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Sludge in radiator?

Just changed a water pump in a `96 Monte Carlo... uses the orange silicate-free anti-freeze. Car is mint, 85k miles on original antifreeze. Pulled off the radiator cap and there is a good deal of orange/brown oily "sludge" around the cap area... and a bit of sludge in the overflow jug as well. I pulled the water pump and everything looked super clean inside.. the pump and housing are spotless, no corrosion or sludge. I drained all old antifreeze possible from the engine, put it all back together and filled with new antifreeze. Drove the car for one day, pulled the radiator cap and there is sludge near the cap area again. This "sludge" seems to like to rise to the top, always collecting around the cap area. I had not "flushed" the system because on that car, it is a pain to do it and I had no time that day... and when I saw that the pump etc was so clean on the inside, I figured it probably really did not need it. The car shows no evidence of head gasket problems. I wonder what this oily "sludge" is and if I need to worry about it. There does not seem to be enough to truly clog anything, but I am wondering what has caused or is causing the sludge formation. On the old cars with the green antifreeze, I never saw anything like this. I've seen lots of rust in the old systems and particles of corrosion etc, but never sludge.

Reply to
Ned
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I noticed the same thing on a relatively new Buick century not too long ago. Big goops of sludge. It's the nasty dex-cool I think. Not what it was hyped to be. I'd flush it and replace it with regular coolant (green) or the newer yellow stuff that Ford now uses.

85K is also WAAAAAAAAAAY to long on the original antifreeze dude. You better chemically flush that radiator, it might be very clogged. Have it rodded even or you risk serious overheating and major damage.

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Reply to
Rein

Make sure you didn't add the green:

to the Dexcool that was already in there!

There are two sides to the argument, I'm of the dexcool sucks argument, and one reason is that it's a petroleum based product. hence the oily residue.

The proper way to continue to use the Dexcool is to one: use only the Dexcool approved coolants, and use distilled water. If you are going to flush, get every drop of Dexcool out of there, or you will see brown putty swimming in your cooling system!

refinish King

PS Many people I respect say: 5 years or 100,000 miles is the maximum! So if the car is over 5 years old, it was time to flush and change!

Reply to
Refinish King

that is the long life antifreeze (dexcool), and they have been having alot of problems with it so far. supposed to last for years, but in my personal opinion, i dont trust it, id rather change the green stuff out more often. here is one link to look at

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google search for dexcool problems

Reply to
bm

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