Blown Gasket?

[edals]

Hey All

Worried that the head gasket has gone in the VR.

Wondering as the Oil is nice and clean. But the Coolant has sludge in it.
Car Runs perfectly, always starts, no steam and no loss of power.

Any help would be great.

 

[5ltvsstaty]

G'day auto or manual could be the trans cooler in the rad leaking if it is an auto

 

[edals]

Its a auto. Dont think its that as i found water around the inlet gasket. So very much think its that.

 

[deanos70]

when you say sludge what colour is it
is it the usual brown rusty colour that gets in radiators
or is it a black or reddish colour

 

[edals]

Its brown like coffee, its not much just stuck to the sides and a layer of it at the top in the radiator and in the reserve bottle. and coolant level drops every few months

 

[deanos70]

i'd probably start by doing a radiator flush with some wynns or nulon radiator flush
and replace your coolant and see what it looks like after that

the overflow bottles are pretty common to get brown stuff stuck to the inside of them

 

[edals]

I Have flush it about 13k ago as well as washing the bottle, Maybe i did a **** job on flushing it lol. I can see water around the top of the block so im guessing i will replace anyway, not to much of a hard job by the looks. then replace the coolant again.

 

[The1]

it's usually the intake manifold gaskets, some oil gets sucked in when the pressure in the cooling system goes down.

 

[edals]

Yeah there my thoughts. I know its not the Head gasket cause it runs to bloody smooth, 750kms to a tank, no milky oil etc etc. Look like just remote air intake, leads, drain radiator, alternator, injector wiring. No much else i dont think is there?

 

[Johnny_V]

Going through a similar thing at the moment. Difference is I've been through 3 radiators in 2 years. No sign of oil in the coolant until recently but in hindsight, a slight leak in the head gasket has been pressurising the cooling system. Engine runs smooth, cool, nothing in the oil, compression test was good, everything is normal except it keeps dumping coolant and now there is the tell tale brown froth in the coolant.

Time for a new engine. Ran some stop leak stuff in it to buy some time.