Coolant problems...what to do now?

[fellowtraveler87]

This is sorta long story but I will try to be breif and to the point.

When I bought my car it had 137K on it. Was stupid and didn't check the radiator before I bought it. Anyway, a few oil changes later I popped the cap and there was TONS AND TONS of brownish orange gunky sludge stuff in it (maybe from the dexcool or from it getting contaminated?). I'm not really sure where it came from because I don't know what the previous owner did to it. Anyways, I got it flushed at monro and they said they probably couldn't get it all out but that they would flush it through extra with water and do the best they could. So I got that done and my car stayed cool for a while (i dont know what kind of coolant they used). Then it started overheating again and I took it to PepBoys where they basically gave me the same story. They replaced my thermostat and flushed me out and filled it up with GREEN coolant. At the time, I didn't know my car was supposed to have DexCool in it (it is a 1996). So again it ran fine for a while but the problem came back up. I got tired of paying people to flush it so I tried my best to do it myself (althought I didn't bleed it...someone PLEASE explain how because I don't get it!). Refilled again with the green stuff and replaced my thermostat again (180 degree). Its running cool enough now but if it sits with the engine running at idle for long periods of time it does get hotter. And looking into the radiator there is STILL plenty of that brown nasty crap in there.

I'm sure that this coolant problem will rear its ugly head again. What should I do now? It has been on green coolant for a while, and I'm thinking that if I try to go back to Dex it will be a bad idea due to contamination. What is the best flushing method? Should I use one of those flush additive bottles they sell at the parts store? I want to get this fixed the best I can without spending much.

Thanks for help.

[zerofailure]

Re: Coolant problems...what to do now?

my car is the same thing man, and i bought my car the same way.. What i did was buy a prestone kit from autozone.. i cut one of my hoses and install a T adapter, which then i plug into a garden hose, and just run water through it for half an hour.. after the water is crystal clear you can fill it up then try those additives and just mix it with pure water, run that for like a week then, Drain it/ Flush it again; Fill it with green coolent. After i flushed my radiator about 3 times and i still have that brown sludge. theres really no way to get rid of it for sure unless u want to tear the engine down and clear the valleys, and buy a whole new radiator.

[Choppers]

Re: Coolant problems...what to do now?

sorry to tell you but the guy above is right. my car did the same thing. my intake gaskets went out so we cleaned the engine parts then aned then put a new radiator in. hope this helps.