Need some help- oil in water.

Head gasket or, very unlikely, there's a crack internally in the block at a coolant passage. Lastly, cracked cylinder liner, have a careful look at all the pistons as well as they may give you an idea which liner

 

It’s more common for the oil to get into the water system because oil pressure is higher than the water pressure. I know it sucks to have such issue but it’s better than having the water get into the oil system.

Ferraripilot is right check for those he mentioned.

 

I am by no means an expert here, but for general troubleshooting purposes, would it have been beneficial to run a leak down test prior to pulling the heads to try to pinpoint where the issue was located?

 

This was a common problem with Alfas and had to do with the o-ring seal around oil passages between block and head. The solution was to install roll pins in the passages that prevented the o-rings from collapsing but the Ferrari doesn't have the same set-up. There is already a bushing and no o-rings, just an integral copper seal in the head gasket.

I'm sure your mechanic knows what he's doing, I'd just mention that head gasket failures are not always visually apparent, it may be very subtle. As for oil in water but not vice-versa, the oil pressure is much higher than coolant pressure and it may only be doing it when the engine is cold.

 

Also sometime if the head is warp, this can also make the fluid jump across specially at high temp.

 

now that the engine is out, the factory does have a pressure testing procedure where you plug up the water jackets, fill it with water, apply 100 psi and see where the leak is. That is how you find it.

M