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 shit 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.

[The1]

From what ive seen if it's the trans cooler the dexron oil comes through in the coolant as engine oil coloured brown globs, where as engine oil comes through like a tanny milky coffee color and smooth not globby.

[edals]

Well ill do the gaskets first as theres water on top of the block. I went to holden and got a cost for the gasket, $16, but they also said the end rubber gasket is $52. so im confused do i need 2 gaskets now? thought it was just the one?

[The1]

there's 2 intake manifold gaskets and 2 front and rear seals, you'll also need a tube of blue gasket sealer can get from repo or supercheap to go at either end of the front and rear seals.

[edals]

Cheers mate. would have been good if i just got the 2 gaskets and not the end

[DannyboyDS]

You will need everything to be honest.

It's worth getting them all together, when I did my inlet manifold gasket on the VS I went out and bought, inlet manifold gaskets (Both sides) valley gaskets (front and rear) plenum gaskets, tb gaskets, injectors seals, the works, every seal that could be replaced from the manifold up, I also bought a few cans of degreaser and went to town on everything once it was off the engine.

Make sure you have a tap and die set available as you will need to clean the threads out of everything before putting it back together, that with some high temp silicone and you are all set. oh and get ahold of the tourqe settings and the tightening sequence too.