96 Windstar 3.8L Coolant in Throttle Body

[tebo77]

I took my throttle body off tonight to clean up (erasing trouble codes) and noticed there is a little coolant in there. I do add coolant, maybe every 6 months, nothing major. Should I try some stop leak?
Also where would this come from? Is it the head gasket? There is no power loss.
Thanks!

[wiswind]

Coolant in the throttle body sounds strange.
The most likely source that I can think of is the PCV line.....I have seen some oil get into the throttle body......so maybe you have a coolant leak into the crankcase (very bad).
I wonder if you saw signs of condensation....which will turn oil a milky color.
Condensation is not uncommon in cold (winter) weather.
Likely leak points would be the lower intake manifold gaskets, front cover (timing cover) gasket, or the metal bypass pipe that passes through the lower intake manifold.

I would suggest that you get your oil tested...... Go to www.blackstone-labs.com for information......instructions, and a free sample kit.

The other possibility would be coolant leaking into the intake manifold after vehicle shutdown....and condensing in the throttle body.
This would likely be from the lower intake manifold gaskets.

Stop leak did work for my front cover gasket......that I caught when it was a very slight seapage..... It did not solve the lower intake manifold gasket leakage, although it did slow it down temporarily.

[tebo77]

I will get the test done. I thought it was strange too. There is no milky color in the oil...I blew a head gasket on a T-bird once and never forgot what that looked like. Nor did this coolant in the throttle body look like the pics I saw when trying to search the forum for this problem. It was just as green as straight out of the container. I sprayed some MAF cleaner into the cap to make sure it wasn't just that, but that was clear so I guess not. I took your advice from my other post and didn't spray anything in to make it smoke, not that there are many green fluids anyway, so it must be coolant.
Probably wouldn't hurt to add some stop leak. Was gonna do the catch can too but can't afford it right now. I will let you know how the test results go!