Hi guys, so I changed my coolant about a year ago and I just recently switched to E85. I noticed today while checking the coolant reservoir that it got Dirty, looks to me like carbon. My oil is perfect and also it has not lost a drop of coolant. Should I be concerned?

 

If you mix antifreeze with tap water it is hard to say what deposits you might come up with since the chemistry of tap water varies depending on where you live. You need to go by your own previous experience.

When you mix antifreeze with distilled water the deposits are a light orange-brown color and there is very little of that. The radiator has to be old before you will see the color in the radiator.

So, if you use a distilled water mix and the deposits are black you should be concerned.

 

Don't run water in your motor. At the least, Advance sells an additive that's pretty much diluted antifreeze. Its like $1.99.

 

Well I used 50/50, I've always checked out the level and it was always green. Just recently about a month ago I started noticing the water turn grayish on the reservoir but when I opened the radiator cap it's green.

 

Did you by chance previously use coolant that was a different color?
Is there debris/buildup in the overflow container itself? Remove it and clean out the inside completely clean and see if that still happens.

 

QFT

 

Bump. Nobody has gave me a logical explanation. Could it be my headgasket is letting go? I have 104k on my motor and I just recently ran a compression test and it has perfect compression all around (165psi)

 

Compression wont tell you if you have a bad headgasket... do a leakdown test... and sometimes that wont tell you either...

 

If you're noticing your coolant turning grayish... I'm going to lean towards a bearing eating itself. Or POSSIBLY the headgasket.

How many miles are on your water pump? Have you noticed any odd noises, or any cooling issues?

Either way, I'm going to advise you to flush it completely. Having metallic particulate, or gasket particulate run through your system at all (let alone on a high performance turbo motor) is going to cause more harm than good.

Worth noting though, if it is the water pump or head gasket... doing the flush at the same time will save you from doing it twice.

 

This only happened after I ran seafoam through the vacuum line. Maybe since the engine was trying to compress liquid it got past a seal or bearing but I have no coolant loss or coolant in my oil. Also mt turbo is blown so maybe a bit of oil got mixed with the water I am not sure.

 

No cooling issues or noises.

 

Patience Prudence, if the head gasket blows you will know.