Coolant leak & mixing with oil

[cre]

I was responding primarily to statement:

Originally Posted by nick124

After further review, it is still likely that the HG failed, but after discovering where exactly the leak is, I think that after the leak is fixed, I will be good to go. I'll explain further...

When the HG goes, as I'm sure you all know, the coolant will mix with the oil (current problem with my car), but the oil will also mix with the coolant causing the overflow cap to pop off and various other signs of oil mixed in with the coolant stream. This is not the case with my car. There are no chunks of oil in the rad or overflow or any other signs of oil.

It came off to me as saying that it doesn't matter that the HG is probably leaking and that after fixing the external leak you've found you're just going to be done with it and hope that fixes everything. From what the picture I've got in my head of what's going on that's just not going to happen and you're just going to end up paying for the labor of removing some of that stuff twice when you have the shop replace the HG next.

There is no way for coolant to enter the oil system and make the oil look like pudding that isn't internal and isn't bad. It's been a while since I've had one apart but I'm pretty sure that none of the water pump fasteners run all the way into the oil galley. So if the oil in the pan is getting contaminated you've still got a bigger problem than just the missing bolts. Drain the oil and look for water/coolant separating or see if it looks like chocolate pudding. I don't know if you're understanding this, being hopeful or if it's just a little more confusion and miscommunication on all our parts but I'm repeating it the one last time. I'm just trying to make sure you have all the info you need to make a good educated diagnosis. Please don't think I'm trying to be rude.