MechEng

I emptied my coolant reservoir in a bucket to have a look at
the coolant and I noticed a small oily film. The coolant is 2 months old. It doesn't seem to burn coolant.

Could there be engine oil getting into the coolant system? If so how.... is it a head gasket? Is it hard to replace a head gasket for your average handy car guy?

The car is a 96 SR-V w/ 150,000km.

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"A Honda with Torque, thats an oxymoron" No, its called a Prelude.. Understand! "Yes SR..V"

marcucci

Has the car been overheated before? Head gaskets are not that common to go w/o overheating or running hot for too long.

I would scrub the overflow and flush the system, and fill with good coolant. Watch it carefully for color changes. Prestone pink will make this easier. An oily film is normal with age or if the system was not flushed completely. If you are indeed mixing oil and coolant, the coolant will darken pretty quickly.

MechEng

No the car does not overheat, but Honda makes one of the best cooling systems and their blocks are aluminum which disipates heat better than steel. But ya I've heard that the car will usually overheat.

I'm gonna flush it again... it could be from the grey sludge I originally found in the reservoir. Have you guys every seen that before? The dealer said its not that uncommon.

__________________
"A Honda with Torque, thats an oxymoron" No, its called a Prelude.. Understand! "Yes SR..V"

marcucci

That's not what I meant- had it overheated prior to the "sludge?" It usually takes an overheat to create gasket problems in a Honda- they don't usually just happen for no reason.

Quote:

I'm gonna flush it again... it could be from the grey sludge I originally found in the reservoir. Have you guys every seen that before? The dealer said its not that uncommon.

It's very common. It's the coolant breaking down. The coolant should be flushed every 30k miles (ideally), waiting 60 or 90k will produce a lot of the crap you've found.

MechEng

I bought the car used at 140,000km so to the best of my knowledge the car did not overheat before. The records show it was changed at 75,000km. When I bought it I did a compression test (180,180,180,175psi) so that should be a could indication that the head gasket was okay at the time.

The first thing I did when I got the car is change all the fluids and thats when I noticed the sludge.

I've never seen grey sludge in a reservoir in all my life, where does it come from??

__________________
"A Honda with Torque, thats an oxymoron" No, its called a Prelude.. Understand! "Yes SR..V"