SShag

Just checked my radiator fluid yesterday in my 98 SS and its milky and slimy. Ive been losing fluid for a lil while but didnt know where it was going. There is no antifreeze in the oil. So im thinking its a head or manifold gasket??? anyone have this problem? my car has 85,200 miles

neutron82

iTrader: (26)

do you have a power steering cooler??... if so it might be power steering fluid... you might wanna check that as well

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

milky...as in white colored?

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rnl35thss

iTrader: (14)

Is it an automatic car? Possibly a bad trans cooler in rad?

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Leaking power steering fluid cooler (if you have one) = black **** in the radiator floating around in the radiator

Leaking tranny cooler in the radiator =black **** floating around in the radiator

I've never seen or heard of milky white colored stuff in a radiator.......................

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SShag

Its a 6 speed car. The fluid in the radiator is more like a pea soup/mustard color. I just changed the tranny fluid and put royal purple about 2 months ago...could be related. Also, i did have a small radiator leak between the throttle body spacer and intake but nothing serious. I did notice the power steering pump has been using alot of fluid, so i will check that out as well. Thanks.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

mustard color could just be real old dexcool. Our coolant is normally orange so when it gets older and darker it gets gross looking.

samson_420

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like Etheline Glycol mixed with DexCool.

Thealien

iTrader: (2)

I've seen dexcool look pretty nasty by itself after a while?

SShag

it does look like really old fluid but its not. there has been a radiator low light on my dash for awhile i cant get it to go off even tho i have been fillling it up. i add water to once every two weeks or so, so i had a feeling somthing was gonna go wrong then found out it was all nasty. i gotta work today and write a paper after so tomorrow i will drain the radiator and follow all the hoses from tranny, power steering, and coolers.thanks for ur guys help and i will keep this updated.

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

If its a 6 speed there's no tranny fluid getting in the coolant.
If you DON'T have the factory power steering fluid cooler...it can't get into the coolant either. Look at the picture below, thats a factory power steering fluid cooler. Its the metal pipe in the upper radiator hose. If you have it....and you are losing power steering fluid and have no external leaks or puddles on the ground, its bad and probably leaking into your coolant. Get rid of it, do not replace it.

samson_420

iTrader: (1)

Kinda hard to say without seeing the actual fluid. The worst possible, you most likely already know. . . . A slight leak in the head gasket. . . .

Pro52R

iTrader: (15)

I had the same milky substance in my radiator.

Kept losing coolant too. Pulled my heads and cracked #2 sleeve

Not saying thats your case, but I had oil in the rad and no water in the oil.

gregc_sanchez

iTrader: (3)

im having this EXACT problem word for word, mines an 02 ws6 m6, i drained the reservoir and there was black **** in it looked like oil, but when i drained the radiator it was just milky white, power steering fluid level goes down fast too

SShag

i do have that metal pipe...always wondered what it was there for. i will check that out

wssix99

iTrader: (5)

The coolant reservoir is a good tattle tale for the problem. If your coolant is old, it could be oxidized coolant - or it could be the PS cooler issue.

If you have alien-looking slime all over your coolant dipstick that won't come off, its probably PS fluid. Your PS fluid levels will also be dropping. You'll want to confirm this first as the PS cooler problem will require a coolant flush. (Don't want to flush and then find its a PS problem and have to flush again.)

Post pics!

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Well than, like I said....If you have dark slimy crap or little globs the size of BB's floating around or just in the coolant....AND you are losing PS fluid all the time.

Its almost a 100% certainty that your PS fluid cooler is leaking into the coolant. Mine started leaking late last year.

Its a total piece of **** design by the idiots at GM. It actually makes the PS fluid HOTTER, it IS NOT a cooler. Maybe if you took the car out on a road course for 1 hour straight and beat the living crap out of it, then it might get so hot that 220 degree radiator coolant will help it cool down, but then it will also be making your coolant hotter. Perhaps the dumbest design ever by the ***** at GM.

All you need to do is take the PS fluid cooler off and look inside it, wipe your finger or a rag inside that pipe...if its coated with black ****.....its bad. Yo're entire engine and radiator will have this coating throughout......it needs a very good flush.
A regular flush using the factory petcock drain valve will NOT be sufficient.....

I will give you a write up I did to remove it and install an aftermarket cooler for about $40.00 and 30 minutes of your time with just a philips screwdriver and a razor blade.
Then I'll tell you how to flush every bit of that crap out. That stuff gets caught inside the engine block and its not easy to get out.

Here's pics of my PS fluid cooler....it never gets more than warm to the touch. The factory cooler will give you 3rd degree burns if you touch it.

Cheesy system says my photos exceed forum limits....I've posted these exact pics several times

FOUND THIS:
Post #5 in this thread will tell you everything about an aftermarket cooler install. EASY!!!!
https://ls1tech.com/forums/automatic...g+fluid+cooler

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MiniTransAm

iTrader: (3)

Is this the cooler you used?

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_TRANSMISSION-COOLER-Imperial_6014720-P_895_R|GRPCOOLAMS_555599089___

LS6427

iTrader: (2)

Thats the exact cooler I used. Did you see my pictures in that thread?

edit: oops, I thought you were the OP. Oh well, I'll leave this all here.

Then just get the full upper radiator hose and some clamps. Get enough PS fluid so you can flush all the old out because when your cooling system cools down after engine shutdown, the pressure rises a bit and surely coolant has been blown back into your PS fluid.
You don't need to get that 3/8" hose if your PS lines are perfect, I just wanted to replace the line from the bottom of the PS fluid reservoir.

But check that pipe to make sure there's black PS fluid residue inside the pipe.

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SShag

so today i drained my radiator fluid from the plug at the botom of the radiator. To my surprise it was super clean and bright orange. so i took the hoses off the ps cooler and the alien looking slime was inside that pipe. i then redrained the radiator and more of the slime came through that plug...so hopefully its that metal pipe leaking and not a head gasket. so this weekend im gonna replace the hose, power steering lines and i wanna get that other cooler cuz im sure a new factory ps cooler is a **** load of money. So a transmission cooler will work as a ps cooler in place of the factory metal pipe version correct???