oil in radiator
Yesterday i was doing my general maintainance of the motor when i saw a dark greasey oily substance stuck to the side of my radiator over fill, i checked it out and theres greasy oil inside my radiator. Im starting to think that my heads on the way out is there anything else it could be? ne suggestions ppls
<---Brad Quaid = internet stalker
could be general build up of sludge, might have had some crappy water put in at some stage. Failing it being a screwed head run some radiator cleaner through, as per the instructions on the bottle, put some fresh coolant in and keep an eye on it.
Hopefully its just sludge from teh coolant (very common and can look like oil)
otherwise start thinking about the hard earned cash youll haev to fork out because we love our commodores so much.
The Cream Machine
It could be oil...when i last checked my radiator cuz it ran max temp, hot. Let it cool down and checked inside the radiator...stuff all water, and around the top of my radiator was the creamy oil shit that is all through my engine because of the cracked head. I wouldn't know how it gets there though.
<---Brad Quaid = internet stalker
jules it gets there when the head cracks! it allows oil and coolant to mix, thats how it gets there! make sure when you top up the water (or change it) you bleed the head as well or else youll make sure it screws itself again. check though these threads on how to do this....
16 Mths Suspended Lisence
most probably the head.. is it brown in colour? could be rust.. i had brown sludge that built up at the top of the radiator and on the cap.. DAMN OLD CARZ!!!
I wonder what those scales on the top right side of my posts do...
Last time flushed radiator but didnt flush head, coulda been the problem and the circle work didnt help oops! Hope its not blown head. Bit strapped for cash.
hoon1
check if oil is milky instead of black
just remembered - in old days if a holden had a cracked head then when you reved it with the radiator cap off there were bubles appearing. One car I had used 52 litres of oil (preloved from uncle's semi) in two weeks - had lots of blow by (like exhaust coming from radiator) has cream on the oil cap and inside tappet cover, if trip was more than 5km then would have to stop to refill coolant as well as oil.
A motorbike cop got me when he was parked behind me at the lights, when the lights changed I drove off and I could see lights flashing but the smoke was too thick to see the motorbike itself.
Bought the car from a mate - couldn't work out the steering wobble - later I found he had pumped the tyres to 80psi - had lumps like in cartoon - he said they went flat and so he put extra in them.
The Cream Machine
that's a fair bit extra, what was it like for speed? stuff all friction.
When the engine is cold ,say first thing in the morning take the cap off the top of the motor and have a look to see if there is any milky looking sludge under the cap . If so youve most likely craked the head
CHV006
corrosion in galleries in head allowing oil into water jackets, sorry
Yep, sounds like you have probs. Not rubbing it in, but my VL still has its original head. I have always made sure ALL the air was bled out of the system. It is critical that the VL coolant is kept topped up, otherwise you'll get air pockets in the head, and it'll crack. Being paranoid, and taking the 'no expense spared for the VL' approach, I only use Holden coolant (tested as one of the best), with distilled water. Left in in there for 4 years once, and when I drained it, it was sooooo clean.
Happy VLing.
Donating Member
you have to make sure that you get ALL air out of your cooling system when doing a flushout / drain and refill. because of the low profile on the front of the vl, the radiator is below the head, which can cause air pockets to occur.
if you dont get all air out your bound to crack your head.
Don't stress!
Unless it's like a white milky kind of stuff you don't need to worry. If its a blackish/brownie colour it would just be the pellets that you put in your coolant after you flush the radiator. It's in there to lubricate your water pump. It doesn't look good but it won't hurt anything.
Seen same in my old mazda. The other symptom apart from oil in the radiator was a lot of steam from the exhaust. Turned out to be a head gasket.
My v6 VT has started doing the steam engine trick just last week, running a bit rough at start up and lossing coolant. This is after a couple of strange high temp events for no apparent reason. Have had a leak in the heater core and haven't done anything about it (too hard to get too..bloody car must have been built around it) so that may have caused a slow drop in coolant hence the high temp issue, now the head. Still to check the compression or pop of the heads off to find out if it only the gasket or worse. So will let you know.
Thankfully my VX SS is ok so i'm not off the road.
Heads I can do but the heater core is a real pain.....Has anyone tried raditor stop leak or similar to fix the heater core or do I pay the $1000+ to get someone to fix it.
Mad As A Meataxe
Yes, it would have. Generally speaking, petrol engines don't like diesel oil.Originally Posted by vlrad
The very existance of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to do it.
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