Eggum

Hi
My friend has a '94 240 SX Limited Edition convertible with 126k miles. I only get to see her a few times a year, and this last visit I noticed the coolant looked like chocolate milk, not oily or filmy. She told me the car had recently gotten a new water pump, thermostat, and air was purged from the lines. New coolant was added also. Does this sound like a rusty radiator or failing heater core, or something else?

ProjectMy240

if it looked like chocolate milk then its a bad head gasket

reelten

No, not a bad head gasket. oil doesn't mix with water, if thats news to you, no matter how hard you try and stir and mix, it wont.


Its probably Stopleak, its brown and nasty ****, its used to lubing waterpumps too they say.

ProjectMy240

oh my bad i was told that if oil looked like chocolate milk and milky it was a head gasket

Texas240

i believe it is gas smelling oil, losing coolant w/o a visible leak- those are signs of a blown head gasket.

Eggum

I don't think the coolant smelled like gas, it smelled more like uh, baked bread. So, survey says most likely head gasket...Huh. What would be a ballpark cost on replacing it at a reputable shop? Are these warning signs of an immediate disaster, or is it a slow moving one?

ProjectMy240

yeah, id say a shop will cost like 500 dollars but get a fsm and learn how to do it. its very easy.

reelten

"not oily or filmy"

wikd240

it sounds like bad coolant to me... stop leak or rust in the radiator... a blown head gasket woud more than likley make the oil look like chocolate milk not the water... the water would get a skim on it if it was oil getting into the water... then there is the issue of pressure getting into the cooling system... bad head gasket pushes compression into the water pasages and into the cooling system... it sure dont sound like a bad head gasket to me... just bad coolant... does the car overheat???(another sign of a bad head gasket) or does it run normal??? flush the coolant system with radiator flush then fill it with good clean coolant... then run it for a week or so and check it out again... might just be junk in the radiator... no need to start rippin off the head if it is not needed...

l2aine

Could be just rust... don't forget how old these cars are.

Who said it might be a failing heater core?

Texas240

lol.. we're debating the symptoms of a blown headgasket. You don't seem to have one. Empty, refill 50/50. end of story (well really, if you don' know how to do a rad. flush look it up on the fourms here). Youv'e got a $20 fix ahead... not a $500.

Neil

In the 2 KA24DE blown head gasket cases ive seen, burning fuel leaks out of the cylinders on the power stroke into the water jackets around them. This will most definitely make the antifreeze look murky. however, overheating would likely be an issue as well if this were the case. If you rev the motor in park with the hood up you would also see the resivoar bubble and get fumy.

Stopleak is brown, but if they put a little into the 2g mix when they redid the waterpump and whatnot it wouldnt likely make the entirity of the fluid dark brown. Could be rust i guess, though i thought the heater core and radiators were aluminum... id drain it as suggested and take it from there

Eggum

Oh yeah, the car did overheat when the water pump crapped out, but she had the presence of mind to pull off the road and shut off the car. That was a month or so ago, and last week she made the trip from North Carolina to Kentucky to see me and a couple days later the car started to heat up again. She found if she turned off the car and restart it immediately the engine would cool off. Then a few days ago she replaced the radiator cap and it hasn't overheated since.

Eggum

Well, it started overheating again. So...are we 50/50 on whether the problem is bad coolant or blown head gasket?

l2aine

well it's a lot easier to do a rad. flush with good coolant than to change a head gasket.