what have i done? blown head or engine??

[soniamaree1969]

LAST NIGHT i pulled my commodore 97 vt up to drop my son off and the temp gauge went straight up to hot like with in 10 seconds.Turned engine off. i had to move my car off drive way and then turned it back off and then when i parked it all this horrible light brown stuff was on the road. well i figure it was a mix of oil water and coolant. it came out the place where you put the coolant in. when the car cooled down i took radiator cap off and more of this stuff come out of there. i only had car for 4 months and love it. has been running perfect with out missing a beat till that moment i pulled up. what do you think it is. your advice will be greatly appreciated.
the stuff that came out of the radiator was thick and creamy, light brown with oily consistency. looked nothing at all like water or coolant. just wanted to clear that up.
another point is just before it happened the gears didnt want to change like normal like was havign trouble changing up a gear and reving the motor a bit. i was only doing at most 50km p/h at the time.

[accentstencil]

Welcome Sonia.
First check your engine oil, pull out the dipstick and see if the oil is a normal colour or milky.
It's hard to say what is wrong without seeing it but maybe you have a hole in the radiator.

[soniamaree1969]

hi thanks
i checked the dipstick last night there was little oil in it but looked normal

[soniamaree1969]

the stuff that came out of the radiator was thick light brown stuff nothing like water

[Chris F]

I think the corrosion inhibitor will turn the coolant brown when it gets old. Sounds like you may need to get the radiator flushed, if there are no other problems, and a coolant change.

[VS_Pete_1]

Sounds like a head gasket don`t drive it and get it looked at asap.

[Sash182]

I had the same prob with my old vt. turned out to be a faulty thermostat sticking

[soniamaree1969]

did it fill up will oil and spew it all out??
i checked my transmission fluid that seems to be a greyish colour not red as i thought. would it change colour at all.

thanks to all for there answers so far. it is muchly appreciated.
i actually live in devonport tasmania. no any good mechanics down here?

[taztassio]

old dexron will be grey to black or brown instead of red.

could have a radiator end cap leak, affecting the trans fluid too

[soniamaree1969]

are you not able to tow an auto car. a friend said you couldnt

[vlv8vic]

short distances and low speeds won't do it any harm. It might say something about it in the user manual.
It sounds like a sticky or stuffed thermostat to me. If the oil looked reasonable then it's safe to assume the brown crap was just years of sludge and inhibitor in the cooling system. If you try to hose it off the driveway does it do that funny thing oil does when you try to hose it off? Gets a sorta glaze of bluey-white to it and is a prick to remove....

[soniamaree1969]

short distances and low speeds won't do it any harm. It might say something about it in the user manual.
It sounds like a sticky or stuffed thermostat to me. If the oil looked reasonable then it's safe to assume the brown crap was just years of sludge and inhibitor in the cooling system. If you try to hose it off the driveway does it do that funny thing oil does when you try to hose it off? Gets a sorta glaze of bluey-white to it and is a prick to remove....

yeah we hosed of the drive today didnt move with just water so we put degreaser on ot and most of it went. yeah it had prety colours in it

[vlv8vic]

sounds like oil then. could be trans fluid though which means a stuffed radiator. New rad an tranny service should suffice. (i assume trans cools through the radiator on a vt.. never looked....)

[soniamaree1969]

so how much trans oil would the car hold

[accentstencil]

so how much trans oil would the car hold

It holds 7.9 litres including what is in the torque converter, 4.8 litres for a service refill.

[soniamaree1969]

wow really that much. well i suppose i hope it is that and not the head gone. well going to get it off to mechanics tomoro now and hope it not gonna cost me tooo much. dam cars. wish i didnt need it. thank you for your help.
will let you know the diagnosis from mechanics
thanks all

[mookschank]

If your temp gauge is going through the roof + sludge, I would get the car towed to the mechanics....

[soniamaree1969]

yeah i going to inot risking do any more damage

[VS_Pete_1]

Good luck keep us posted

[soniamaree1969]

mechanic thinks it may be tranny will no more this arvo

[soniamaree1969]

well it was the tranny. oill in to the radiator and water into the tranny. new radiator and flushing out the system. cost $500

[VS_Pete_1]

Good outcome I`m happy for u.

[stevoss]

same thing happened to me, the end tanks on the radiators are plastic and when they breakdown you get water in tranny and dex3 in the radiator, new radiator i got for $260 so it doesnt seem so bad.

[sxc_sound]

mine had been doing this for awhile, just cracked the radiator yesterday, as said above the transmission cooler tanks (one for series 1 or twin tanks on series 2) leak into the coolant and you find sludge crap on the underneath of the radiator cap.

SO iv got an SSS racing radiator lined up to pick up tomorrow for $130

[vn_v6]

make sure u change thermostat to, my father had a vs ute, radiator blew from overheating, bought a new, drove it, blew it up again, then bought 3rd one, and forgot to put thermostat back in and it was all fine, lol never forgetting that again