Brown rad coolant
#1
I've got a 351 Cleveland from a 71 Mach 1 in my Falcon XB I popped the lid on the rad and the coolant was down about a quart and it looked brown as opposed to the usual green color. I gave it a flush and fill in May of this year and everything looked good all summer. Also, there were traces of rad fluid on the rear heater hose. Any suggestions?
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#2
Hey there,my first thought would be rust,its normal for old coolant.maybe the mixture was not strong enough to keep the system from rusting,there is a lot of cast iron in there and it starts oxidizing quick.so if its using and losing coolant and one refills with water only to often this can happen,
and the red fluid is automatic trans fluid.there is a section of your rad that trans fluid runs thru to cool it also,i wonder if your getting trans fluid in the antifreeze part of your system too,this could cause the red color maybe.you need to flush it out and replace it,but i would also try to determine if the rad needs replacing also. i hope i am correct in my assumptions,but i am pretty sure its dirty,and if you dont have an automatic trans somebody is playing a joke on you and putting red oil on your hose while your sleeping.
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#3
Okay here's an update, It looks like I have a power steering fluid leak too. Maybe the fluid sitting on the heater hose has splashed onto it because of the steering pump leak? I'm going to go out and check the tranny fluid and see if it's still red.

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#4
I am lucky my 73 has a manual trans and manual steering.a bit simpler although power steering would be nice,but i like the feel of the manual steering ya get that old car feeling.anyway yes that could be the case power steering fluid can be red too,i never replaced one those on a ford.purging air out of the system can be a hassle.im surprised no else chimed in here to help i dont know if we lost some regulars since the site crashed.but i thinking,ooh no,but years ago there may have been a rusty colored coolant,regardless if you havent changed it out in awhile you should.prestone made a kit to help and it basically consist of a tee fitting you could splice into your heater core hose input side i think,and it has a water hose fitting that threads on it,this helps with flushing the whole system out.good stuff to do,prevent problems with heater cores is huge.
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#5
Thanks, I'll flush and fill in the spring. The tranny fluid is still nice and red and the oil in the crankcase is clean.
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