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Oil in coolant, 4.5

2K views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  the recluse 
#1 ·
I recently bought a 1988 Eldorado 4.5.The car has 102000 and the body is in mint condition. The water pump recently went and I replaced it. A lot of the coolant was drained and replaced. After running a few errands I checked the overflow resivoir and it was black. I stuck a screw driver to the bottom and there was a crud that looked like wet brown sugar on it when I pulled it out.

After closely examining the engine I saw that both valve covers had brand new gaskets meaning there was some kind of recent work done on the engine. My question is, is this because recent engine work was done and the cooling system was maybe never flushed could this have stirred up because of replacing the water pump? If there is an actual problem what do I need to look into intake leak, head gasket?

The car runs perfectly fine as in temperature, idling, driving, heater works. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
#2 ·
How thick was the layer of crud? It could be GM-recommended old coolant additive (Bar's Leaks Gold powder). Head gasket failures are very rare on 4.* engines. If you do not know when the coolant was replaced, you might want to do that. Put Bar's Leaks Golden powder stuff into the radiator neck. You can buy it in tubes at Wal-Mart for a less than two dollars. One tube will be enough.
 
#6 ·
^^^^Agreed. It could be sediment from the cooling system itself (little to no coolant equals rusty water and sediment). Either way, sediment on the BOTTOM is better than oil on the TOP.

Flush the system vigorously, back, forth, front, to back. If there is that much sediment in the reservoir, than the radiator must be a mess...
 
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