ahhh Antifreeze question

Billabong089

Registered User
Well I think a couple of days ago I checked my coolant in the overflow tank and stupid me forgot to close the cap, and I dont know if that would do anything but... I checked the radiator today and noticed what appeared to be tiny little circles sorta how oil doesnt mix in with water, well I guess there has to be some oil in my antifreeze, but I just dont think I've blown my head gaskets... what do you think?

No white smoke, except when its really cold but its not that kind of white smoke, and it runs really good, except occasionally only when its been running for a while it does a wierd idle when you start it up,, but its not rough , it just goes from 500 to 700 and does a little wierd thing but I've been told thats the o2 sensors and I keep meaning to have the codes checked. But that only lasts until I start driving or it just corrects itself in a minute or so.

Geez after reading other posts and other websites, it seems more than likely head gaskets but argh I got a $100 and thats it! I can't afford anything and Its 10F here anyway and even if I did have the knowledge, I couldn't change them anyway, this sucks, I'm gonna just drive it anwyay since it seems fine but I dont know ahhhhhh :mad: :confused:
 
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I just want to add that I let the engine idle with the cap off and I didnt see any bubbling or anything but that was after 3-4min, the engine was already sorta warm since the heat was blowing hot so... I dont know... Any help or answers would be apprecaited...

Also I think there is oil in there but could anyone describe to me what it woudl look like? The rad cap is really gunky and all around the top of it, I cleaned it off and then I took it back off and it was gunky again, so maybe some of that fell into the coolant but I dunno ahh I'm so confused and worried lol.
 
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I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. My coolant looks a little oily from time to time also. If the car's running fine, no smoke, no stumbling, and runs at normal temps, then you don't have a HG problem. You may never have a HG problem.. HG failure is wayyy overrepresented IMO, because I rarely hear people talk about how good their HGs are today.. no... rather they talk about when they fail. :rolleyes:
 
well after I got home from school, I didnt think the car would be that hot, but I guess it was hot enough for the coolant to come out when I opened the cap and I noticed a lot of black specs floating around, it wasnt like oil or maybe it was but I just wouldn't expect it to be in specs at least, it looks like little particles, well anyway I'm confused.
 
Mine had black flecks in it too, still need to remove the overflow and clean it out a little more. May just need a flush and hoses. My rad. had a JB Weld patch job on top, maybe some of that got in there too, I don't know. Clean it out, flush it and put in new hoses, if you need them. Remember that if you do take off that lower rad. hose, it's a good time to go ahead with new belts. You have to take that hose off to do the main belt.
 
Yeah,

I wouldn't worry to much about it yet. Could just be normal coolant crud. It isn't excessively clean in the first place. My overflow container under the hood was really dirty with black and grey stuff in there. Could just be from that. Usually if it was blown head gaskets, you would see bubbling in the overflow tank. Its from blow by when the cylinders try to compress. It pushes air right back through the cooling system. And seeing as how your getting hit, not loosing fluid, and it runs fine, I think your fine.
 
thanks for the replies, my dad also just thinks the coolant needs to be flushed, and once I took another look in that overflow tank I can understand why there might be black flecks floating around, alright thanks for the replies, as soon as I start workin (at mcdonalds :) ) thats the first think I'm getting done, I wont even attempt that and considering its 10F lol.. winter sucks... The radiator shop or whereever I go should clean the overflow tank too or does that cost extra?
 
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