brown foam-like crap in radiator fluid

[vroom-chirp]

car....1994 camaro 3.4
miles..173,XXX

i just got this car so i know very little about it, i know what bad head gasket symptoms look like. but this stuff is wierd... it gets caked to my radiator cap,its like thik foam, so i wiped it off on the ground, and the next day when it dryed, i picked it up and it crumbled like a mud ball, just like fine dust and fell throu my fingers.....wierd huh?
so.....what do you guys think?
i was thinking mabey an additive the last owner put in??

[Marty85]

It sounds to me like some sort of stop leak compound. The previous owner may have wanted to cover up a problem he was not willing to have fixed.

[BobbyZ72]

yup, same thing happend to me, my radiator and tank was full of that stuff. I installed a new radiator, new 165 t-stat as the other on was stuck open with this stuff, and had to wash the reserve tank out with gas to remove that stuff, took forever to get it clean. Now 5000 miles later im finding little bits and spots of that stuff on the surfaces of my new radiator, im guessing that what was left over in the engine and water pump. But i think all is well.

[CamaroRob97]

Its probally been a very long time since someone flushed the coolant. Since its that bad, you might want to do a total flush!

[vroom-chirp]

thatnx guys, i thought that may be it, so i heard there is a way to hook up a water hose and unplug a radiator hose and just give it hell.....where do i hook up at ?...or is there a good way you guys know to flush this crap?

[97rs]

im betting its dexcool, there are alot of people with this problem, including me. dexcool is the red antifreeze GM used to put in cars, you need to change it out with the normal green stuff. see previous thread - http://www.camarov6.com/ubb/ultimate...=013123#000000
and lawsuit http://www.amghummer.com/Maintenance...antifreeze.htm
and there is a thing that you can buy that you splice into your heater hose and then you can just hook a hose onto it and flush away, you can get it at probly most auto parts places.

[CamaroRob97]

He has a 3.4 he will have the green.
Dex-cool is orange chief.
Dex-cool is not that big of a deal, jsut keep up on it and its fine.

[guy]

dex cool is orange in the bottle but after a while it fu*** up the car and turns brown sludgy,atleast mine did and my car only had 15000 miles dex cool sucks.