Oil in coolant reservoir?

[kware1]

I was working on the steering pump yesterday and just happened to notice the coolant reservoir looked really dark. I stuck my finger in and it felt like oil was in it. What could this be?

Last year, I had a cracked intake manifold. I replaced it, but never did a coolant flush. Just hoping that's the worst case scenario. Otherwise could this be head gasket? or worse?

 

[FU MONSTER]

I would start with flushing the coolant.sounds like a blown gasket but like you said it could be left over from the previous issue. Either way it prob should be flushed

 

[justchecking]

I had a similar material in my coolant reservoir after my engine overheated (bad thermostat). When I flushed my system I found that the coolant was mostly clean and the gunk was only in the coolant reservoir. I believe it was lighter than the coolant and so all ended up in the reservoir. I cleaned my reservoir by removing it and putting some detergent and aquarium gravel in it and shaking it up. I've gone probably 50,000+ miles now and it is still clean.

By the way, I just replaced my power steering pump last weekend. Only got about 60,000 miles out of the last one. Be sure to replace that little teflon seal if you didn't replace the pressure line.

 

[kware1]

Thanks for your input. Let's hope it just needs to be flushed. A head gasket might mean the end for the 02.

 

[Dave Eames]

oil is reservoir=

I was working on the steering pump yesterday and just happened to notice the coolant reservoir looked really dark. I stuck my finger in and it felt like oil was in it. What could this be?

Last year, I had a cracked intake manifold. I replaced it, but never did a coolant flush. Just hoping that's the worst case scenario. Otherwise could this be head gasket? or worse?

Very common phenom in all cooling systems. When coolant degrades it leaves an oil scum in the reservoir. Remove the reservoir, ****** it out, reinstall and fill to correct level with new coolant.

 

[kware1]

Yes I.wl give it a shot hopefully this weekend. Hope its nothing because there has been no overheating, smoke or anything to make me think its serious.