VT exec 317000 KMS white sludgy muck in rad cap.. head gasket failure?

[1dvsbstd]

Hey guys.. have noticed this over the last few months..
have not flushed the system yet but i will tommorow and see how it goes..

any ideas guys

[edals]

Hey Mate.

Check your oil and oil cap, if that is milky, its the Head Gasket.
If not, im tipping Inlet gaskets. easy job just takes a few hours.
But if not sure still, go get a pressure test for the cylinders, and flush the system milky sludge does build up esp if you use the holden tablets

[1dvsbstd]

Cheers man.. well looking at the oil cap it looks fine.. is it something that can harm the engine?

[sixes]

If its a head gasket then yeah, looks like oil is seeping into your coolant which can clog up your radiator, cooling galleries etc. As edals said, get your system pressure checked and get a new set of head gaskets. Also, get your heads checked for how flat they are.

Are your heads iron or alloy? Cast can crack but alloy can also warp. Get them checked out before putting them back on your motor. Last thing you want to do is put it all back together and find out something you could have done before you put it together was the problem. Might pay to put new valve seals in too while your at it and clean out the intake / exhaust runners of all the gunk and build up.

[shifty6]

Just flush the radiator out first and see how it goes, as said above the coolant additive pellets can have that effect as well. Next step would be cylinder compression test, wouldn't go buying new head gaskets just yet.

[sixes]

Would he still use pellets at 300K?
Does the foam feel oily?

[1dvsbstd]

If its a head gasket then yeah, looks like oil is seeping into your coolant which can clog up your radiator, cooling galleries etc. As edals said, get your system pressure checked and get a new set of head gaskets. Also, get your heads checked for how flat they are.

Are your heads iron or alloy? Cast can crack but alloy can also warp. Get them checked out before putting them back on your motor. Last thing you want to do is put it all back together and find out something you could have done before you put it together was the problem. Might pay to put new valve seals in too while your at it and clean out the intake / exhaust runners of all the gunk and build up.

Cheers man i def will get it looked at.. but for now it seems alright.. just seems to be something in the system.. will flush it up and see how it goes..

[1dvsbstd]

Would he still use pellets at 300K?
Does the foam feel oily?

just feels like muck.. can still clearly see coolant though.. just builds up say over a months time

[1dvsbstd]

Just flush the radiator out first and see how it goes, as said above the coolant additive pellets can have that effect as well. Next step would be cylinder compression test, wouldn't go buying new head gaskets just yet.

cheers man.. going to give that a go first !..

[mateyVTII]

I'm pretty sure that it's your transmission fluid mixing with your coolant, and coolant also going into your auto transmission which will end up stuffing it. This is common with crappy alloy radiators with crappy built in alloy transmission oil coolers which stuff up through corrosion and begin mixing auto trans fluid with the coolant and vice versa.

This problem you have will only get worse as time goes by because the leaking gets bigger and bigger, and you'll have more and more gunk, and you'll lose more and more water till your trans stops working one day, amongst other things!

This is usually always the case when it isn't your head gasket causing the gunk. and if you have a nice clean oil filler cap, your head gasket is not causing the gunk on your rad cap. It's trans fluid.

Best fix is to throw away your alloy radiator and install a brand new copper core radiator made for manual trans which has no connections for trans cooling lines (you wont be needing them). Then install an external auto trans oil cooler in front of the air con condenser which of course will totally bypass the radiator so you can never have this problem again, plus you'l

This works perfectly well in winter and summer, as transmissions love to be cool not hot.

I did this myself about 4 years ago and it's one of the best things I've ever done to our car.

Some cars come out standard with this setup. Every auto transmission should come factory liker this in my opinion.

You will still get that gunk on your rad cap for a long time as it has trans fluid right throughout your motor. just keep cleaning your cap every couple of weeks till there is no more gunk. it will take a long time to get totally rid of it!

Don't forget to flush your motor really well before installing your new radiator, and use 5 litres of good quality long life concentrate coolant in your system. I chose the green coloured Nulon concentrate coolant which lasts 4 years or 100,000 Klms I think?? Thats just running off memory but it's something like that. In my opinion and many other people I know including good mechanics, it's top notch coolant! Don't buy cheap crap just to save a few bucks!

Anyway, good luck people, and I hope that my experience will help many of you!!!!!!!

[wrx884]

I'm pretty sure that it's your transmission fluid mixing with your coolant, and coolant also going into your auto transmission which will end up stuffing it. This is common with crappy alloy radiators with crappy built in alloy transmission oil coolers which stuff up through corrosion and begin mixing auto trans fluid with the coolant and vice versa.

This problem you have will only get worse as time goes by because the leaking gets bigger and bigger, and you'll have more and more gunk, and you'll lose more and more water till your trans stops working one day, amongst other things!

This is usually always the case when it isn't your head gasket causing the gunk. and if you have a nice clean oil filler cap, your head gasket is not causing the gunk on your rad cap. It's trans fluid.

Best fix is to throw away your alloy radiator and install a brand new copper core radiator made for manual trans which has no connections for trans cooling lines (you wont be needing them). Then install an external auto trans oil cooler in front of the air con condenser which of course will totally bypass the radiator so you can never have this problem again, plus you'l

This works perfectly well in winter and summer, as transmissions love to be cool not hot.

I did this myself about 4 years ago and it's one of the best things I've ever done to our car.

Some cars come out standard with this setup. Every auto transmission should come factory liker this in my opinion.

You will still get that gunk on your rad cap for a long time as it has trans fluid right throughout your motor. just keep cleaning your cap every couple of weeks till there is no more gunk. it will take a long time to get totally rid of it!

