Looks like pressure and soot in my coolant ball

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dieselnuts

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I've replaced the EGR cooler today, put my spare clean coolant ball on, went for a 70mile ride. Got back the ball is black, I didn't do a flush, and pressure built up again. If not the EGR cooler what else could it be? Head gasket?
 
sisyphus

sisyphus

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They do hold some pressure IIRC. If you start losing coolant that's a different story.
 
UhOh

UhOh

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Are you sure it's soot?

Daughter's wagon when I bought it had a bunch of black specs in the coolant. When I did the TB I flushed the cooling system (took me several hours) and also installed a new coolant ball. It's been clean since. I believe that this was all some residual from a failed water pump (PO): PO had flushed, but like everything else he did he did a half-arsed job.
 
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dieselnuts

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I did a compression test, cyl1 340, cyl2 340, cyl3 380, cyl4 360.I thought I would see a really low one indicating a leaky head gasket but it doesn't look like it to me.
 
Vince Waldon

Vince Waldon

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A headgasket breach can be between the:

1) oil gallery and water gallery: probably no noticeable extra coolant pressure, but oil in coolant since oil pressure > water pressure

2) compression chamber and oil gallery: soot in oil... dunno how you'd know :)

3) compression chamber and water gallery: extra coolant pressure and soot from combustion into coolant.

(or a combination of the above)

Sounds to me like you've got what's behind Door #3. :(

And, a small breach probably won't show up on a static compression test, since often a small breach is only apparent when the engine is hot, under load, and the head is trying to lift.
 
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IndigoBlueWagon

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Most common leak is between cylinders 2 and 3 on the right (exhaust) side of the head. There's less material there than on the left side so the rates of expansion differ. When exhaust gasses escape past the cooling passages soot gets into the coolant. And often cars will lose coolant when driven hard with this condition.
 
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hey_allen

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Have you tried a combustion gas detection check on the cooling system?

It's a fairly simple test, involving a liquid that changes colors with the presence of hydrocarbons in the air that you pump through it.
 
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dieselnuts

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I was driving it maybe a little hard that day through snow and in a hurry that day. When I came to a stop it looked like steam coming out the front, I thought it was snow melting but now I'm thinking it could have been running hot. It was that day I found the soot.I do check under the hood daily so I believe it happened that day,I have to ad motor oil everyday. So I changed the EGR cooler, that was almost all plugged up but the ball is dirty again. Maybe it is residual soot? If it is the head gasket could it seal back up once cooled? Is there a preferred flush for soot?
 
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hey_allen

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Here is one that I've seen, and likely the one that I used when I was diagnosing a blown head gasket on one of my cars.
https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-75500-Combustion-Leak-Detector/dp/B0007ZDRUI

Be warned, there is a different chemical for a diesel engine, versus a gas engine. I'm not sure why, but it's different.

https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-75730-Diesel-Detector-Fluid/dp/B000I16L90

Here's a video discussing using it as well. (I'm not sure just how good the information is, I couldn't listen while at work.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ney8hxHaRio
 
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Palka3

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Did you install a new EGR cooler or did you remove, clean and reinstalled the old EGR cooler? After cleaning my cooler, I flushed it until crystal clean water came out of it. In between flushes I would dump the contents from the EGR cooler into a glass jar to see if there was any soot left. If so, I repeated until the jar was clean.
 
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dieselnuts

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Palka3 said:
Did you install a new EGR cooler or did you remove, clean and reinstalled the old EGR cooler? After cleaning my cooler, I flushed it until crystal clean water came out of it. In between flushes I would dump the contents from the EGR cooler into a glass jar to see if there was any soot left. If so, I repeated until the jar was clean.
Click to expand...
I blow it clean with air
 
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dieselnuts

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I'm wondering what are my chances of putting ARP studs to hold down the head if it is the bolts stretching. Like to avoid taking the head off if I can.
 
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IndigoBlueWagon

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I know a bunch of people have tried that, but I can’t recall it working for anyone for a long time. Seems the head will have to come off at some point
 
G

Genesis

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Once a head gasket starts leaking adding more clamping force to the assembly usually doesn't stop it no matter who made the engine. Is the car modified materially?

I suspect IBW is right on where you're headed with this one.... probably sooner rather than later would be a good idea.
 
UhOh

UhOh

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I cast the third vote. Pull the head. Might be something else going on, but you're going to need the head off; if it's just a gasket then consider yourself lucky (a fairly simple and cheap resolution). If you don't go this route then you're going to be looking over your shoulder. It's always best to make repairs on one's own time of choosing (vs. breakdown on the side of the road).
 
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dieselnuts

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Yeah I have to agree with you guys. I'm just getting itchy to drive my TDI. Head off, I won't start until mud season passes.
 
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