1999 1.9D DW8 Dispatch: Thick black sludge in the coolant, no mayo in the engine. Head gasket?

[kenbw2]

Good advice on the coolant types. I've given mine 3 complete flushes, including one with a degreaser in what could only be loosely described as the coolant I started with. Removed the header tank and cleaned that out about 20 times like white exec did.

All looks clean now, so time to drive round for a while and see what happens with it!

Thanks for all the support guys, it's been a godsend.

[kenbw2]

Update about 300 miles later. It's not looking good.



I seem to be losing oil too, lost about half a litre over the 300 miles.



I'm gonna check for oil leaks around the back of the cooler in case I've not tightened it enough, or there's some debris in there or something. Might even do another coolant flush.

[Jaf]

A friend put a second hand unit on her ford. The garage flushed it several times, but after a drive there was loads more oil in the coolant tank. Took another couple of flushes, drives, flushes. Though I don't think it was new oil, if you've lost oil that's a worry.

[Peter.N.]

Unfortunately you likely have a leak on the head gasket between the oil and water passages, had this problem on an XM, changed the gasket and still had it so I think there must have been a crack somewhere, hopefully yours will only be the gasket.

Peter

[kenbw2]

I've acquired a bottle of K-Seal. I guess it's worth a try, but I don't hold out much hope.

Edit: having done a bit of reading, K Seal (as well as Steel Seal) doesn't claim to be able to fix oil-to-coolant leaks like mine. I've also seen that it's incredibly controversial. Maybe it's not worth a go.

Getting a price tomorrow on getting the head gasket sorted.

[white exec]

K-seal is really intended for stopping leaks from the cooling system, eg a pinholed radiator, or HG water leak into one of the bores or to the outside world. It seems to work by plugging up the gap with 'ceramic microfibres and copper'. Yours looks to be an oil leak into the cooling system from the much higher pressure oil system, and so would be pushing any 'plugging' material out of the way. (These coolant sealers are not universally praised - see other posts on the forum.)

At least you've eliminated the oil cooler, which always was one of the two suspects.

300 miles and half-a-litre is quite a leak. If it's the HG (and no leaks elsewhere, and you're not burning it (smoke)) then all of this oil should be ending up in the cooling system. It will float to the top, so the quantity of oil in the header tank should grow and grow (and not remain as just a thin film). If this is happening - you may need to drive a bit more to be sure - then the HG definitely needs replacing.

[kenbw2]

300 miles and half-a-litre is quite a leak. If it's the HG (and no leaks elsewhere, and you're not burning it (smoke)) then all of this oil should be ending up in the cooling system. It will float to the top, so the quantity of oil in the header tank should grow and grow (and not remain as just a thin film). If this is happening - you may need to drive a bit more to be sure - then the HG definitely needs replacing.

I had a friend drive behind me at the weekend, asked him to look for white smoke. He said there was literally nothing coming out of the exhaust and I was really gunning it, so yay for the polar bears.

So yes, oil leaks are either into the coolant (there's definitely oil in there, whether that be a leak or remnants of the previous one) or dripping out of the bottom when I fitted the new oil cooler. I'll be parking over some plywood tonight to check that.

[white exec]

Good that exhaust is clear.
See what continues to accumulate in the tank.
Could just be remnants of the previous contamination, which will only be finally got rid of with the Liqui Moly cleaner.
I read it that you were still losing oil from normal driving.

[kenbw2]

Could just be remnants of the previous contamination, which will only be finally got rid of with the Liqui Moly cleaner.

I did give it a treatment to a degreasing agent which I had in for 25 minutes of idling before flushing it out a further 3 times.

I read it that you were still losing oil from normal driving.

You read that right. I've just given it a blast and then idled over a sheet of plywood for 10 minutes, not a speck of oil came out. There's only one place left it could be going

[jsp]

to flush the coolant system use citric acid works perfect.

[white exec]

I would not recommend that at all. Citric acid will attack a variety of metals, and PSA vehicles are a 'mixed metal' system, quite delicate in parts.

[van ordinaire]

While it's a good de-scaler, I wouldn't have thought you could buy enough to flush a cooling system, at least without attracting suspicion, as it's a popular cutting agent for cocaine - something of which a chemist would be only too aware.

[myglaren]

25kg do ya?

[jsp]

I would not recommend that at all. Citric acid will attack a variety of metals, and PSA vehicles are a 'mixed metal' system, quite delicate in parts.

eurol coolant flush include citric acid in it so no good in PSA car.

[white exec]

Have just googled Eurol Coolant Flush, and come up with this...
http://www.eurol.com/en/37-products/516 ... eaner.html.
This is non-acidic, and could be similar to the Liqui-Moly product recommended above.