Coolant mixed with oil in radiator

[Luke Matei]

Hi all,
Found out that the coolant is contaminated with engine oil in my vx.
Local mechanic said the valley cover gasket needs replacing prior to coolant flush.

Just wondering if the valley cover gasket is the same as intake manifold gasket?

Cheers Luke

 

[NeddyBear]

Yep sure is and a big job to replace properly, oil in the radiator coolant is from a faulty head gasket and again another enormous job to do while the top fuel and air assemblies are off.

 

[convas]

My intake manifold gasket was leaking oil into the cooling system, if you are handy with tools its not too hard a job, having the service manual helps.

 

[VT&VX]

I noticed the light brown sludge under radiator cap. Not sure how long it was like that. The car runs fine, the guages are normal. So it was only a random check under the radiator cap (because we usually fill the reservoir) and we saw the gunk.

Oil in the coolant?. It was a very thin oil in the coolant. Checked engine oil. It was OK, so we changed filter and Oil.

So the other oil is the Auto Transmission Fluid. Wasn't sure how that can get into the radiator, but someone on this forum suggested the Auto transmission pumps ATF into a brass tank that is built into the radiator. So I bypassed the radiator and used an external auto transmission cooler. The ATF doesn't go near the radiator now. I also replaced the auto transmission filter and fluid, which looked OK, no coolant in the auto pan. I ran the engine and watched the (now unused) connection points on the radiator and I noticed leaking fluid so it seems that was the problem. I just need a new radiator. I need to drive the car around so I blocked these connection points on the radiator and everything seems good now. I flushed the sludge out of the radiator. A week later, I noticed a bit of sludge in radiator. I ran tap water through the engine and radiator again to clean it out. Then a suggestion that the heater core might be contaminated from before, so I opened the heater while I flushed it again.

A week later I still notice a little bit of gunk in the radiator.

Why isn't it clean?

I read the thread about the inlet manifold gasket. So if it isn't one thing then it must be the other.
Or is it going to be both?

So if it isn't

 

[sickboy]

Commonwhore always have slight sludge on cap.
As for Op intake gasket not that hard if ya confident. Pretty sure there's a how to on here. Just get a good quality kit.

 

[Dayvo]

A mechanic once told me a good way to check on the ecotec to see if the intake gaskets need replacing is to check to see if the bolts are loose on the manifold. They are prone to doing it . Thats how i found out mine on my VX needed replacing . Not a hard job just time consuming

 

[harrop.senator]

2 easy ways one loose bolts to spray around the sealing surfaces with carby cleaner and see if its starts running different as if leaking will suck it into cylinders. They can leak without these two symptoms but usually have one.

 

[VT&VX]

What was the second easy way?

Gasket reseal/conditioner and then tighten bolts?

I will search around for the "how to" because a gasket kit probably costs the same as gasket conditioner.

 

[VT&VX]

Commodore always have slight sludge on cap

We have two. One does, one doesn't.

 

[harrop.senator]

Second easy way was checking for loose bolts like already mentioned sorry if post came across confusing.