Milky substance in degas bottle

quadracer219 · Nov 5, 2014

need some help here guys. I have a 06 with a egr delete, coolant filter system, head studs and gaskets, and new oil cooler. I recently went to change my oil and all filters. Drained oil and looked great, no water or milky substance. Went to change my coolant filter and pulled it off and it was a milky orangish mixture. Then I went to degas bottle and same thing. So I drained all my coolant and took upper and lower hose off and ran water through the radiator to rinse any residue out. Let it water flow through until it was clean. Next thing I did (and I'm sure this prob will upset/disturb some of you) was to leave the lower hose off and run the motor with a garden hose into the degas bottle. The amount of milky nasty whitish orange residue that came out was unreal. I let the motor run until clear water was coming out. Hooked the lower hose back up and ran it around maybe 5-10 miles and drained it. Still had the milky stuff in it. I repeated this process 4x and each time it was less and less. Now my main question is can this residue be residual from when my head gaskets were done or is there something else I should be checkin or worrying about. Also I checked my trans fluid and it was blood red. No water that I could see. I did this by pullin the plug on the pan. Also if the radiator was failing and trans fluid was gettin in the coolant system, over the course of me filling it with water and draining it wouldn't I see trans fluid in the water when I drained it? Any input is appreciated

quadracer219 · Nov 5, 2014

Also I forgot to mention that the truck sat for at least 4 months with blown head gaskets. Also after flushing the system and draining a few times, if the cooler was bad or there was a pinched o-ring wouldn't there be a more blackish hue to the milky substance? Since oil sits on top of water?

webb06 · Nov 5, 2014

You need to find out what exactly is in the coolant. Fuel, oil, or trans fluid are basically your only options.

A picture showing the exact color will help us determine what we think it is.

You're going to need to continue flushing the system. Use dawn soap to help get it out better. Squirt maybe 1/2 cup in the degas bottle and let it run 15minutes and drain it. Do that over and over. Until it's just water.

I guess you didn't flush the cooling system after all the work was done?

quadracer219 · Nov 5, 2014

No I didn't flush it after the work was done. I'll try and get a picture of it. I'm going to add the dish soap to the water now and continue to flush it. Do you think it might be a good idea to go to say duke of oil and get one of their coolant flushes done also? Don't know if maybe the stuff they use is a lil more potent than dish detergent?

quadracer219 · Nov 5, 2014

Think I got a picture attached

AirFishAutomotive · Nov 7, 2014

Fuel is going to seperate and sit in the top of the bottle and you would see a brown ring floating on top of the coolant.

What you have is a ton of oil in your coolant.

Was it a oem oil cooler replacment?

quadracer219 · Nov 7, 2014

Yes it was a oem cooler. Over the course of the last 4 days I've drained and flushed my radiator multiple times. It's gotten 100x better since then. Which leads me to believe that all of it was residual from when I did the gaskets. And never flushed it after the gaskets. I did gaskets, studs, oil cooler, and 8 new injectors all at the same time. The truck sat with the heads off at a shop for almost 4 months. Im thinking/hoping I freaked out over what seems to be residual from when the gaskets went bad. I wasn't driving the truck when the gaskets went so I don't know exactally what happened. I'm thinking the cooler went and caused the gaskets to go?

webb06 · Nov 7, 2014

quadracer219 said:
Yes it was a oem cooler. Over the course of the last 4 days I've drained and flushed my radiator multiple times. It's gotten 100x better since then. Which leads me to believe that all of it was residual from when I did the gaskets. And never flushed it after the gaskets. I did gaskets, studs, oil cooler, and 8 new injectors all at the same time. The truck sat with the heads off at a shop for almost 4 months. Im thinking/hoping I freaked out over what seems to be residual from when the gaskets went bad. I wasn't driving the truck when the gaskets went so I don't know exactally what happened. I'm thinking the cooler went and caused the gaskets to go?

It's possible that the cooler ruptured and the coolant temp getting extremely hot caused the head gaskets to fail.

I would recommend pulling the block drain plugs and back flushing the heater core too. Just to make sure you have everything out before refilling with coolant.

turbie · Nov 11, 2014

maybe its rust from having the heads off and it sitting with a bare block out in the elements, it may not have gotten wet with rain, but the moisture in the air will cause
bare metal to rust.

AirFishAutomotive · Nov 12, 2014

webb06 said:
It's possible that the cooler ruptured and the coolant temp getting extremely hot caused the head gaskets to fail.

I would recommend pulling the block drain plugs and back flushing the heater core too. Just to make sure you have everything out before refilling with coolant.

That is a plausible as well. Why wasnt it flushed from the jump?