wierd heating problem

[razzar]

hey guys im new to this blog stuff so bear with me, i have a vr 3.8 ute, my temp gauge has decided not to read much more than two widths of the needle.i replaced the radiator its had a new thermostat its got a .90 radiator cap that funny enough stays cold. more often than not the left end of the radi is really hot while the right is quite cool.its just had a radiator flush and new coolant etc.
i noticed a little bit of creamy brown sludge in the water.figuring a blown head or gasket, i tried the quick fix first as its my only car.i put a block of seal it that you crumble up and put into the radi and run for 15 minutes.that cured the oil prob for now but i think ill do the heads and new gaskets.
someone mentioned if the heads were gone try running from cold with cap off wait til is heated and rev,if the water fires up its a tell tale sign its gone, but mine sucked down straiht away. please can anyone help with my dilema

[Brett_jjj]

It sounds like you could have blown/leaking inlet manifold gaskets.Its a very common problem on these V6's,but it is fairly cheap and easy to replace them.I havent seen many head gaskets blow out on these engines,so you would have to be unlucky for it to be that.That is unless the engine has been seriously overheated enough to warp the heads.
Id start off by taking the car to a mechanics and getting the cooling system pressure tested,and also get the engine compression tested.These tests are fairly cheap and will give you a good idea of the condition of the engines gaskets will show up any that are leaking/blown.

[razzar]

cheers bro i'll keep you posted. this i my first holdy and i love it!