Brown Anti-Freeze???

Question

Antifreeze is brown, always has been since we got the car ( have flushed it and changed it but it still goes back to that state), but lately its really thickening up, and becoming chunky, there isnt any water or antifreeze in the oil, and the oil lvl hasnt dropped or gone up, so I am not sure what is causing this to happen with the antifreeze, we took it into a place to see if they could flush out the system completely but they immediately said it was a blown head gasket and they wouldnt even bother to touch it, yet I always thought if the head gasket was blown there would also be water/antifreeze in the oil ,+ the liquid is like brown antifreeze, there are no oil streaks floating around in it... whats up with this?.. I am about to install a new radiator and thermostat as we speak, but I have it this torn apart I am wondering if I really should change the head gaskets..

Answer 1

the oil on the dipstick would be foamy white or the oil filler cap wolud also have white foam if it was a headgasket its brown because the engine block is rusty on the inside also depends on the year of the car the older the rustyer

Answer 2

under normal circumstances you will not get all the rust out of the system. You would need to take the radiator out unplug the heater core and run fresh water Thur the block for several mins until clean do the hater core separate. back flush heater core both ways. A lot of rust gets caught there.If you were able to run fresh water in car and drive and keep flushing or draining water and refilling each day with clean water and a touch of bleach added to water it will clear up within a few days. It takes a while to get it back clean. If it were a head gasket it would be running hot. If its a intake gasket you should be loosing coolant at a slow rate.Head gaskets also produce an odor like steam and water vapor out tail pipe.The trans cooler could be slightly leaking causing the fluid to taint red.That is if it an automatic.Blown head gasket or leaking intake will usually have a milky film under the oil fill cap or inside valve cover..Sounds like all your problem is rust in the system. Just keep flushing.

Answer 3

An engine block is a pretty neat thing. If you ever see a picture of an engine without the headers and head gasket installed, you will see (besides the large cylinder holes for the pistons) lots of little holes spread around for the coolant to flow through.

Your head gasket has apparently "blown"(become damaged and unsealed) between the piston hole and one or more of these little holes. Now whenever the piston compresses and lights the fuel the resultant controlled explosion of created gas pushes some of that sooty gas into the coolant liquid which is basically just collecting it. This is why your coolant is turning brown. But I would not think that it would be chunky, just colored.

The only fix will be to repair the head gasket if your replacement of the radiator doesn't work.(the assumption being the radiator is rusting out on the inside in that case)

Answer 4

you need to flush everything out throughly, I mean pulling the freeze plugs out and running a hose in the freeze plug holes until clear water runs out of the holes and radiator outlets on the engine and then install new freeze plugs, also take hoses off heater core and back flush it. Get some of that engine coolant flush when you have everything back together at the parts store and run it and just water for a day or so and then flush the system out and add your 50/50 mix of anti-freeze and distilled water, don't put in a new radiator just clean it out good and reinstall.

Answer 5

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RE:
Brown Anti-Freeze???
Antifreeze is brown, always has been since we got the car ( have flushed it and changed it but it still goes back to that state), but lately its really thickening up, and becoming chunky, there isnt any water or antifreeze in the oil, and the oil lvl hasnt dropped or gone up, so I am not sure what...

Answer 6

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The block is the biggest part and carries the most rust and corrosion.If the system wasn't flushed when changing the anti freeze then the super stuff would have removed all the deposits and mixed them with itself and made it look like mud.Just a sign that the old stuff was not working any more.

Answer 7

Auto parts stores have cleaner that you use to flush cooling system. Buy and try first.,Head gasket change is NOT necessary. Sounds like you have a lot of rust in cooling system.Do you use anti-freeze? Can you take back new radiator? It is not necessary

Answer 8

I completely disagree with it being the head gasket. If you used oil is brown like it should be, and not milky, if you havent noticed a sweet smell coming from the exhaust, and your coolant levels havent dropped, then you just have rust in the coolant system. It needs to be flushed right away. Its very common, and doesnt mean that your going to be spending thousands on repairs. you could do the flush yourself for under $50, if you take it in, youre looking at between $75-120.

Answer 9

God...you had BROWN antifreeze and you just drove it like that? I'd go someplace that does reverse flush, and have them do it both ways. Jeez.

I'm sure if you just let your dirty antifreeze go long enough it would turn brown. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, THOUGH?

But to be sure, your car isn't overheating, you never see any steam from under the hood, you never see any white smoke from the tail pipe?

Answer 10

You don,t say what kind of car you have.But we had a lot of Taurus that had that problem.Sediment from the casting inside the block rusting and building up inside the block causing coolant to turn brown.Pluugging heater core and so on.Engine block had to be flushed just draining the coolant and refilling would not fix it