I noticed that my engine coolant does not look as nice and clean as the intercooler coolant. Is the coolant supposed to be this dirty or do I have a bigger problem here?

Some notes: Truck has 9XXX cumulative miles so far, original Ford Motorcraft Premium Gold antifreeze in both intercooler and engine (Ford started using this yellow variety in 2003), and oil is Mobil 1 synthetic 5W-30 with ~3000 miles since last change.

Intercooler (clean):


Engine coolant (a little more opaque)

 

Clean intercooler coolant:

 

Dirty engine coolant with some weird sludgy particles clinging to to reservoir walls:

 

 

Oil on dipstick (looks ok to me - no foam, etc):



Any ideas? The coolant is not quote the proverbial milkshake, and the oil is not foaming (yet) but this doesn't look normal to me :?

 

When mine started to have the light ring around my expansion tank I had the same questions. Come to find out Laborday weekend I blew both my head gaskets. When we tore it down there were signs that it had been leaking for a while.

I also started noticed the tail pipes smoking at wide open throttle. When I was just driving normal there wasn't any smoke only when I went into heavy boost.
One other thing coolant wasn't leaking on the ground it was leaking in to the exhaust side and getting shot out the tail pipe. Never noticed water in my oil.


Hope this info helps.

Suavy

 

It may just be a little sludge and glycol form the radiator that you're seeing. If you wanted to check for water in your oil, pull a small sample out and make a cup out of some tin foil. Get a match and heat under the tinfoil. If you have water, it will crackle and pop as the water boils.

 

from the factory ford puts a brown color stop leak (pellets) which will cause the coolant to look brown - there is a ssm/or tsb on this concern (u would not notice it with the old green type coolant)

either way its would be a good idea to keep an eye on it or even do a flush and then monitor the condition for peace of mind (ford says the coolant is not afffected nor cooling system components and that in the future a different stop leak will be used)

 

Hmm, I will def keep my eyes on this. I've also been told it's just rust from the iron block and is normal (but I thought antifreeze was supposed to prevent corrosion, and I only have 9000 miles??).

Can any 03 owners tell me what their yellow coolant looks like? BTW, the sludge reminds of chocolate when I wipe it on a paper towel, but it doesn't taste like Hershey's.

 

i will check on mine tomorrow but i only have 3,000 km

 

I'll bet it is a blown head gasket. What you describe is how my radiator fluid looked.

 

That doesnt look normal at all, I would check it quick.

 

Its not a blown head gasket, I would recommend flushing it all out and going back to the old style "green" antifreeze. There is no harm whatsover using the older stuff.

GREAT SCOTT

 

I got it too! I believe the ford service manual also mentions the color change with the stop leak. I also have what appears to be “puddles” of dark stuff in the bottom of the reservoir (look from underneath), not so much “weird sludgy particles”. 4500km.

 

I've got the green stuff, does that mean my intercooler was never replaced??? I got the truck with 17K on the odom.

Uh oh?