white bits in rad

[Firebreather]

I took off the rad cap on the 3rd gen and there's little white bits floating around in it, is that the start of a head gasket issue or could it be something else? It still runs fine and hasn't ever over heated.

I dont want both firebirds to have head gasket issues in 1 week!

[Firebreather]

Photo

[bhm1712]

Probably just needs a flush - has it ever had any rad weld or similar in it?

When I've seen head gaskets start to go and contamination of coolant happens it's never looked like that.

[Firebreather]

I don't think it's had any rad weld in it. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a hole in a coolant hose, and the fuel hose next to where the hole was, was leaking as well so there's a potential contamination point there (which I fixed today). I was at a garage recently where they just topped up the rad, but it was just water from a bottle which didn't look very clean so it could have been that as well. And I'm pretty sure before that, the coolant looked alright, and I haven't really driven it in the last couple of weeks.

Let's hope a flush is all that's needed. Is it just a case of taking off the bottom hose and putting a hose pipe in the top and turning on the tap? Or do you need anything else to get it round the whole engine?

[banker]

Use rad flush as well, available from halfords. Run for twenty minutes then flush as you suggested with bottom hose off and stick a hosepipe in the rad filler cap. R

[jonbullnose]

probably just dirty water bottle they used, or if leaking hose is breaking down then that could be where its come from
headgaskets can cause oil contamination, but not bits