coolant system problems

[FamilyCar]

ok here's the skinny. I flushed my system about 3 months ago. I drained the fluid out of the radiator, flushed the system with water and ran water through the whole stsem until nothing but water came out, i then used a prestone flushing chemical to take all the rust and grime out of the coolant system. flushed again with water. then i filled the system with half and half and ran the car until full temp was reached. loosend the air bleed bolt and pinched the upper radiator hose a few times to let air out of the system. i drove the car for about an hour to an hour and a half then topped off with half and half again. i also put some half and half in the resevoir...........


sooooo my question is how come my fluid is a nasty orange color and smells like garbage now and is kinda sprayed on my battery, upper radiator and distributor, ???? i replaced the cap thats all i can think of maybe the cap wasn't allowing the fluid to flow into the resevior and it was spraying out the cap seal. that wasn't it. my radiator isn't clogged, and the water pump works fine too...........WTF?

[NoSloCB7]

Leaking Headgasket.....time for a new one... Could also be a cracked head, but I doubt it...

[accordztech]

it can be crap that came off with the rust remover that you used...even if u did flush it, it may of removed more.

for now i think u should flush it out with just water and then fill it with 50/50.

then see if it still does the color. if it does then pressure test your cooling system with a pressure tester you can rent from your local auto store. that will tell you if you have a leak and if its external it will show.

[mrhonda]

Leaking Headgasket.....time for a new one... Could also be a cracked head, but I doubt it...

no no no.....you probably just have a leak somewhere, look over everything really closely i.e. radiator, hoses, etc

[green5thgen]

it can be crap that came off with the rust remover that you used...even if u did flush it, it may of removed more.

for now i think u should flush it out with just water and then fill it with 50/50.

then see if it still does the color. if it does then pressure test your cooling system with a pressure tester you can rent from your local auto store. that will tell you if you have a leak and if its external it will show.

He is correct. Once you put the flush agent, it removes alot of the rust, but loosens what doesn't immediately come out. If you filled the resivor more than about half way, once you car gets hot, some of the fluid goes into it. If it got extremely hot one dasy, more fluid than normal probably got sent to the tank and once it got full it has nowhere to go but out. Thus the rust colored grime. Same principle as doing a motor flush(BAD BAD BAD). SOme of the oil gets discarded immediately, but the rest falls of with time and stops up the oil screen