rusty colored water

[dunbad]

I take it you mean spark plugs, sorry im from the uk and never heard of freeze plugs.
Well if its gonna need a new water pump then ill have to swallow it coz next week im having a new liquid gas system fitted that is setting me back like nearly 2 grand (4 thousand dollars) so i want the cooling system to be right. Did you know if your water pump appeared like it was rotten or did it just cure it after you had it replaced?
ta

 

[Mudderoy]

I take it you mean spark plugs, sorry im from the uk and never heard of freeze plugs.
Well if its gonna need a new water pump then ill have to swallow it coz next week im having a new liquid gas system fitted that is setting me back like nearly 2 grand (4 thousand dollars) so i want the cooling system to be right. Did you know if your water pump appeared like it was rotten or did it just cure it after you had it replaced?
ta

Freeze plugs are those large round circles on the side of the block just below the intake and exhaust manifolds. We call the freeze plugs because they are designed to pop out if the water in the block started to freeze, otherwise the block may crack from the expansion of the freezing water (or coolant in this case).

The plastic fins were gone on the factory water pump. It caused the engine to over heat and I drove it too far. The repair was to replace the water pump and mill the head. I think they replaced the thermostat at the same time. They complained about the thick red "rusty" color liquid I had in the cooling system.

A water pump here is about $35, and 1 to 2 hours of your time.

 

[CharlesS]

You probably could have saved the multiple rinses with the garden hose; by just adding cooling system flush.
You drain the existing coolant, refill and then add the system flush and drive it around for a few days...
This will dislodge the majority of the rusty buildup and then you need to do several thorough flushes... until the water is clear.
Flush with Distilled Water and then fill with 50/50 coolant & distilled water....

 

[dunbad]

Hi,
So todays saga!
popped the radiator cap and its back to being rusty.
went to the jeep dealers with the intention to get myself a new pump and whilst there i told them i was doing a coolant flush so wanted coolant. They grabbed a rather small looking bottle of coolant (3.78 litres) and handed it to me. I asked for another bottle and said that i was doing a coolant flush but the guy said one bottle would be fine. i questioned the capacity but the guy said thats all they use when they flush a coolant system in my model of car??!! (this is the jeep dealer service department!). They didnt sell the water either so i wonder what they use!! (my cars got full jeep history!!)
Anyway, as i knew i wouldnt be using my car today i decided to continue with this flush buisness. After much searching this morning i decided to back flush (thousands of hits, but not many detailed explanations as to how to do it in REAL SIMPLE terms for stoopid people like me).
So heres how i backflushed
with radiator cap off i dropped the bottom hose that was connected to the radiator (i took the airbox out to make it easier to get to) and rusty/cloudy water flooded out. Put it back, then took the the top hose from the thermostat housing, put the garden pipe in the top hose and real $hit nasty stuff came out the radiator cap once it filled up again. I spent all day yesterday flushing this thing until it was clear, then today i back flush and it was like i was at the VERY BEGINNING again. So i done this about 5 times. Started her up, left her running for about half hour with heat on full and on full power, squeezed all the hoses i could without burning myself. Then waited for her to cool down before repeating. Like three times! Now ive filled her with rad cleaner and deionised water ready for a good run tomorrow before dumping it all out.

Pretty sure its not the best way, if i was using the car today i would have put rad cleaner in today, taken her on a long run and may well of got the $hit out in one or two goes as has been mentioned above.but either way i sure did shift loads of gunk.
looking into fitting the water pump at the weekend. Im just hoping there is a noddy guide for fitting this, it looks pretty straight forward but we will see!!

 

[mikie2084]

My 98 had rusty antifreeze too, i changed and flushed the system cause of this reason and that the temp would sometimes go above normal. A few months later the temp spiked, thought it was the radiator. I bought one from autozone and samething happened again. I then thought the new radiator was clogged cause the antifreeze was still rust colored. Then i ordered an all copper one, while waiting on my second radiator i pulled the waterpump and the impeller was completely gone. Thats where my rusty water was coming from, so i have a brand new copper radiator in my building.

 

[Mudderoy]

There ya go! My 98 impeller was gone and tons of rusty water. Replace that water pump.

