Good day everyone,

I would like to get some input on what could be the issue here.

I have a 1988 toyota pickup and when I open my radiator cap the stuff in there is nasty its a brown sludge.

I did 4 flush so far and tried the stuff they sale to clean out the radiator (also changed the thermostat )but it always come back... I checked my oil and it's perfect. I also have an automatic transmission with a cooler in the rad but same thing there the transmission oil is perfect.

I already did a lot of search and found that it could be a headgasket but I am not getting why I don't have any in my oil or why am I not seeing any white smoke..

also the truck is not overheating.. the idle when the truck is at is normal temperature is not rough but a little bit low...

I used rad 3000 universal anti-freeze with ethylene glycol (it also says low silicate compatible with aluminium and diesel engines) just in case it could be the brand that im using... should I try with a different anti-freeze.

please help me! :-)

thanks everyone!

Marc.

 

Do you have the 4 banger or the V6? Does it look thick like a milk shake or is the fluid thin like normal radiator fluid?

 

its the v6 and unfortunately its liek a milk shake

 

Unfortunately it's your head gasket. And the fun begins...

 

Does it look like particles of rust?

 

ouch.. i was going to say maybe you had a bad rust problem in there that made it brown.. but if its thick its not rust. does your oil have a white foam? or light color? or milkshake ?

when is the last time you changed your coolant before this? because it could be a slow oil leak.. and maybe the coolant just burns off in your oil because its a daily driver.

one trick i read in a book on old bmw 2002's it says pour a tube of that alum. radiator stop leak and see if that helps. it could just be a very small leak..
that method worked on my buddies 1970 bmw why not try it lol

check the oil again if you have too pull a valve cover and take a look. if its brown or muddy or foamy you found your problem.

 

no its really like milk shake... but how can it be the headgasket if it doesn't smoke white or its not mixing in oil

 

I changed the coolant last week but only took it twice since then and the oil looks perfectly fine!

 

Yeah doesn't really sound like a HG problem. I know when I bought mine (about 100,000 miles ago) it had a bunch of really nasty brown crud in the radiator, it looked like it a had never been changed or flushed. I flushed it out really good with one of those prestone flush kits and got a bunch out, and later I ran some BG cleaner through it. It still starts to look a little rusty after a while but not really that much and it doesn't seem to affect my performance.

 

but like I said in the first post I did flush it several time already and tried 2 different rad cleaner flush kit.

when I cleaned it out I disconnected all the hose even the one going in the cab and washed everything..

 

It's your head gasket...rust does not make the radiator fluid thick like a milk shake.

Not all head gasket failures will show up in the oil, it just depends where it blew out.

And don't use that quick radiator fix stuff, that will just plug up all the water jackets in the motor and starve the engine of free flowing coolant. Those 3.0 need all the cooling they can get, especially on the #6 piston.

 

Get some pics of your fluid that would help us determine whats going on.