Mud in radiator

[mp470]

Hi all, been a while.

Here's the story.

Last October or so, i decided to flush out the old coolant which kept turning brown.  Put water and vinegar in it, ran for a bit and left for a few days. Flushed that out and filled with fresh coolant.  Drove it to a friend's place an hour away to store for the winter.  Last month, started it back up, didn't check under the cap. Drove it about 200km. Was getting a little toasty at idle  after long drives but that was par for the course.  Got it home, parked it for a week and the following weekend, started to get ready to head out camping. Just on a hunch, checked under the cap and found this.


Everyone i know says head gasket(s).  Oil level appears fine, maybe a bit higher than usual after 200km. Coolant is practically non-existent.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

[Gary Lewis]

Forgetting what you put in it, meaning the vinegar, the fact that the oil is a bit high and the coolant is gone strongly suggests head gasket problems.

The parts stores sell a kit to test the coolant for products of combustion, which get in there via a bad head gasket.  If that shows products of combustion in the coolant then you have head gasket problems.

If not, pull the intake manifold/lower plenum and check the mating surface where it hits the heads.  The manifold is aluminum and the heads being cast iron creates a galvanic action at that point when wet and hot.  So the aluminum gets plated off right there, causing a loss of seal on the gasket.  If it is leaking at the bottom it will go into the valley and into the oil.

If that's the case it may not be the head gaskets.  You could run a leak-down test on the engine to check that out and may not have to pull the heads, although at that point you are pretty close.  Anyway, the leak-down test will usually show up a leak into the cooling system.

[old55pete]

Pull the oil plug after it has been sitting for a while, if there is coolant in the oil it will be the first thing to come out then the oil. if there is coolant in the oil then what Gary said is all true.

Youre signature does not say what you have for a trans, if you have an automatic, I have seen where the cooler in the bottom of the radiator leaking trans fluid into the coolant have the same affect.

[Angelo Voltura]

I have heard of guys using Draino to clear that crap out then flush the whole system good with water.