Another dirty coolant thread

I put a mild tune on my car with EGR delete, last year. It's strong enough to slip the stock luk dmf, which I've replaced with G60 smf.
In the last few months I've seen a buildup of black particles/stuff in the reservoir.
Tested for exhaust in the bottle, turned from purple to reddish orange.

So, is it a waste of a set of ARL bolts to try avoiding gasket replacement?
(, And just swap the bolts?)
Motor has 230k miles on it, and I'm not wanting further power gains/mods.

I've read pretty much every post I could find on the subject here, but nothing saying upgrading the bolts can actually fix a gasket leak once it's started.

Thanks

When you did the egr delete, did you delete the cooler as well, or just a tune? If all the hardware is present but you just tuned the egr out, the cooler could still leak exhaust into the coolant, It's either that or head gasket. You could try the APR200, some people over here have had good luck tossing in ARP head studs and fixing mild head issues. I'd suggest giving it a once over.

Must have missed this one,
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=308795
I personally would try a set of cap screws first, much cheaper for an experiment.

EGR cooler is gone, in a box now.
Years ago when original cooler leaked it went the other way, white clouds in the rearview mirror, heh.

Whether studs or upgraded bolts I was just wondering if there's much chance I'd be looking at a do-over. I guess because of mileage/age. I understand if I was a shop I'd probably tell customer they're better off long term doing the HG and upgrade the bolts.

I've got a set of ARL bolts, they weren't really expensive. I think $30-35, to the door.
Guess it's worth a gamble - doesn't take near the effort of R and R'ing the head.

?

jayb79 said:

Must have missed this one,
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=308795
I personally would try a set of cap screws first, much cheaper for an experiment.

Click to expand...

Lol that's the same link I shared.
It's a gamble of a fix, you can do it by simply removing the valve cover. Won't be losing much time if you try it. If it still leaks, head gasket time.

I did miss that thread, catching up on it now. Thanks guys!

I just went through this.
I was blowing coolant , and was close to a TB change.
Car had around 390,xxx miles on it with a stage 3 Malone tune with sprint 520’s.

I had snapped a GP in the head about 12 years ago and was starting to smoke on first startup in the morning, so I decided to change the head with a good used one I got from Dutch auto overseas with about 150,xxx on it . I tried Frank but he had none ready to go as I was time limited. I also changed the hard coolant pipe that runs in front of the block.

I checked the block and head fo straightness before reassembly with a metal straight edge and feeler gauges.

It lasted about 5,000 miles before I started to blow coolant again.
Couldn’t go more than 6 lbs of boost before my scan gauge coolant temp would start climbing......

I also read the threads on this and decided to do the ARP bolt swap.
It wasn’t bad , started with bolt 10 torqued to 90 till all done.
Then went to 125 ftlbs in 3 increments.
Well it did help us did not cure the problem......

Wasn’t sure what it could be, block, head .
I got a spare engine from a member here in case I had to do a swap.

I figured I’d try one more time and redo the head gasket and be more careful and remeasure the block and head ( btw I still have the original cross hatch marks on cylinders at 394,xxx miles) .

I decided to go with a malhe MLS head gasket, correct hole gasket.
Remeasuring the block and head shown that there was no problem.

Reassembled everything and all is well now, no idea what was wrong with the other head gasket as I could not find anything wrong with gasket , nothing on the block and nothing on the head.

I’m regularly pulling 18 psi boost now with no issues.

Only cost me a head gasket and now I have a spare engine.

And no this is not the first or second head job that I’ve done.....

Hope this helps.

If it were me, I would do it right with ARP head studs. I come from powerstroke land so studs are commonplace with what I’m used to

Compared to most diesels the head on these engines is very easy remove and reinstall with studs


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Problem is that the head is now getting hotspots in it and it warps.
If a new gasket and new studs dont immediately fix the issue. Head and or block is warped.

Black particles in coolant ball; I had this, my "guru" found it before me.
I panicked and quizzed about head gaskets or what it could be.

He didnt skip a beat to tell me to change my OIL COOLER(under the filter)
Problem solved. Went ahead and did the upgraded cooler.
You guys are focused on the coolant system, so maybe there is a key difference between your problem and my experience.

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ItAintRodKnock said:

Black particles in coolant ball; I had this, my "guru" found it before me.
I panicked and quizzed about head gaskets or what it could be.

He didnt skip a beat to tell me to change my OIL COOLER(under the filter)
Problem solved. Went ahead and did the upgraded cooler.
You guys are focused on the coolant system, so maybe there is a key difference between your problem and my experience.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

A valid point which I didn’t take into account when I gave my advice.

Question is do you also loose coolant, IE blowing out the coolant bowl?
Are you using scan gauge where you can monitor your coolant temp while driving?
If you do when you lay into it with good boost does your coolant temp rise quickly, like 200+ degrees ?
Then It would be a head gasket and I’d do the ARP bolts with new gasket.