Thinking about buying a 2000 Malibu w/ 3100 engine. Car looked great except there was a slight soft sludge substance when I wiped my finger on the inside of the dex-cool coolant caniseter. What is this substance? Should I be worried? Car seems to look and run great.
2006-09-30 04:36:06 · 6 answers · asked by TumbleTim 4 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
The sludge is almost certainly oil that has coagulated with your water/coolant mix. Most likely this means that the head gasket is leaking, and allowing the two to mix. As the oil oil pressure is higher than the cooling system pressure (45 to 75 psi versus 10 to 15 psi) the oil seeps through the gap and mixes with the coolant and forms a sludge.
As the engine you are talking about is a V-6 there are actually two cylinder head gaskets and so the expense of the repair is higher, as generally you would have both done even if only one has failed.
Of course if the price is low enough, and if the head(s) is not warped or cracked or anything worse wrong, it might be worth your while, but certainly it is a fairly serious problem.
Sometimes, if the gasket is not actually breached, but simply has opened a gap because the head(s) is not properly torqued down you can retorque the cylinder head bolts and eliminate or minimize the leakage, but this is always a gamble.
I bought a little Mercedes for my son once that had a slight leak, and I retorqued it and he ran the car two more years before I had to tear the head down and replace the gasket. It might have made it awhile longer had he not determined to see how fast the car would go one evening and blown the weak gasket out.
Still, I have negotiated $2,000 off of the price when I bought it, knowing I would eventually have to tear it down, and I felt it was a pretty good deal.
2006-09-30 04:58:31 · answer #1 · answered by anonymourati 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the sludge may just be a result of a dirty cooling system remedied by a good flushing out along with a cooling system anti-rust / lubricant treatment added with your new coolant
if it is an oily deposit you should ask the owner if the car has had a blown head gasket which could have leaked some oil into the cooling system
2006-09-30 04:47:03 · answer #2 · answered by John K 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Chevy 3100 engines have a bad habit of getting intake manifold leaks. It is possible that some oil under pressure got into the coolant system and because oil floats on water, it collects near the rad cap.
2006-09-30 04:56:40 · answer #3 · answered by Lab 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i own a repair shop,,and someone may have added something else to it at some other time,usually its just a sludge build up that occurs from old coolant in one,,you might want to flush it out real good before winter gets here,,ut if its not real thick i wouldn't worry about it,,a good flushing out of the cooling system will take care of it,good luck i hope this help,s.
2006-09-30 04:45:27 · answer #4 · answered by dodge man 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they may have mixed green coolant with the red stuff and when you do that it sludges up the cooling system. i would stay away from the car if i was you.
2006-09-30 04:46:49 · answer #5 · answered by mustang656 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
dont buy it sounds like a blowned head gasket
2006-09-30 04:44:19 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