So yesterday I decided to flush the cooling system on my wife's car, since I looked under the cap recently and it look nasty. I drained out the radiator, the engine block, heater core, all the hoses, etc. Everything that came out was a NASTY dark brown color. I have no idea when, if ever, the cooling system has been flushed before, and so I'm assuming the insides of the radiator are all rusted out. But anyway, that will have to wait for another day, since she had to drive it to work today and we don't have money for a new radiator at the moment.

So I stick the garden hose in the top of the radiator and flush it until the water coming out of the upper rad hose gets close to running clear. I never could get it to run completely clear.

Then I fill up the system with a 50/50 mixture of Prestone green coolant. Within just a few minutes, the brand new coolant all turns brown again. Not as bad as the old stuff, but still a sort of light brown color. So I start the engine and let it warm up while I try to get all the air out of the system. After a few minutes, it looks like foam coming out of the top of the radiator! Here's a pic:



Could this just be a result of the rusted-out radiator? It has an automatic transmission with tranny cooler lines running to the radiator, could that have something to do with it, also?

I'm trying to rule out a blown head gasket. I have not seen any white smoke coming out of the tail pipe, nor have I seen evidence of any coolant on the oil dipstick. Temp gauge in the car stays pegged just under 1/2 at all times. The car has 201K miles, and gets probably 27-29 mpg mostly city driving.

 

Dude...its "definetly" a blown head gasket. That's all oil there.

 

look under the oil cap.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by r3vmixman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dude...its "definetly" a blown head gasket. That's all oil there.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Why do you think that's oil? It's foamed coolant. The color I'm pretty sure is because the radiator has tons of rust on the inside.

I will look under the oil cap this evening.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Why do you think that's oil? It's foamed coolant. The color I'm pretty sure is because the radiator has tons of rust on the inside.

I will look under the oil cap this evening.</TD></TR></TABLE>

when you run the engine does air back up in to the overflow tank?

 

It did not appear that anything was going into or coming out of the overflow tank while the engine was running. Although I was looking while the engine was warming up for the first time, and the coolant level was below the hole where the overflow tube attaches.

I drove the car around the block after that, came back, and the coolant in the overflow tank (which I poured in there myself) still looks fairly clear.

 

anyone put stop leak or anything in the system?

 

looks like something alreday in there reacted with coolant you added (could be coolant that was prev in there or those chemicals you add to stop leaks)

ive expereinced foaming coolant on friends car, we put normal of the shelf coolant into his rad which alreday had motul coolant in which is an organic type and the 2 mixed basically react and foam

i knew about the motul stuff and that it shouldnt be mixed but we were stranded in another country and had to try and get home (long story)

 

I have no idea what's been put into the car. We just got married last year and the car is now in our name (was previously in her dad's name). Her parents bought the car back in 1999 with like 60K miles on it, and now it has 201K. I only have a few maintenance receipts that her dad gave me.

This is why I hate dealing with cars with mostly unknown history.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by r3vmixman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dude...its "definetly" a blown head gasket. That's all oil there.</TD></TR></TABLE>thats not completely true, its a automatic so it could just be the trans cooler leaking oil into the radiator, but Ive never seen it foam like that before with just oil.... usually oil in the coolant just gets all slimey and makes everything rubber soft and squishy....Is it possible someone put a stop leak or sealer in the coolant, that stuff can foam up...what car and engine by the way.........MIXING IOAT COOLANT AND OAT COOLANT WILL NOT FOAM UP OR TURN TO SLUDGE, dont believe me,go get some dex cool and some green ethylene glycol, mix, and watch nothing happen...its like magic

 

It's a 96 Toyota Corolla 1.8L. I ask here because there are more knowledgeable folks here it seems than on some Toyota forums I've been on. Plus it's pretty much the same technology as any OBD2a B18B Integra engine.

Again I have no idea what has been put in there in the past. Some people say it needs Toyota's red coolant, but the owners manual only specifies an ethylene glycol coolant, which is what Prestone green coolant is.

I may just wait a little while and replace the radiator, timing belt, water pump, and oil pan gasket all at the same time. Damn old cars

*edit* oh yeah, some folks on the Toyota forum are recommending getting one of those chemical flushes where they hook the machine up to the cooling system. I'm not sure if I want to spend the money on that or not. And I would think I would need to replace the radiator before doing that, because it would still get gunk in the fluid from the inside of the radiator core even if it was flushed out w/ a machine, would it not?

