Coolant UNDER Oil

[thermitemd]

Hello All! There may already be my answer somewhere around the forum, but in all of my research I figured I may as well attempt to pick some more brains. My mother has a 05 Explorer XLT with a 4.0 SOHC V.6 and she was going to give it to me so that I have a vehicle. Well, it's been chilling out on her lot in the city for about 3 years, and at a Mechanic's shop for another 3 before he shut down. What took it off the road was the 4x4 sense wire had managed to be shredded, so I fixed it and figured it was right as rain. But as I am going over and checking it out as a precaution, I found the forbidden milkshake in the oil pan, but was struck me as odd was it was only on the bottom half of the dipstick, and the top half to the top of the max fill was completely normal oil. I have never seen this before, so I popped off the oil filter and it had coolant in it as well..... but it wasn't milkshaked! I wish I had taken pictures, but this up-coming weekend I did plan on making a trip back out to it so I'll snap some then. Now before this becomes a 4 part novel, does anyone know why this has happened, and if I am staring down the barrel of a full blown head job?

 

[Stynx]

Did you mean to say the engine has not been run in several years? I guess the water based coolant and the oil just separated? If it's been sitting forever I could see that happening when it hasn't been forcibly mixed by the engine running.

 

[thermitemd]

Yes, it had not been ran in several years.

 

[Stynx]

Well if you have coolant in your oil it's either a head gasket or cracked block, so the condition of the oil/coolant mix doesn't point to the heart of the problem. Sounds to me like the oil and water separated over time.