92ShoOff
SHO Member
I went out to drain the water out of my cooling system last night. The weather is starting to get cold and I need to get some coolant mixed in with my water. Miles and miles ago I had put some nasty crap in the radiator (i think it was beads of something mixed with some thick, dark, silvery stuff that was supposed to stop leaks. I thought I had a radiator leak because I thought I was losing water somewhere. Well that stuff gunked up my cooling system pretty badly. And when I was assembling the new motor every time I rotated it upside down rust would fall out of the coolant passages on the decks of the block. My new block WAS tanked, (I think sand blasted too), cleaned, and painted on the outside but I guess rust in the coolant passages built back up while the block sat for a few months.
So I figured I'd have slightly dirty water in there now, and I was gonna drain the radiator, empty a container of heavy duty radiator cleaner, fill it with new water and run the car for 6 hours over the next few days before putting in some DexCool.
Well the engine was cold (and so was the temperature outside) and I opened the radiator cap and opened the petcock at the bottom of the radiator. Nothing came out. I started up the car and started to get a little drippage from the petcock, so I closed it back up and let the car run for 10-15 minutes. I opened the petcock back up and some black, gritty stuff splashed out followed by a really good flow of what was in my radiator--BROWN water!
It was cold and really dirty at first, then started to come out slightly cleaner and it lost some of the darkness to it. I collected it all in an open container but it's too dark outside and my garage lights aren't bright enough for me to tell what it really looks like. I'd ALMOST say it might be oil! It wasn't really thick, but had a weird smell to it and looked kinda like chocolate milk-- which is just like how the oil in my El Camino looked years ago when I blew a head gasket and coolant mixed with my engine oil in the oil pan.
I dunno if the dark color is from all the rust, sediment, and leftover junk that was previously in the radiator, or if it's where my 2 quarts of oil went to that I lost in the new motor. I checked my dipstick and I don't appear to have water mixed with my oil. So is it possible to have oil in the radiator and not have water in my oil?????? If so, how????
I don't know much about the cooling nor heating systems but I get a kinda weird smell through my dash vents when I turn my heat on. I don't know if that means or tells you all anything but I thought I'd throw that out there. I think the heat smelled like that with the old 3.0 in there too. But I've never in the past had oil in my coolant that I know of, and I'm using the same 3.0 heads that were on the old motor with new 3.2 head gaskets.... only on a 47k mile 3.2 block. I don't know if anything was magnafluxed but I do know my machinist had to shave some aluminum off the bottom of my 3.0 heads because he said they weren't flat. So I dunno if the heads had been overheated prior to me owning the car and this might be the problem now, but like I said I don't remember ever having oil in my coolant. If I recall it was nice and orange from the old DexCool when I drained everything for the motor swap. Any ideas?!!??!
Thanks!,
Andrew
So I figured I'd have slightly dirty water in there now, and I was gonna drain the radiator, empty a container of heavy duty radiator cleaner, fill it with new water and run the car for 6 hours over the next few days before putting in some DexCool.
Well the engine was cold (and so was the temperature outside) and I opened the radiator cap and opened the petcock at the bottom of the radiator. Nothing came out. I started up the car and started to get a little drippage from the petcock, so I closed it back up and let the car run for 10-15 minutes. I opened the petcock back up and some black, gritty stuff splashed out followed by a really good flow of what was in my radiator--BROWN water!
It was cold and really dirty at first, then started to come out slightly cleaner and it lost some of the darkness to it. I collected it all in an open container but it's too dark outside and my garage lights aren't bright enough for me to tell what it really looks like. I'd ALMOST say it might be oil! It wasn't really thick, but had a weird smell to it and looked kinda like chocolate milk-- which is just like how the oil in my El Camino looked years ago when I blew a head gasket and coolant mixed with my engine oil in the oil pan.
I dunno if the dark color is from all the rust, sediment, and leftover junk that was previously in the radiator, or if it's where my 2 quarts of oil went to that I lost in the new motor. I checked my dipstick and I don't appear to have water mixed with my oil. So is it possible to have oil in the radiator and not have water in my oil?????? If so, how????
I don't know much about the cooling nor heating systems but I get a kinda weird smell through my dash vents when I turn my heat on. I don't know if that means or tells you all anything but I thought I'd throw that out there. I think the heat smelled like that with the old 3.0 in there too. But I've never in the past had oil in my coolant that I know of, and I'm using the same 3.0 heads that were on the old motor with new 3.2 head gaskets.... only on a 47k mile 3.2 block. I don't know if anything was magnafluxed but I do know my machinist had to shave some aluminum off the bottom of my 3.0 heads because he said they weren't flat. So I dunno if the heads had been overheated prior to me owning the car and this might be the problem now, but like I said I don't remember ever having oil in my coolant. If I recall it was nice and orange from the old DexCool when I drained everything for the motor swap. Any ideas?!!??!
Thanks!,
Andrew
