COOLANT IS BROWNISH COLORED

[joe_peters]

Doesn't matter closed system pressure bottle or open system coolant recovery bottle--they need to be removed and cleaned by hand.

 

[twistedmentality]

well got the system flushed. it was pretty messy. had to flush it like 4 times. also pressurized the system to help flush out all the gunk we could.

there was about a 1/2" of sediment in the resivor tank . got every thing cleaned out and filled back up. will be keeping an eye on it over the next couple of days.

also put in a new stat thermostat.

thanks for all the help.

 

[ehall]

don't freak out if you have to do it multiple times

 

[dgrigorenko]

i know this was mentioned before briefly, but i just want to reiterate... you MUST use DISTILLED WATER when you refill. if you just use hose or filtered water it will rust back up on you fast.

 

[96XJ_4.0]

I battled the same thing in my jeep, i have finally almost won the battle after literally 10+ fully flush sessions. I would get a silt like sludge at the bottom of the overflow, brown or brown/green coolant, and the same silt/mud settling like a paste on the radiator filler neck. If you were to remove the rad cap and stick your finger in the neck (where it is horizontal) you could literally scrape out like a 1/8" of 'mud/silt/sludge' type stuff. I bought it at 130k when it was 10 years old.

At first I fully drained the system, removing both the lower rad hose and the drain plug in the block.(was going to use the petcock but it nearly broke off so i just retightened and left it) I flushed the entire system with hose water for a long time. I did the flush in both directions in the heater core, radiator, the other coolant hoses, drain in the block ect, anywhere i could get the hose i blasted it out. Let that drain, filled with the 5+ hour flush and water, then dumped that,fully filled with distilled drove around for 15 min, dumped that and filled with 50/50 distilled/coolant.

In less than 2 months the coolant was back to its usual self! (barely green/brown, sediment floating in it/'mud' at the bottom of the overflow) So the following times (9+ literally) i just did the hose flush like crazy on it, cleaned out the overflow, always finding 1/2"+ of this mud on the bottom, then i would blow out everything as much as i could with compressed air to get as much of the remaining hose water out of there, refill with distilled water and coolant.

So far so good, i did recently change my radiator and when i changed it the coolant had be in it for about 3 months and still looked pretty good, with very slight sediment still in it, but 99% better than it was at any other time. So after the new rad went in, i did another flush/fill, and its been good (but its only been about a month or so) i think when flushing, a lot of times the radiator holds sediment caked up in it, and is slowly released into the coolant. so it just takes time and lots of flush's an eventually you get it all out.


PS: I heard a really good flush (and cheap) is using regular white vinegar about 50/50 or so with distilled, and running that for a few hours and dumping, dont leave it in too long. apparently it eats mineral deposits if someone used regular non distilled water in it.

I had the same problem with my 120k mile 96. I fixed it by replacing the radiator with a flush. No more sludge. 125k...

 

[Crawlncoupe]

i know this was mentioned before briefly, but i just want to reiterate... you MUST use DISTILLED WATER when you refill. if you just use hose or filtered water it will rust back up on you fast.

x2

i wouldnt use tap water even if it was to flush it out. quit being cheap! distilled water is like 79 cents a gallon. i bought about 8 gallons of distilled water, the prestone flush at autozone and 2 gallons of concentrate antifreeze. used 6 gallons of water and the flush to get most of the crap out of the system, then changed the stat and made a nice 50/50 mix and the jeep cools alot better. i didnt think i had a overheating problem till i flushed it and seen how much lower my gauge sat.

 

[ehall]

Distilled water is wasted when the water is going in one end and pouring out the other. Yes use it when you fill, but if you are going to do mulitple flushes tap water is perfectly fine.

 

[61scout80]

what are you supposed to do with the waste antifreeze?

 

[ehall]

It's poisonous but consumer grade stuff isn't usually hazardous. Smart thing is to call your local landfill/dump and ask if they have free reclamation for it. Otherwise dump it in the sewage where it gets diluted and returned to the drinking water

 

[pajeepman]

what are you supposed to do with the waste antifreeze?

