Coolant Gunk

[tamush.jey5thgenram]

There is some gunk in my coolant, what causes this? I attached few pictures. Sometimes the exhausts smells like very strong gas (some said it was normal), the coolant fan is also loud sometimes (some threads said it was normal). I mainly only owned diesels, this is the first gas 5.7! Any help or suggestion is appreciated.

2019 Dodge Ram Limited 200 k KMS 5.7 L

 

[Jako]

There is some gunk in my coolant, what causes this? I attached few pictures. Sometimes the exhausts smells like very strong gas (some said it was normal), the coolant fan is also loud sometimes (some threads said it was normal). I mainly only owned diesels, this is the first gas 5.7! Any help or suggestion is appreciated.

2019 Dodge Ram Limited 200 k KMS 5.7 L

Do you know if coolant was added at some point? If it was added, was it the correct coolant? Mixing different types can be a big problem.

Can You Mix Different Types Of Coolant?

Can you mix different Anti-Freeze, and what will happen if you do so? Are there different types of anti-freezes you can mix, and how do you find out?

mechanicbase.com

https://5thgenrams.com/community/threads/antifreeze-maintenance.28195/

 

[Rick3478]

Do you know if coolant was added at some point? If it was added, was it the correct coolant? Mixing different types can be a big problem.

What he said. Or oil getting into the coolant? Or 100K miles with zero maintenance? Gunk is not normal. And does that last photo show rust spots on the dipstick? Also not normal. Any error codes stored? Maybe see what you learn from leakdown test and oil analysis. If okay then clean, flush, fill with fresh fluids and watch closely.

Cooling fan, yeah it's thermostatically controlled and comes on when it wants to. Unless it's out of balance and vibrating, its just annoying.

 

[theblet]

It kind of looks like some stop leak was put in there. I’d flush it and refill with mopar coolant

 

[HSKR R/T]

Have you ever had the coolant system flushed and refilled? Should have been done around 160k KMS.

 

[6of36]

What he said. Or oil getting into the coolant? Or 100K miles with zero maintenance? Gunk is not normal. And does that last photo show rust spots on the dipstick? Also not normal. Any error codes stored? Maybe see what you learn from leakdown test and oil analysis. If okay then clean, flush, fill with fresh fluids and watch closely.

Cooling fan, yeah it's thermostatically controlled and comes on when it wants to. Unless it's out of balance and vibrating, its just annoying.

The last pic is the dipstick from the coolant over flow bottle, with gunk on it.

 

[Cbty2050]

Looks like hard water mixed coolant. Crazy what some nasty water will do to coolant.

 

[Rick3478]

The last pic is the dipstick from the coolant over flow bottle, with gunk on it.

Ah, okay, I thought it was a crankcase dipstick. So maybe not as bad as I feared, still looks like some cleaning might be in order.

 

[scottmoyer]

That looks like the same issue we had years ago with a Chevy 3.8L engine. The head gasket was made of a cardboard substance that would break down allowing oil to mix with the DexCool. This caused the sludge. If it gets too hot, it starts cooking the sludge and turns it to brownie consistency. I would definitely gets that out now before it hardens up. Every coolant orifice will get clogged and cause major expense to fix.