Creamy mustard-like coolant

[Pickled]

Hey, I just purchased a new car, it's a series II VS Calais with a fair bit of Ks on the clock, decided to check out the coolant after I picked it up (doh ) and it's thick, oily and creamy with some green coolant. First thing that came to mind was blown/cracked head? The car does not overheat and the engine oil looks fine, has anyone had a similar situation?

Any help is appreciated, cheers.

[seq4x4]

Does sound like the head gaskets, oil getting into water does that. Make sure the heads arnt warped too.

[Pickled]

Does sound like the head gaskets, oil getting into water does that. Make sure the heads arnt warped too.

Shouldn't the oil in the engine by the same if it's the head gaskets?

[RoboticCherry-Coke]

Could also be the intake manifold gasket, had that go on my calais not that long ago. However the coolant situation doesn't sound like it was as bad as yours.

I could be completely wrong however but oh well thats my 2cents for tonight

[markovr]

could be the coolant pellets they used mixed with the green shit ....if it is its normal and wont hurt anything ....its what mine looks like but its more brown than mustard,

[ss350chev]

Seems like the car had a blown head gasket and has been repaired,leftover water from the repair,or umm its cracked again

[mateyVTII]

If the engine oil dipstick looks like you have nothing but engine oil in it, and your engine oil cap is not milky or sludgy and looks the way it should, it's probably the auto transmission cooling tank or tanks.

if its an automatic there is a good chance that the auto transmission cooling tank or tanks (depending on your radiator setup as to whether you have one tank or two) are leaking transmission oil into your cooling system. The bad thing about this is that usually the coolant also goes into the transmission which totally stuffs it if enough water goes in. Very common problem these days for some reason????

If this is the case you will notice that you will be frequently doing little top ups in your cooling system.

a fix for this that many people (including myself) do is to disconnect the auto trans lines and install an external trans cooler totally bypassing the radiator alltogether. my car has been done for this reason and works beautifully in both summer and winter.

I have been told that this is what a lot of taxis do!

the external cooler kits can be bought from any good auto store or on ebay i found a seller who sold me an entire VT kit with instructions which is awesome.

if you do this you will need to block off where the trans lines used to bolt up because water will end up coming out of there if you dont. Pirtek sell block offs.

If this is the problem you would also need to get the auto trans fully serviced asap with a complete change of auto trans fluid to try and save your transmission.

[Chappo_1]

This may not be your problem, but when I first bought my VS, the coolant was green and everything was normal. One day I noticed that the coolant was a brownish colour, but it wasn’t thick like you describe.
It was like it for some months, the engine didn’t overheat. I mentioned it to my brother in law, and he asked did I top up the coolant with different brand? He said his sons had the same thing happen to their Commodores.
I did a flush and changed the coolant. Have always used the same brand since and it has stayed green. Been a few years now. I obviously don’t know what brand was already in mine when I bought it, and if my brother in law didn’t have the evidence of two of his son’s cars doing this, I would have thought mixing brands wouldn’t have mattered, sounds ridiculous. I have noticed that some coolants that protect at lower temperatures than others have some other ingredient listed on the label. Maybe this is the difference. Maybe this is all bull shit, but it might be worth flushing and changing the coolant before doing anything else. The fact that your coolant is thick though suggests it could be something else.

[VrWagz1]

My worry for u is, it had a blown head gasket/cracked head and they have just thrown chemiweld in it to flog the car off, but never changed the coolant after putting in the chemiweld. Thus leaving the evidence of the problem. but the above post by mateyvt11 is a very good suggestion also, and would investigate that imediatly.

[Pickled]

Well I do know that the intake manifold gasket was recently done, and the auto was recently reconditioned, I spoke to the guy I brought it from today and he said it's leftover from what the intake manifold gasket caused, I tried flushing it out today but it would not budge, it's caked all inside the radiator and I could imagine it would be the same throughout the engine, does anyone know of any radiator flush I could put it to get rid of it?

[jakstas]

How does it taste?

[Pickled]

How does it taste?

Havn't tried it yet but I'll be sure to let you know, could start my own mustard business by the way things are going.

[hq-racing]

My worry for u is, it had a blown head gasket/cracked head and they have just thrown chemiweld in it to flog the car off, but never changed the coolant after putting in the chemiweld. Thus leaving the evidence of the problem. but the above post by mateyvt11 is a very good suggestion also, and would investigate that imediatly.

im thinking the same thing, wanna hope not for his sake, especially if its done a lot of k's.. i have also herd of the problem matteyvt11 is talking bout, thats sopousley a common thing..

hope all works out.

[Brett_jjj]

Id get the cooling system pressure tested, and also get the engine compression tested,these tests will show if either the head gasket(s) or inlet manifold gasket(s) are leaking /blown.These tests are cheap to get done, and will give you a good idea as to the true condition of the engine and its cooling system.