When I changed my cracked 0331 head on my '00, I took the old anti-freeze to the local Pep Boys.
I gave them my old milky shake looking oil and asked about coolant and they said bring it in. Cool, I never new what do do with it so I just burnt it, threw it on my friends burn pile(you know the one that was burning for 9 months threw massive rain storms and 18" of snow, yeah the little fire up at Pete's that's the one:flame::flame::flame: )

 

[winterbeater]

well got the system flushed. it was pretty messy. had to flush it like 4 times. also pressurized the system to help flush out all the gunk we could.

there was about a 1/2" of sediment in the resivor tank . got every thing cleaned out and filled back up. will be keeping an eye on it over the next couple of days.

also put in a new stat thermostat.

thanks for all the help.

The give-away for a cracked head (at least in the 0331 syndrome) is milky residue collecting on the bottom of the oil fill cap. That and steady use of coolant.

 

[Crawlncoupe]

Distilled water is wasted when the water is going in one end and pouring out the other. Yes use it when you fill, but if you are going to do mulitple flushes tap water is perfectly fine.

if you put tap water in the system and drain it, there is still tap water in the system. is it that hard to understand. like i said quit being a cheap ass, spend the $5 and flush with distilled water.

 

[ehall]

learn how to drain an engine

 

[Crawlncoupe]

learn how to drain an engine

like i said its almost impossible to completely drain the system and the amount of time wasted trying to get all the tap water out, it'd make more sense to spend the $5 and get distilled water. i'd rather spend the money and do it the right way. you do it yours, i'll do it mine

 

[joe_peters]

like i said its almost impossible to completely drain the system and the amount of time wasted trying to get all the tap water out, it'd make more sense to spend the $5 and get distilled water. i'd rather spend the money and do it the right way. you do it yours, i'll do it mine

4.0 cooling system including the pressure bottle/recovery bottle has a capacity of approximately 14 quarts.

50/50 mix means 7 quarts of distilled water. That means two gallons of distilled water from Walmart, .99 cents a gallon = $1.98.

Buy the distilled water.

 

[kujito]

what are you supposed to do with the waste antifreeze?

A lot of recycling centers and landfills want nothing to do with old anti-freeze. The parts stores around here don't want it either.

Check your city's web site. Here, it's the Infrastructure Dept. that will take it. The drop of is at the Infrastructure Maintenance Center.

I actually had to put in a request email to find out what to do with it.

 

[ehall]

4.0 cooling system including the pressure bottle/recovery bottle has a capacity of approximately 14 quarts.

50/50 mix means 7 quarts of distilled water. That means two gallons of distilled water from Walmart, .99 cents a gallon = $1.98.

Buy the distilled water.

10 flushes means 20 gallons, 8.5 lb per gallon means 170 lbs of water hope you like hauling water

 

[joe_peters]

10 flushes means 20 gallons, 8.5 lb per gallon means 170 lbs of water hope you like hauling water

Flush the system: add a commercial flush to what you already have in the system, follow the directions on the can/bottle. If you think it needs more flushing use tap water with more commercial flush. You don't need the distilled water until you are ready to refill the system with clean 50/50 mix of distilled water and anti-freeze.

Any small amount of tap water left in the system will not destroy your cooling system.

There is anal retentive (which I am) and then there is OCD.

 

[ehall]

If you think it needs more flushing use tap water

sinner

 

[2000maroonxj]

Eventually I replaced my whole coolant system(hoses, t'stat and housing,water pump, radiator) because of this same issue. when I did the swap out I flushed the heater core and the block several times onder pressure with a water hose and got most of it out but now two weeks down the road it is slowly going back to the brown color due to the deposits left in the block and heater core. I found that the best way to get the sediment out is to fill the system with the flush and run it around for a little while then drain and repeat.