 

[dunbad]

Yeah cheers mudderoy, im almost certain your right, i checked the water coming out with a siv and i could see that there were objects in the water which must be coming from somwhere. 30 dollars that you pay for a new pump in the states is a bargain!!
I find it very annoying that my jeep has got less than 30k, been lovingly serviced at jeep by the previous owner and i just know that they used tap water to a 70/30 mix when they changed the coolant. Isnt 3 litres of coolant a bit tight or is that ok?

 

[Mudderoy]

Yeah cheers mudderoy, im almost certain your right, i checked the water coming out with a siv and i could see that there were objects in the water which must be coming from somwhere. 30 dollars that you pay for a new pump in the states is a bargain!!
I find it very annoying that my jeep has got less than 30k, been lovingly serviced at jeep by the previous owner and i just know that they used tap water to a 70/30 mix when they changed the coolant. Isnt 3 litres of coolant a bit tight or is that ok?

Its that crappy factory waterpump. The next thing on the crappy list is the radiator. Change the thermostat while you are at it.

 

[DangerXJ00]

So when you flushed it the last time did you still see green?? Im interested in figuring out why when you opened it up you still saw rusty color but when you opened the bottom hose you saw green antifreeze. Did you eventually get it all out? I am at the same predicament right now myself. Rusty colored anti freeze. I've replaced the t-stat the gasket, now I am going to do the water pump today. I will probably flush the system once before I remove the water pump. I've also already replaced the lower radiator hose. I am at a lose for words; i've flushed and flushed and flushed and still dirty anti freeze and It's starting to get cold here I dont want to keep having to run water through it.

 

[Mudderoy]

So when you flushed it the last time did you still see green?? Im interested in figuring out why when you opened it up you still saw rusty color but when you opened the bottom hose you saw green antifreeze. Did you eventually get it all out? I am at the same predicament right now myself. Rusty colored anti freeze. I've replaced the t-stat the gasket, now I am going to do the water pump today. I will probably flush the system once before I remove the water pump. I've also already replaced the lower radiator hose. I am at a lose for words; i've flushed and flushed and flushed and still dirty anti freeze and It's starting to get cold here I dont want to keep having to run water through it.

I've never had the rusty anti-freeze situation since the OEM water pump went out.. Just pretty green. That has been at least 7 years. I don't understand it either.

 

[bobbyeku]

I seem to be having a similar prediciment with my 96 xj, but i was wandering if at any point did anitfreeze spill out your cap, b/c evertime i come to a stop, and turn off my jeep while it is just a little hot, antifreeze spews out my cap, is it just my cap needing replacing or something further., and also my jeep is only really getting hot when im in traffic or goin slow, interstate speeeds its just fine. so whats that all about?

 

[fyrfytr1717]

Sounds like either your cap needs replacing or you're not tightening it all the way. It has three positions, off - vented - sealed.

More speed = more cool air passing through your radiator = cooler operating temps.

 

[dunbad]

Dangerxj00
I can really sympathise with you! its a total nightmare aint it. Basically i just kept seeing rusty colored water whenever i opened the radiator cap. But then towards the end i pulled the bottom hose and green stuff flowed out. flushed i thought at long long long last until i took the radiator cap off!! rusty water would always be beneath the beneath the radiator cap. Replaced the pump and its been ok, but that said i keep getting dirty water (as opposed to rusty water in the overflow bottle) but beneath the radiator cap now is always bright green? I can see the dirty water being sucked into the radiator when it goes through its cycle. I wait till its cool enough to open the cap and expect to see rusty/dirty water but its still bright green! So how do you work that one out. I am pretty sure that you have to replace the pump because i flushed and back flushed my system probably 5 times. Had it running crystal clear for like half hour. Then a few hundred miles on the road and it would be back. Then i repeated it all again and again and again!!!1

And Bobbyeku
No i had no leaks at all. No overheating, however my needle use to stay bang in the middle of the dial as soon as it got up to the right heat. Now perhaps coz the system is cleaner the needle does move slightly up and down as it gets hotter or cooler. Nothing major only very minor movements in tempreture that never happened before.