Foaming in Radiator

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timbolia

timbolia

65Wagon
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
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I popped the cap on the radiator this morning to check the level and the level was fine but it looked like a rootbeer float in there (Lots of brownish bubbles). The car was warm already if that makes a difference.

Should I be concerned?
 
Sounds like you may have blown a head gasket or possibly something worse. Sounds like oil in the water. IMO
 
check oil level and see if it is similiar, if so you have the two mixing somehow. head gasket problem can be checked by a tech at the local shop using a number of different ways.
 
Drain and flush your system then refile and take it for a spin for a few miles and look at it again, Have you ever flushed and changed the cooling system in it before ? If it has been setting you could be seeing rust and your system is know flowing every where, If you have water in your oil it will look brown.
My 318 Dakota truck looked the same way when I got it and I flushed the system with a radiator flush "read instruction" I watched some one do this and wasted his money :-D
 
Dont remove the radiater cap when the water is hot.
Foam like bubbles is not a big problem. It's those golf ball sized bubbles that spell trouble.
 
Yeah, I just checked the oil and it looks fine. The radiator looks OK too now that it is cool. Also It is not getting hot at all. I can put my hand on the valve cover after it has been running for half an hour and it is just warm.
I flushed the whole system a few months ago when I replaced the radiator, water pump and thermostat. The temp gauge has not worked since though.

You guys were getting me scared there.

Also I just remembered that I had put in a lot of stopleak before I replaced the radiator. I bet there is residue from that in the block still.
 
I just re-started a 70 340 that hadn't been started since 1987; it and the radiator still in the car, stored in an unheated shop(north Fla). Drained coolant, looked ok, refilled with anti-freeze. Fired it up and let it run several times (which included the 2000 rpm cam break-in, after I found the hyd lifters bleed down too much to my liking). Checked the radiator- brown crap; redrain. I was swapping trans, so I replaced freeze plugs in the bellhousing area-crud in the block. Then found some side freeze plugs that were suspect, with rust. Popped them out, and the crud I pulled out of the block was amazing. I think that wet crud sits against the freeze plugs, and rusts them.
Flush it good; I read that muratic acid works good. I've only seen foaming on low coolant- brown-dirty?.
 
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