Question - doing head gasket.. is this ok?

[Jeff K]

Ok, a bit of background.

I restored my car two years ago. Drove it about 10K miles total. Perfectly reliable, even in 105 degree Los Angeles summers.

I replaced the entire cooling system. (Radiator, thermostat, water pump, hoses) and flushed it well during the resto. The engine ran perfectly reliable, we did not take it apart, other then redoing the intake and fuel system.

I was having a cooling issue after two years, but no apparent signs of head gasket leak. (Milky oil etc..). After ruling all out (using a laser thermometer to check temps at different points in the system) we concluded it's the head gasket.

Check out the attached photo. This is a water pump housing with 10K miles on it. The coolant I removed looked clean, I use 50/50 non phosphorous.

Is this normal? Could this be crud in the journals from the engine propagating?
22595
Thanks!
Jeff

[Kenny_Z]

My Monte blew a head gasket in such a way that I was sucking coolant into the cylinder. I was only getting exhaust fumes into the cooling system and no oil. Maybe you've got the same thing here.

[David T]

My Monte blew a head gasket in such a way that I was sucking coolant into the cylinder. I was only getting exhaust fumes into the cooling system and no oil. Maybe you've got the same thing here.

If you suspect a blown head gasket the definitive test is to use a combustion gas leak tester on the coolant. Other tell-tale signs can include bubbles in the coolant and a rising pressure, hydrostatic lock, milky oil or water droplets on the dipstick, and overheating. If the head is warped you can see coolant leaking from the side of the block where the head is bolted on at about the center around the middle cylinders.

[DSNW Toby]

Check out the attached photo. This is a water pump housing with 10K miles on it. The coolant I removed looked clean, I use 50/50 non phosphorous.

I am not sure what coolant you are describing. There are four primary chemistries for antifreeze - IAT, OAT, HOAT, and PHOAT. In some cases, there will be a precipitation of silicates out of solution if some specific antifreeze chemistries are mixed. The resulting silicate deposits leave all sorts of odd looking pockets of material in the cooling system passages. Perhaps this is the crud you are seeing?

http://www.gates.com/downloads/Gates_Coolant_Tech_Bulletin.pdf