Pudding in the cooling system...

Greetings:

I have a 1987 Merc. Colony Park with the 5.0L V8 with 120k miles.

This problem seems to be getting worse over the last four years.

The cooling system has a rusty looking muddy sludge in it.

Recently, I was going to change the head gaskets, but in the process of tearing down the accessory stuff I found that the water pump was not very good. Went deeper and found the timing chain was shot. Fixed that and found the freeze plugs shot. Fixed that. The dealer told me that the head gaskets should not need changing, so I put the thing back together with new belts and hoses.

That was two weeks ago and I completely flushed cooling system, too. Looked in the radiator and found more "muddy sludge". I mean this stuff looks like butterscotch pudding!

Anybody know what is causing this?

Reply to
Flash
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What type of antifreeze/coolant are you using?

-if only the green stuff, sounds like oil.

How did you come about getting input from dealer?

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

The cheap stuff! Autozone brand ethylene glycol (green) 50-50 with water. The anti-freeze is only two weeks old!

I thought maybe oil, but the car does not use much oil.

This pudding is rust brown, thich, and not slippery. More like a fine Georgia clay. The radiator is full of this crap and the car has not gone more than 50 miles since I worked on it. :-(

Reply to
Flash

And you never used the yellow stuff?

Reply to
Backyard Mechanic

Oh! I forgot. I went to the dealer to get a part that was rusted through. That "T" above the thermostat with a sensor and a heater hose attached. They wanted $90 for the thing and had to order it.

I went to True-Value and built one for $9.00 :-) and mine won't rust!

Reply to
Flash

Yellow? Are you talking about orange RV anti-freeze?

Doesn't matter. I only use the green a/f.

Reply to
Flash

With what you have seen inside your motor, you have a heavily rusted block. The freeze plugs would last forever under normal circumstances. How much rust and where is an unknown until you tear it down. Flushing with water doesn't do much good. You have to flush it with the strong chemical flush to have any hope of cleaning it, and that won't be 100%. So keep flushing it and make sure all the chemicals are flushed out as they are corrosive too. Then run 60:40 coolant and maybe a rust preventive additive and hope for the best. There's no mystery here. You just have a bad situation.

Reply to
Al Bundy

possible intake manifold ... but that would leak out or into the crankcase ..... 5.0 ltr v8s have very few head gasket problems

Reply to
scott

Thanks all for your replies.

New developement... The repair of the leaks have caused the cooling system pressure to increase normally and this has created another leak!!!!!!!!!

I am going to have to yank the motor.

I'll repair everything, add rust inhibitor. and do the head gaskets (ready or not). This way I can really flush the block.

Fun is...

Reply to
Flash

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