Don't forget to flush your motor really well before installing your new radiator, and use 5 litres of good quality long life concentrate coolant in your system. I chose the green coloured Nulon concentrate coolant which lasts 4 years or 100,000 Klms I think?? Thats just running off memory but it's something like that. In my opinion and many other people I know including good mechanics, it's top notch coolant! Don't buy cheap crap just to save a few bucks!

Anyway, good luck people, and I hope that my experience will help many of you!!!!!!!

+2 this is wat i was talkin bout the day u came over man

[sixes]

This is common with crappy alloy radiators with crappy built in alloy transmission oil coolers which stuff up through corrosion and begin mixing auto trans fluid with the coolant and vice versa.

Best fix is to throw away your alloy radiator and install a brand new copper core radiator made for manual trans which has no connections for trans cooling lines (you wont be needing them). Then install an external auto trans oil cooler in front of the air con condenser which of course will totally bypass the radiator so you can never have this problem again, plus you'l

Some cars come out standard with this setup. Every auto transmission should come factory liker this in my opinion.

So why are performance radiators made from aluminium? Because they work very well and are a hell of a lot lighter! Factory radiators work well IMO but due to the age / KM's run in Ops car then yeah, its something to look at for sure. the plastic end tanks can be a problem, so can the rubber seals as they will perish with age.

As for trans coolers, just about every car I have seen and owned the auto lines run through the radiator. If equipped with a tow pack or H/D option then it will have an added trans cooler mounted on the front (which still goes through the radiator). The only benefit of running your trans fluid through a radiator is so the trans fluid can warm up sooner thus making the auto get to operating temp quicker. Also helps with cooling (of course).

Has 1dvsbstd got any further news???

[1dvsbstd]

Well the car over headed the other day due to loss of coolant.. Will look at changing this soon and following the advice given

[1dvsbstd]

I'm pretty sure that it's your transmission fluid mixing with your coolant, and coolant also going into your auto transmission which will end up stuffing it. This is common with crappy alloy radiators with crappy built in alloy transmission oil coolers which stuff up through corrosion and begin mixing auto trans fluid with the coolant and vice versa.

This problem you have will only get worse as time goes by because the leaking gets bigger and bigger, and you'll have more and more gunk, and you'll lose more and more water till your trans stops working one day, amongst other things!

This is usually always the case when it isn't your head gasket causing the gunk. and if you have a nice clean oil filler cap, your head gasket is not causing the gunk on your rad cap. It's trans fluid.

Best fix is to throw away your alloy radiator and install a brand new copper core radiator made for manual trans which has no connections for trans cooling lines (you wont be needing them). Then install an external auto trans oil cooler in front of the air con condenser which of course will totally bypass the radiator so you can never have this problem again, plus you'l

This works perfectly well in winter and summer, as transmissions love to be cool not hot.

I did this myself about 4 years ago and it's one of the best things I've ever done to our car.

Some cars come out standard with this setup. Every auto transmission should come factory liker this in my opinion.

You will still get that gunk on your rad cap for a long time as it has trans fluid right throughout your motor. just keep cleaning your cap every couple of weeks till there is no more gunk. it will take a long time to get totally rid of it!

Don't forget to flush your motor really well before installing your new radiator, and use 5 litres of good quality long life concentrate coolant in your system. I chose the green coloured Nulon concentrate coolant which lasts 4 years or 100,000 Klms I think?? Thats just running off memory but it's something like that. In my opinion and many other people I know including good mechanics, it's top notch coolant! Don't buy cheap crap just to save a few bucks!

Anyway, good luck people, and I hope that my experience will help many of you!!!!!!!

Cheers for the news and knowledge mate
how much would i expect spending and how hard is this to fix?

Cheers

[1dvsbstd]

+2 this is wat i was talkin bout the day u came over man

haha yeah cheers man.. was so not with it that day..
might need to come see u again soon

[mateyVTII]

G'day mate, I paid $350 for a brand new VT copper core rad made for a manual trans off ebay. Long time ago now so can't remember who it was. I paid around $145 for an external trans cooler kit designed with brackets and all for a VT off ebay at the same time. The guy I bought the cooler off said he sells hundreds of them to taxi drivers. None of them use the radiator to cool down their auto trans. Doesn't that say it all!

I pulled the old rad out and installed the new one myself, and flushed the engine out myself at the same time, also put the Nulon green long life concentrate coolant in myself which cost me around $35 to buy 5 ltrs of it at the time.

I also installed the trans cooler kit myself, it came with everthing I needed to do the job and with excellent instructions especially written for a VT.

Here is the link to the Guy on ebay who sold me the cooler kit: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/AUTOMATIC...item19c9ac4b21

Make sure you tell him that you want to bypass the radiator and not run it in series so you get the correct bolt on attachments. His name is Ross and he's a top bloke! helped me out heaps!

I think you have to connect the pressure hose coming from the trans to the bottom connection of the cooler so that it forces the fluid upwards and it comes out the top end into the return line of the trans all nice and cool and re-enters the transmission....BEAUTIFUL!!.....Just ask Ross if you have any further questions....he's the one who taught me all this just through emails.

The local transmission place did a full auto trans service for $95

If you can't get a copper core manual rad and have to get a copper core auto rad, just make sure you go to someone like pirtek and buy a couple of brass block off nuts and bolt them onto where the trans lines are supposed to go on the rad. That would be fine.

It's not hard to do mate, I did it all myself and I'm not a mechanic, just a backyarder like many others on this web site.

Cheers and good luck, have a go....u won't regret the outcome matey! By the way....auto transmissions don't need to be warmed or heated up to operating temperature, they get plenty hot on their own. They only need to be cooled down and a 100 plus degrees celsius rad can't possibly cool down trans fluid that should not reach over 90 degrees celsius.....let all the einsteins figure that one out!