Copper type stuff in coolant?

[ianamk]

I am currently the temporary/longer than I thought user of a 325 e30.

 

In true fashion of giving cars back better than when you received them, I was about to do a coolant flush....... Also I have 3 gallons of antifreeze in the garage!

 

However, on inspection, the coolant bottle has what I can only explain as tiny flakes of copper in it.

 

It's a manual, so not transmission cooler and it had an ally radiator, so I'm a little baffled as to where this is coming from!

 

Any suggestions? It's not overheating, smoking, mixing the oil or foaming.

 

Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

[Stanky]

Welcome along. I'll bet my house and all its contents thats K-seal residue, covering up a failed head gasket or leak of some description. 

 

It'll be like that all round the system, probably worth leaving it the hell alone because if you clear it out, the HGF/leak will re-appear with a vengeance.

[cobblers]

What he said!

leave it alone unless you want to fix it properly. Been there, done that. Twice

[Bobthebeard]

Yes.... K-seal.

Not always a bad sign. Some people add it as a preventive thing though. So I am told.

[Captain Furious]

Plus 1 for leaving it alone. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[Pillock]

They've refilled it with Goldsclager.

 

Or, K-Seal at a push.

[Christine]

My Pajeros had k seal in it for 8 years , no problems

[DodgeRover]

Leave well alone.

[Six-cylinder]

The plan now is to do a test for exhaust gases in the cooling system because the car has a mid range misfire.

[Guest Hooli]

They've refilled it with Goldsclager.

 

Or, K-Seal at a push.

 

K-seal probably tastes better too!

[Vince70]

You can drain the system back out after using K seal if you wish as I did on my Audi 80 as I put bottle in when it had a leaking heater matrix once Kseal had done it’s stuff .The leak never returned and the heater still heated up like a furnace afterwards.

 

I really rate the stuff and I put quarter of a bottle in one of my E36s as the garage couldn’t find a very small leak and the car would lose about half a pint every couple of weeks and just added a smidgin of the stuff when I changed the coolant and it’s been fine since for the last three months but as I put such a small amount I can’t see the copper particles floating about.

 

Being an E30/36 though it was most probably the bottom seal on the expansion tank on my car as even though I put a new bottle and seal on the radiators are known to warp so you have real trouble to get a good seal once it’s been apart so I should of just changed the rad as a good rad is only £60 for an E30/36.

 

Your system does look like it needs a good flush though as it should have blue coolant.

 

Opps I just see you have an alloy rad so it’s not that then lol.

[Shirley Knott]

Are you sure that's not just plain nasty/rusty looking coolant?

 

Difficult to tell from your picture but I've seen I've seen lots of neglected coolant systems with ginger coloured antifreeze, it doesn't always mean they've had K-seal IME.

[CortinaDave]

leave K seal the hell alone! Its fixed HGF on a K series MG ZS i had... 10k miles later i sold it still with no issues.

 

It made a leaking water pump on.a V6 ZT i had just go away too. For all the horror stories people tell, its only ever done good in my experience

[Squire_Dawson]

Bar's Leaks was the stuff some manufacturers used to add to cooling systems, in the 1950s and 1960s, though I haven't the foggiest idea how similar/dissimilar it was to K-Seal.

[Tamworthbay]

Bar's Leaks was the stuff some manufacturers used to add to cooling systems, in the 1950s and 1960s, though I haven't the foggiest idea how similar/dissimilar it was to K-Seal.

Was that the one that came in a blue bottle shaped a bit like a fat kit kat?

[sierraman]

If you drain the system the K seal won't come out. Could be Radweld, unless you shook it proper it used to go like that.

[meggersdog]

Looks more like radweld. K seal usually has little gold coloured flecks in it.

[Squire_Dawson]

Was that the one that came in a blue bottle shaped a bit like a fat kit kat?

 

Thought that was Radweld or K Seal? I think Bar's just came in a plain glass jar.

[Tamworthbay]

Thought that was Radweld or K Seal? I think Bar's just came in a plain glass jar.

Could well be, just remember one in that funny shaped bottle but can’t remember which it was.

[sierraman]

I've never had any trouble with K Seal, I think a lot of the bad reviews with it are where people have tried using it to cure seriously neglected cooling systems. If its something easily remedied then mend it properly though.

[Six-cylinder]

A bit of background

 

I bought this engine in Sep 2015, it was drained as it had been pulled out of a 325i touring that was having a V8 conversion. I don't know the history of the engine except the report from the seller who had not had it long saying it ran well with no issues. My car has never had k-seal put in it in the 7 years I have owned it. The original engine was seized by my son cracking the sump and loosing the oil.

 

Ian did me a big favour and just popped in the replacement engine, it has run well until recently when it has gained an on load mid range misfire, hence the start of the investigation. In 2016 it idled for over an hour with the temp spot on in a car park after I locked the keys in it running and had to find somebody to break in!