Extremely gunky coolant reservoir tank

**Serstylz2** · 10-04-2008, 02:22 PM

The liquid (or mud, more accurately) in my coolant reservoir tank looks like brownish-green mud, almost identical to slightly hardened diarrhea. Sorry for the graphic nature of the explanation. Anyway, i have seen it like this a few times and just fill the overflow tank with water to kind of run it out. Should i be wary of some problems ahead? Should i do another coolant flush? Just did one in April..

**seth98esT** · 10-04-2008, 02:24 PM

Are you using tap water? If you are, thats the reason. You should only use distilled water/pure coolant mix, or the pre-mixed stuff. I would get one of the radiator flush kits and flush all the crap out of your radiator and block. Then fill her up with the pre-mixed coolant.

**Serstylz2** · 10-04-2008, 02:37 PM

Well when i did the flush i used distilled water to flush the radiator for 5 then used premixed coolant to fill it back up, thats when all this gunky crap started happening.

**Serstylz2** · 10-04-2008, 02:56 PM

do i have to worry about head gasket issues?

**lonestar22** · 10-04-2008, 05:02 PM

you could remove the overflow tank clean it out put it back in and see if it happens again.

**Ruslik** · 10-04-2008, 05:17 PM

i had the same problem
i replaced the 2 radiator hoses
flushed the radiator a LOT and ran the car
cleaned out some of the other hoses and washed the tank
and now its nice and green

**Serstylz2** · 10-04-2008, 07:36 PM

everyone is saying Head Gasket on my other forum.. should i really inquire about head gasket replacement before i ride around with a white cloud behind me

**mko** · 10-04-2008, 08:06 PM

keep an eye to the engine oil. If the head gasket is shot, and coolant gets mixed with the oil, youll have white lookin oil.

**Bezzle** · 10-04-2008, 08:13 PM

I have a dirty, diarrhea collection looking tank too. I basically flushed
out my radiator and hoses, and everything has been fine as long as I
watch the coolant level and flush the radiator periodically.

**Stewi** · 10-04-2008, 11:21 PM

The brown shit is rust. The block is cast iron and inherently it rusts. When I built my motor I had it hot tanked and all the passages cleaned, I have used nothing but distilled water and water wetter and I still have a little rust left over, there is no way to eliminate it completely.

Like seth said, do another flush and refill it. When you flush it, you will never get all of it, only some of it and then another year or so will go by and you will need to do it again.

**seth98esT** · 10-04-2008, 11:55 PM

If you are worried about a headgasket, do a compression test. As long as its not overheating, your not doing any harm to it by driving it, even if the headgasket is on its way out.