sludge in overflow tank?

[wishgst]

so couple days ago i opened my overflow tank and noticed that it was a brown gooey sludge inside? i flushed the radiator and rinsed out the overflow real good. ( due to laziness and lack of time i didnt flush the block ) I rubbed my fingers where the upper radiator hose attaches to the motor and the coolant was clear. also did the same where the lower radiator hose attaches and same results. thought the block was clean so i put some new coolant in. yesterday i get home from work and found out i had a hole in my upper radiator hose and theres the sludgy coolant leaking out. jus put in a new hose/clamps and im going to be flushing out the block and radiator again later today. jus kinda wonderin what could be causing this?

 

[steve]

Oil in the coolant?

 

[evolixsurf]

99.9% sure that you have mixed multiple types of coolant that are not suposed to be mixed with each other.

What I personally would do is remove the lower radiator hose and drain all coolant. once that is done leave the lower hose off and run the engine with the heat on full blast. You must run the garden hose into your coolant overflow tank and let the engine suck in that water. I would run the car/garden hose until you see everything coming out clear. Then, only use one type of coolant from now on.

Good luck, I believe thats the easiest way to flush the block.

 

[Freerevving]

probably oil in the coolant... possibly your headgasket but it could be a number of things including your oil cooler

I've seen incompatible coolant mixed and the result was little globs of black burnt glue... of course it's possible it was brown and gooey before turning black... but if the goo looks tan-brown, I'd say it's oil

 

[twack]

I gt the same tan sludge in my can as well but i know for a fact that the coolant and oil have not mixed and they are both clean. I dont get it but i cant find a problem or a reason so i left it alone

 

[Erok]

ive seen mold in overflow tanks, but also black sludge in engines due to using stop leak, its a coolant additive to clog up leaks in the system and ive seen it in overflow tanks and it looks like brown glue, flush and pressure test it, they also have prestone cleaners to add when flushing that will clean out almost anything, but if that anything (cerrosion) is holding your radiator together you can find small leaks after the flush. flush it before you even post anything, should be common knowledge.

 

[steve]

I gt the same tan sludge in my can as well but i know for a fact that the coolant and oil have not mixed and they are both clean. I dont get it but i cant find a problem or a reason so i left it alone

Tan sludge is aluminum and crap that settles out over time. Brown gooey stuff sounds more like some oil in the coolant but now that evolixsurf mentions it, it could be somebody stuck dexcool in not knowing they call it deathcool because of what it does when mixed or exposed to oxygen.

 

[wishgst]

almost positive its not mixing different kinds of coolant..could be oil mixing but idk how thatd happen... anyways didnt have time today to do a flush today because puttin on all new rotors and pads but tommorow i will deff flush out the system. will update tommorow after the flush thanks for the feedback

will also use somethin to clear out any kind of erosion during the flush ...any suggestions for that?

evolixsurf. step by step is appreciated alot. will do exactly that tommorow

 

[spyderturbo007]

This happened to me when my bonehead mechanic decided to tighten my oil filter with a 9' breaker bar. It ended up crushing the inner walls of the oil cooler and the oil wound up in the coolant.

Take off the radiator cap and squeeze the upper coolant line until the coolant reaches the neck of the fill hole, when it's cold of course. I bet you'll find droplets of oil that come to the surface.

 

[1stGenTSi]

99.9% sure that you have mixed multiple types of coolant that are not suposed to be mixed with each other.

What I personally would do is remove the lower radiator hose and drain all coolant. once that is done leave the lower hose off and run the engine with the heat on full blast. You must run the garden hose into your coolant overflow tank and let the engine suck in that water. I would run the car/garden hose until you see everything coming out clear. Then, only use one type of coolant from now on.

Good luck, I believe thats the easiest way to flush the block.

I wouldn't follow these directions. If you do it this way you will be running your motor with no water. Filling the overflow tank is not going to let the motor suck it in. Even if you stuck the garden hose in the radiator cap it will immediately pour out the lower radiator hose without going in the motor. Buy a bottle of flush and follow the directions.

 

[Supa Dexta]

Engine is fine to start without coolant for a short while, but not really much use.... Just use a garden hose to wash out everything, pipes, rad, heater core.. etc.

 

[jared]

I had that happen to a Jeep Grand Cherokee, it was a leaky head gasket. Coolant and oil were mixing together. Sludge the motor up and had to replace it

 

[wishgst]

again didnt have time today to flush the system but i am going tommorow after work to buy a bottle of "flush" and follow what it says. hoping i dont have to replace a head gasket but if i have to i have to. also kinda off topic on my own thread but i finished my brakes today (new rotors and pads all around, first time doing brakes on the car since i bought it, owned for about a month). anyways put everythin in and test drove and the rears make some "wooshes" when goin round corners. i heard i jus have to let the ebrakes set themselves inside the rotors? your input?

