Hello all, hope you're having a good night (or day)!
My '92 Loyale has run well for the past couple months I've owned it. No overheats, no stalling and good, smooth power (for a Loyale). A couple days ago I got bored and decided to drain and replace my coolant which was brown and a little chunky. I'm very very new to auto maintenance and I don't really have anyone to tell me what's what, so I didn't recognize the brown coloration as a sign of oil-coolant mixing. Drained it all out of the radiator and flushed with water till it came out clear, filled it up with new coolant and bubbled it for about 30 mins just like the YouTube videos said. Of note is that it didn't take all 6 qts of coolant like it's supposed to, only about 3. I chalked it up to some water from the flushing process staying in the block. Like I said, not very experienced. Car ran just fine for about two days until it overheated in the Chick-fil-A drive thru (best possible time, I know) and blew some white smoke out of the tailpipe. Of note is that my temperature gauge never went above about half, nowhere near the red. I went inside and ate my chicken sandwich and let it cool down. Coolant was back to that nasty brown although the level hadn't gone down, still right up to the fill cap. However, my oil was low beyond the dipstick. I had checked the oil a few days prior to changing the coolant and it was right where it should be. So I go to the Publix conveniently right next door and fill er up. Drove home (only about 2 miles) with no noticeable loss of power, but a steady rise in temperature. I thought at first that low oil might have caused the overheat, but it was still happening with oil full.
Did some research and found that burning coolant makes white smoke, and that that mainly results from blown head gaskets. But the thing is, the car hasn't blown any white smoke since that day at all. Not only that, but my oil is still clean, I haven't noticed any loss of power, and my radiator hoses are squishy while engine cold. Only the coolant is brown and contaminated. I think the issue may be combustion gas in the coolant system that's preventing my thermostat from opening and preventing me from adding the correct amount of coolant. What do ya'll think? Am I stupid and missing something obvious, because I wouldn't doubt it.
I bought some pour-n-go head gasket sealer as a stopgap till I can take more drastic measures, but I don't really want to pour it in brown coolant until I know what the problem is.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!