Oil in Water Problems

[mylesbarnett]

Hi All,

My expansion tank filled itself with brown sludge last weekend!  After some reading on this forum i found that the oil cooler was bust. Ive just replaced my oil cooler and reconnected up, ive only filled her up with tap water but she's boiling steam out of the expansion tank now when she's been idling for 10-15 minutes.

Does this mean my rad is screwed now?
How do i clean the cooling system of this sludge?  (A lot has come out so far but i need to break it down i think)  
Do i need to keep flushing & flushing the car till it all goes?
Do I use washing powder to break it down?

Thanks for any help!

Mr B

PS Ive jus spent more than the cars worth fixing the brakes & gearbox, i really dont want to have to through her away!!

[Mixologist]

Try down at your local halfords, or some sort of car supplies place, and see if they have something that you can flush through to clean it all out.  Dont try washing up liquid/powder or you'll f**k your car up.  
And when you've got it all cleaned out, put some summer coolant/antifreeze in with the water so that it doesn't over heat.

[Veedubgt18v]

flush the rad and block until clear fresh water comes out, disconnect all hoses and set the heating in the car to hot then put a hose first in the rad and then in a coolant hole on the block (flush top to bottom) removing the thermostat will make flushing the block easier. when this is done do it again but the reverse (bottom to top) to make sure its all out, reconnect everything, then fill with 50% coolant and 50% water, put the cap back on and run the car till the fan comes on once, then top up the water level (cos it will go down!) with water and that should solve the problem.

It is important you have the heating in the car on hot to prevent airlocks.

vw g10 or g11 coolant is good, available from vag.

[rubjonny]

You dont need to switch the heating on in a MK2 since the heater sliders do not control the flow of coolant into the heater matrix like in the MK1.

Also I've heard from a reliable source that running the system a short while with a small squirt of fairy liquid (keep the cap on) helps clean all the sludge out.  Obviously you'll need to flush it all out AGAIN after

[frankerooney]

You sure it was the oil cooler? Had similar problems when my head gasket went, but then you seemed pretty sure about the cooler. Found that when the gasket goes,you can get cylinder pressure in the coolant system and it can blow steam all over the shop.

[mylesbarnett]

Hi,

Erm i cant be 100% cos i dont know how to tell if the head gasket is shagged.  

But what i did was disconnect the 2 coolant pipes on the cooler and connected them together, then ran the engine for a short while.  Black oil came out of the inlet rather than the brown stuff i was getting when i disconnected it.

This is my assumption that the cooler was shot, fair assumption?

I'm not getting any mayo in the dipstick or in the oil filler area, but i was getting back pressure in the expansion tank i.e. with the cap off and the engine running sludge was oozing out of the tank.

Is there a definitive way of determining if the gasket has gone?  And if it has how much of a pain is to replace on an 8v no PAS GTI?

Cheers,

Mr B

PS Thanks for the replies so far!  Im off down to halfords to get some rad flush and fingers crossed.

[eyeletboy]

sounds to me like the head gasket.similar thing happened to my golf.sludge in the expansion tank,cleaned it all out,put new water and antifreeze,run it for 10mins,left it overnight and it reapeared in the morning.head gasket blown.?300 lighter!!

[J a m e s]

have you checked the oil cooler?

try a local garage for some forte flush to get the oil out the water.

[frankerooney]

Was the back pressure you're talking about showing up when you have the two pipes off the oil cooler connected together? It's hard to say whether it's the gasket aswell as the cooler. Extra coolant pressure in the system can test seals everywhere. Classic symptoms of head gasket blowage are steam from exhaust when hot, oil in water, water in oil, or in my case bad misfire and a cylinder full of water! Cracked the spark plugs when hot and all but one were good - the odd one out was wet and steam came out of the hole in the head.
 Once you've flushed it, it might be fine, but i'd run it for a while with a new oil cooler and test for hoses going hard straight away when the car is cold. Head gasket job is a 3* in haynes - take the timing belt off, the manifolds (either when the head is still on the block, or afterwards - need to disconnect exhaust for that) undo the 10 bolts in proper order and the head should be removable. I'm in the middle of my scirocco at the moment! Rusty bolts aplenty..

[mylesbarnett]

Update!

Swapped the cooler, flushed 3 times now.  Still the water is brown, with a nice 1mm sludge head on top of the expansion tank water.

But I think its fixed because the water isnt thick like custard like it was when i first noticed it.  It'd say its 90% water 10% oil now rather than 50-50 as before.

I just need to flush her a few more times then leave her alone!

Thanks for the replies,

Mr B

PS Anyone got any good ideas to get rid of engine oil out of tarmac?