Please help,,, 5ltr v8 problems!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fatvsss]

hey guys

ive had my 5ltr vs(150,000ks on the clock) for about 2-3 months and with the previous owner admiting to be NOT mechanicaly minded at all :S

i have never checked the water levels or anything like that i havnt had it serviced yet but i have added more oil... now for some odd reason i felt i better cheak the water anyways i opened the radiator cap and the water was dark brown, my heat levels sit mid range and im not overheating (never has), have i got myself a blown head gasket or does my radiator just need flushing??????????????????????????? PLEASE HELP

[stocky]

flush the radiator, sounds like theres a bit of rust in there. how does it look in the heads if you take the oil cap off? any sludge on the rockers or springs?

[hako]

Like stocky says, flush the block and then replace with proper green coolant. I reckon about 30% of all cars never have the proper coolant added and just run on tap water which is OK for a month or so till the rust starts etc etc.

[Vee-ard]

yeah, being an iron block, all tap water used as coolant is bound to rust eventually.

[= SUPERMAN =]

hey mate, bought a VT 5L a few weeks ago and had the same issues. I was going to flush it, but it was that bad that I just bought a new radiator istead to same me the hustle in the long run. Sometimes flushing it helps, but it gets to a stage where its that rusted inside that its only a matter of time where the coolant/water will look like poo liquid. If you are planning to keep the car for a while, I recommend a new radiator or just flush your current one if you don't want to spend $$$.

[fatvsss]

cheers guys.. thats exactly what i wanted to hear,,, really cbf with changeing the head gasket a

[fatvsss]

flush the radiator, sounds like theres a bit of rust in there. how does it look in the heads if you take the oil cap off? any sludge on the rockers or springs?

nah no sludge just clean new oil

[westbad]

if you had to ask this surely your NOT very mechanically minded your self?

[wildss]

give the guy a break ****.

were you born with a spanner in your hand?

at least he asked the question which is better than what the previous owner would have done

[levymetal]

my car has a coolant leak so i've been topping it up with tap water, at the moment i'm guessing it might be around 30% coolant concentrate vs 70% tap water (but obviously keeps on getting lower as i only top up with tap water). this is probably a stupid question - but is it really bad when it starts to rust? or does it not really matter - just fix the leak and do a good flush when i'm ready? at the moment the coolant looks perfectly fine. i also have an aluminium radiator (which started leaking 3 months after i bought it).

[hako]

One of the problems is that using straight water allows stray electrical currents which are generated by the electric fan on the radiator to pass thru to the aluminium core of the radiator and cause the core to corrode. Thats what they say so maybe there is a bit of truth in it. Myself, if mine was leaking I'd add water for maybe a month or two but I like reliability so I wouldn't push it any further.

[wildss]

levy, just do a mix of coolant and water and keep that handy so when you top it up youre not just adding water.
make sense?

[levymetal]

hako, the 5ltrs have a clutch fan anyway . but yeah probably not a good idea as it's becoming diluted now.

and yeah wildss sounds like a good idea, dunno why i'm so lazy haha.