 

My shop has a brand new reverse flush machine, but I would proly agree that you are just wating your money if the radiator is as bad as you say it is. We put green in everysingle car we service, becasue this is what happens when you wait 100,000 to change coolant. If it were mine I would wait to flush until you do the radiator, then hook the garden hose up to the lower hose with upper hose off, and run it for a few minutes until the water is clear...dont hook up the new rad until it is thoroughly flushed....also unhook the both heater hoses and flush the core with garden hose, flush both directions.

 

Yeah I figured I would try flushing out the engine/heater core by itself whenever I get the new radiator.

Damn nasty stuff left huge stains on my driveway from when I was flushing it the other day.

 

ohhhhhhhh.........its a corolla........i work at Toyota and i see that all the time (maybe not that bad but it is similar). the long life coolant Toyota uses breaks down and turns into that slimy mess. especially if it has not been regularly changed. i think Toyota recommends you change that stuff every 30k.

you should do a few flushes with some chemical cleaners and see if that helps. its really hard to get all that crap out since it's probably formed inside the coolant jackets of the engine and in the rad/heater core.

do a 40/60 mix of the Toyota long life coolant. if you do a 50/50 you will find the coolant strength is way to strong (-65deg or something stupid like that).

 

What sort of chemical cleaners are you referring to? Something available from an auto parts store?

I checked the coolant again today. It does not appear to be losing any coolant, just has that nasty look.

 

autoparts store stuff is usually weaker then a "professional" product, we can sell our stuff off the shelf, maybe a shop around you will do the same....wynn's is always a good bet, We use a brand called performa...damn good ****

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> The color I'm pretty sure is because the radiator has tons of rust on the inside.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Scratch that... that's a aluminum core radiator you got there. Pretty sure it's an aluminum block as well. Keep flushing (or drain/refill) with water until it's clear then replace with the coolant of your choice.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stumpyf4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Scratch that... that's a aluminum core radiator you got there. Pretty sure it's an aluminum block as well. Keep flushing (or drain/refill) with water until it's clear then replace with the coolant of your choice.</TD></TR></TABLE>

well whatever it is, I could see a bunch of gunk in the core when I drained the old fluid out.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by stumpyf4 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Scratch that... that's a aluminum core radiator you got there. Pretty sure it's an aluminum block as well. Keep flushing (or drain/refill) with water until it's clear then replace with the coolant of your choice.</TD></TR></TABLE>

sleeves, water pipe, blades on the pump are all steel and all rust. and since rust scales it could get into the radiator.

 

Why not eliminate possibilities as opposed to assuming? Even if its not a blown gasket, whats it gonna hurt to run a leakdown on that device?

At least when you do, then when the next ********** tells you its a blown gasket you can dish out the compression numbers to them.

If its got rust, take it out, jam a hose in one end or the other and keep doing it till you get most of it cleaned out. If that wont do the trick, buy a new radiator.

Have you drained all your oil out of the pan yet? If that **** is chocolate milk you are [freak]ed.

Most of the time foamy diahreah coolant means a popped gasket like dude said. Or you sucked up some water through a cold air intake or some jazz. But its a stock corolla as you said so id say youve got a problem of some sorts.

just my .02 good luck

 

I checked under the oil cap, and also pulled out the oil dipstick, and the oil looks totally normal - a clear light brownish color. It's not milky or murky or anything like that. It smells like normal oil, as well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I checked under the oil cap, and also pulled out the oil dipstick, and the oil looks totally normal - a clear light brownish color. It's not milky or murky or anything like that. It smells like normal oil, as well.</TD></TR></TABLE>

the reason i say under the cap is heat rises, so if the was water in the engine you would have a white/milky foam under the cap. i dont think you have a blow headgaseket. you could have a damage radiator(oil cooler leak)

 

wrd

&lt;-- hoping it just needs the radiator replaced, a simple job.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by projectTeG &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

sleeves, water pipe, blades on the pump are all steel and all rust. and since rust scales it could get into the radiator.</TD></TR></TABLE>

1) Sleeves are aluminum on the water jacket side.
2) Blades of the WP and water cross over tube are very well plated, never seen rust on any of these components and believe me I've seen more old WP than you can shake a stick at... WP leaks are very common here in Canada.

My suggestion stands, keep filling and draining until it runs clear. Then refill with the coolant of your choice. No sense in throwing parts at it. Oil contamination will show up as white sludge in the rad cap area.

 

very simple way to run out the blown head gasket have a shop with a 4 gas machine and do a sniff test on the cooling system if it has a blown h/g it will show high h/c's and then you know what direction to proceed with.