My baby might be in in trouble.

[Joshu]

Hey Guys,

I frequent this forum often and only joined a week or two ago (so first post here). I love my 94 Camaro to death and know "yinz guys" love yours as well.

Anyway, last month was my one year anniversary with my first f-body. It has around 122,000 on it with the V6.

Yesterday on my way home from classes (<1 mile) all of a sudden my temp gauge shot up. I got it home without redlining it. I noticed my coolant was low so I added some. Some of the coolant in there looked a bit milky (and rusty) and it began sputtering pretty bad. It now sputters like an earthquate but the temp stays normal like it should. The coolant was always fine till these last 3 days.

The million dollar question is do I have some type of head gasket damage. I am a college student and sometimes it's a stretch to fill up my baby with the budget I'm on so I'm praying it isn't. I am no mechanic and I'm having it looked at tomorrow morning. I figured I'd ask because you all have a great deal of experiance!

Thanks!
-Josh from Pittsburgh

[Joe 1320]

It could be any number of things. First thing I would do is completely flush out the cooling system, refill with just water and do a cooling system pressure check. The tool can be obtained from Autozone on a loan program, if the headgasket is leaking, this test will show it. For what it's worth, the v6s are pretty tough.... headgasket problems are not very common. That being said, starting it up with the radiator cap off should allow you to see if bubbles form in the coolant once the engine is started..... that is a pretty good sign the gasket isn't holding cylinder event pressure aka a blown or partially blown head gasket.

[Steel2686]

Joe said it all. A complete flush of the coolant system is the best place to start. Good luck.

[Mark B]

Take the Oil Fill Cap off too. Check to see if is got milkshake on the bottom of it. If it does... Headgasket.

[Joshu]

Good News!!

The head gasket is fine. I dont know if this has happened to anyone else but the coolant pretty much turned to sludge inside prohibiting proper function. So I just flushed the thing and she's runnin fine. Gettin a full tune up sunday so she'll be even better.

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the help!

[Disifer]

Did you have the green coolant or the orange?

[thenuge876]

Glad to hear it all worked out. At about that mileage a coolant flush (if it has never been done) is certainly a good idea. I just had one done last year when I had to replace the heater core that was bad. Definately notice a difference in cooling now.

[Joshu]

It was orange...what could have caused that....rust?

[Christopherrr]

It was orange...what could have caused that....rust?

You're running Dex-Cool antifreeze...it suppose to be pinkish-orangey. Now, the question is was it gookie and sludging up?

[Joshu]

Yes it was sludge

[Johnyd2]

ive heard that dexcool has a tendancy to sludge up as it breaks down over it's life time, from the chemical makeup that is has. Mine did it to. I could be completely wrong in this statement, as im not fimilar with the chemical properties of dexcool, but it kinda makes sense.