Contaminated Coolant

bluedog333 · Oct 21, 2014

Evening all. Hoping someone could put my mind at ease about the following... Checking the fluid levels earlier only to discover the coolant had emulsified to a grey gloop, doh! The expansion tank doesn't overly pressurise or hold cold pressure, gauge shows normal temp and there's no mayo in the oil. I replaced the oil cooler/rad a couple of months back after the cooler blew through the rad and consequently pumped oil through everything, is it possible that my thick coolant is just a result of me not flushing the engine and cooling pipes through properly? Have any of you seen something similar or am I just trying to wish away an impending HGF?
Cheers in advance!
Sean

Kwakerman · Oct 21, 2014

if your oil is sludge free then it is certainly worth trying a flush or two, I would drain all the coolant and flush all the pipes, block and heater. Fill it with plain water (no antifreeze), run it for a few miles and then repeat until the water remains clear. Once it is clean fill it with a 50/50 mix of water and anti freeze. If it comes back again then I think you are looking at a cross system leak somewhere.

bluedog333 · Oct 21, 2014

Cheers, I'm hoping a proper flush will sort it out, really don't need anything more serious at the moment!

lynall · Oct 22, 2014

What engine and g/box combo
I would say theres only two real ways for this to happen, head gasket or more likely as you mention no pressurising is oil cooler failure in the radiator
Flushing wont help as you need to work out how the oil has got in there in the first place

harry2012 · Oct 22, 2014

Is this on a TDCI?

The oil cooler blew on my dad's transit (under warranty luckily) ford had it for two weeks flushing it through and replaced every rubber hose in the cooling system, even then some oil still floated to the top in the expansion tank after a few miles. Just had to scoop the remnants out.

bluedog333 · Oct 22, 2014

lynall said:
What engine and g/box combo

I would say theres only two real ways for this to happen, head gasket or more likely as you mention no pressurising is oil cooler failure in the radiator

Flushing wont help as you need to work out how the oil has got in there in the first place

200tdi conversion, LT77 box. Replaced the cooler/rad only a couple of months back due to a spectacular oil cooler wall failure! I was hoping that in my half-arsed way I didn't flush all the oil out from that (I left thermostat in, so oil left in the block?). It's more sludgey than usual oil in water. I noticed one of the hoses being a bit 'crackly', could hose breakdown cause this? I don't suspect HGF as oil is clean, temp runs fine, no white smoke etc.. Going to buy some specific "oil in coolant" flush and replace old pipes and keep an eye on it!

bluedog333 · Oct 22, 2014

harry2012 said:
Is this on a TDCI?

The oil cooler blew on my dad's transit (under warranty luckily) ford had it for two weeks flushing it through and replaced every rubber hose in the cooling system, even then some oil still floated to the top in the expansion tank after a few miles. Just had to scoop the remnants out.

Mate of mine has just had all the hoses replaced on his TDCi Transit 2 months out of warranty, even though it's a known problem with the engine. A few hundred quid later he wasn't a happy bunny!

bluedog333 · Oct 23, 2014

After doing a bit of reading I've learned that mixing red and blue coolant can result in a sludge forming. The previous owner had red OATS coolant in (which I believe helped the oil cooler failure), as part of my sloppy flushing procedure I may have left some of the red in the block when I filled with new non-OATS blue coolant. Will give if all a proper, proper flush and see what happens!

Contaminated Coolant

bluedog333

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Kwakerman

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bluedog333

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lynall

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harry2012

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bluedog333

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bluedog333

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bluedog333

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