Frothy coolant.

[Kyosho]

Hey all

As some of you would know, I have a GA70 (recently purchased)

Now, I've got the new turbos on the car (just stock ones) and I'm fixing up any little issues (Leaks etc) and I've across a strange part, that when I filled up the radiator (Only has water in it until saturday, and it's not being driven, so should be fine till then), I filled it whilst engine was cold, anyway, started the car up, whilst the car was cold, not a single problem (No flow through engine) but once the thermo opened, I noticed froth started coming out of the top of my now open radiator cap (So I could put more water in)
It didn't bubble out, it came out like froth.
Kinda like if you washed your hands with that hand cream soap, and it leaves at the drain hole.

Is this the type of "bubbles" that people speak of for a blown head gasket?
Or is this something else, maybe more sinister?

I did a search, found a nice post on toruble shooting the coolant system etc, but people only mention "bubbles", not froth...

[blacktop]

where did you get your Radiator from? if it has been replaced.

This happened to my mate, turned out that the guy he got the rad from had tryed clean it with dishwasher liquid.
This is prob not the case but just thought i would expand the horizon for you.

If it has a BHG you should be able to see some condensation on your oil filler cap, or discolored oil, i.e milky color.

[Kyosho]

The radiator was in the car when I got it.

The only thing that has been replaced are the two turbos.
I honestly thought that maybe someone had tried to clean something with dishwashing liquid.

[blacktop]

Happens all the time, Natrad told my old man to do it on his Falcon.

Is the water discolored or just frothy, try flushing it with the hose and starting again

[Kyosho]

It's just frothy.

I poured a heap more water in, and a fair bit of it went away (just coming out in small amounts now)

So I'm not thinking it's anything much other then something was cleaned with dishwashing liquid.

As I said, I bought the car with 2 blown turbos (had been removed) and then bought 2 turbos second hand and just bolted them on.

Hopefully it sees a dyno sometime soon to check AFR and to have a small fiddle with the AFR also...
See what I can make this thing pull from a 1G-GTE with two stock turbos, upping the boost and fiddling with AFR.
Then see what I can push down the 1/4...

[Crazyracer]

If the turbos have water cooling, maybe there was some sort of detergent in their water passages thats frothing up now.

Fill the system up as much as you can with the engine running (to keep the thermostat open) then flush the system out and try again.

[LeeRoy]

Frothy coolant can also come from a blown head gasket but not necessarily also contain oil eg if it was broken between a coolant gallery and combustion chamber.

- LeeRoy

[mrshin]

I've seen this heaps, and never with a problem - cars with gasket problems etc. usually show much more obvious signs.

[Hen]

I concur with Shinny.

Don't worry about it unless there are other reasons to suspect BHG.

Hen