oil film on coolant

[Dan Wing]

Thanks. A tiny leak like that is what I had suspected when I found it.
Obviously I need new coolant, but I will need also to consider a new head
gasket. GRRRR....

Dan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brett Dikeman" <brett at cloud9.net>
To: "Dan Wing" <wagons at sover.net>; <200q20v at audifans.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: oil film on coolant


> At 8:18 AM -0500 12/15/02, Dan Wing wrote:
>
> >It has been a couple of years since the coolant was changed.
>
> I let my coolant change go too long, and when I finally did it this
> summer, I had -all- manner of crap. Lime scale, little bits of rust,
> you name it.  The coolant came out dark brown.  Yikes.
>
> However, I still have a lot of deposits from the "phosphate free"
> coolant(the green stuff.  I'll never put anything but pentosin and
> distilled water in the car again.)  When I had to take out the aux
> radiator because it was damaged, I discovered to my chagrin lots of
> nice white-yellowy deposits inside the aux radiator end cap once it
> had completely dried.  Have to figure out how to remove that from the
> rest of the system.
>
> >Since it is so much work to replace the turbo line, I want to check
> >with you guys to be sure this small amount of black oily film does
> >not represent any major problem, in the turbo or elsewhere. Has
> >anyone seen this in other cars?
>
> I don't think oil and coolant can mix in the turbo.
>
> I'd guess you have the teeniest insignificant head gasket leak where
> some oil is seeping in, and you're seeing it because the coolant
> hasn't been changed in so long.
>
> When you change the line, flush the system well, and use one of the
> chemical flushes to remove any oil that might have stuck
> somewhere...then flush that stuff out completely.  Fill with the blue
> stuff(Blau and SJM both carry it, as do dealers but it'll be much
> pricier) and distilled water.
>
> Brett
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