket has broken allowing oil from the oil gallery to blow past into the water gallery..hence the oil in the resevoir. But where is all my water going to if this is the case? Also I dont know if its a sign of anything but the coolant resevoir is always under pressure...like even after sitting over night. Im preparing to do the head gasket myself but dont want to go to all that effort if it could be a worn transmission coolant line in the radiator or something???
Any ideas?

if ur loosing water, then its either down the exhaust side of the block or its being burnt in the cylinder. is ur exhaust moist? does ur motor run rough?

Also theres a heater pipe that runs behind the motor which can spring leaks. Apparently the whole motor has to come out to get to it.

do you have a lot of white smoke coming out of your exhaust?

Thanks for the replies fellas. Well I decided it was the head gasket and have started the journey to replace it! What a job but I should be able to do it myself for like 200 bux so its all sweet! Have all manifolds etc off now just trying to get these bloody head bolts loose! How fkn tight are they! Just a quick question...is the au headgasket the same 40nm +90 degrees torque? Cheers boys!

Not sure on the tensions but when you undo the head bolts use a hex socket not a 12 point and if you can get access to a rattle gun your job is gunna be a lot easier. I tried it with a breaker bar...end result was a night in Flinders Medical centre having my ring finger put back together . Also for the sake of the extra cost put new head bolts in it as the old ones are torque to yeild.
One more piece of advice: While you've got the head off replace all your heater hoses cos they are real easy to do without the head on but a pain in the a*** with the head in place .
Good luck mate.

Yeh Ive got a single hex impact socket but no air comp or rattle! So looks like ill be using a breaker bar along with a nice cheater bar! Fingers crossed no bolts snap! Yeh I am replacing the old head bolts with AU bolts. Was already considering replacing as much as I can while there is room in the engine, because I know what you mean about lack of space!
Probably throw a new air-con compressor in while im there....heater hoses are a good idea though.
thanx mate

Another tip is to go thru and belt each head bolt (carefully) on top. This can help the more stubborn ones to come loose. Last tip: wear gloves

take care with the head bolts, they can be a b**ch