 

[Daaan]

Man the EXACT same thing happend to my buick regal (dont make fun). It literally looked like diarea and it happend to be the line that runs from the tranny inside the rad (cooling line) Long story short i changed the coolant about 10 times and finally bought a used rad from the junkyard. swapped the rad and problem never happed again. Im dam sure it has to do with a line leaking into the rad.

I know tranny fluid should make it pink. and it had a mixture of pink and brown matter. So possibly tranny and oil lines leaked into my rad.

it could possibly be something else on your car, but that is how i fixed the brown SH** from flowing through my coolant system.

 

[Freerevving]

still sound to me like oil in your coolant....


pentosin/dexacool problems usually come out black... and no amount of flush will help it... you would need solvent

 

[wishgst]

blah i hate it. and funny thing is it doesn't seem to hurt the car at all? ive been keeping a verrry close eye on the temp and its actually a lil lower than it used to be? if i wasn't sucha neatfreak i'd say #### it but i do enjoy openin that overflow and seeing nice clear NONSLUDGY coolant. i will figure it out. as for daaans comment the radiator is prettymuch brand new, maybe has 5k on it max. better not be an F'ed up line in the radiator..

 

[Freerevving]

when I have a problem I look at what was messed with last...

 

[rich3389]

Man the EXACT same thing happend to my buick regal (dont make fun). It literally looked like diarea and it happend to be the line that runs from the tranny inside the rad (cooling line) Long story short i changed the coolant about 10 times and finally bought a used rad from the junkyard. swapped the rad and problem never happed again. Im dam sure it has to do with a line leaking into the rad.

I know tranny fluid should make it pink. and it had a mixture of pink and brown matter. So possibly tranny and oil lines leaked into my rad.

it could possibly be something else on your car, but that is how i fixed the brown SH** from flowing through my coolant system.

This is not the case, turbo DSM's with an a/t have a separate trans cooler that is not in the rad.

 

[Daaan]

Yes, but i was saying that it could be an oil line. im just saying everyone told me it was oil from my HG.. it wasnt.

 

[wishgst]

finally found the time to flush out ALL the coolant in the system today. unhooked a heater hose and the lower rad hose along with the petcock and let the garden hose do the work. definently saw alot of the "sludge" comeout of the rad hose so im hopin wherever there was a clog or something in the heater core or block i got it all out. will update again in the next couple days to see how the coolant looks

 

[Colt4G63 also]

Dude I've been repairing cars professionally for 20 years and it's either the head gasket, or that oil cooler that your oil filter mounts to.
Don't keep driving it like that; I looked at a guys 525i today with a bad head gasket that he let some crackhead change the water pump on and he still can't figure out where all the coolant keeps going. I listened to it and told him where it had been going, to work on his lifters and crank bearings that's where.

He didn't like my estimate so he went back to the crackheads. They told him that horrible clatter was the injectors, and that they wanted to flush it and have him drive it more to make sure. He made it 2.5 more miles.

 

[wishgst]

Dude I've been repairing cars professionally for 20 years and it's either the head gasket, or that oil cooler that your oil filter mounts to.
Don't keep driving it like that; I looked at a guys 525i today with a bad head gasket that he let some crackhead change the water pump on and he still can't figure out where all the coolant keeps going. I listened to it and told him where it had been going, to work on his lifters and crank bearings that's where.

He didn't like my estimate so he went back to the crackheads. They told him that horrible clatter was the injectors, and that they wanted to flush it and have him drive it more to make sure. He made it 2.5 more miles.

ya i think your right. checked the coolant again today and its back to sludge already.. well what do u think its more likely to be? the oil cooler or headgasket? i have noticed my oil cooler has some dents in it lookin underneath.. i'll probably change that first and flush the coolant again and see where i'm at

 

[Colt4G63 also]

If it's dented it's probaly shot. There are ways to pressure test that. Just don't put the 160 psi air hose on it, or you might make a gernade.

 

[wishgst]

ive heard from my local race forum that its most likely the head gasket. first i figured im gonna bars leak headgasket sealer and see how that works out.. that doesnt work ill change the HG and so on

 

[Colt4G63 also]

It probably wouldn't cost you anything to take the oil cooler that is dented and made of thin metal and flows coolant and engine oil together in a small can directly behind the oil filter to cool the oil, and cap off the openings and pressurize it with a bike pump or whatever you have. But you could try the more expensive option first. Good luck!