So Galant 2000 V6 - overheating.

Radiator overfill was brown, so I did a flush and this brown sludge - in clumps started coming out of the resivoir. I've never seen this before, looks like the radiator had water-rust mixture.

After flushing and refilling with water, the car still over heats... so what? new radiator, new water pump, new thermostat? anyone got prices on what it costs for parts only?

sludge pictures

 

looks like your cooling system has a wiping problem. you'll need to do some diganosis to see what has failed before you put in a new radiator/t stat so on...

start the car from cold and let it warm up. notice if the fans come on, notice if the upper hose gets hot or starts flowing coolant, if so then you've eliminated your cooling fans and your t stat.

 

both fans do turn on... the top hose does get hot. i'm sure a rusted out radiator will need replacing, and the water pump may or may not need replacing, but the belts are due, so i might as well replace the pump..

My guess is the rust combined with the fluid to create a clay like substance...

or worse - OIL? in my water system?

 

that looks like crisco when that happens. its possible. although if it were white that would have been my first guess. its kinda like "hey you got penut butter in my chocolate" check your oil. if it looks like that ur uber ****ed. i had that happen to me on an old truck it ended up being a cylinder head warp. you could also have the radiator cored but its probably cheaper to put in a new radiator.

 

Had a similar problem but not as bad as yours with my fiance's previous 99 Galant when we bought it from a previous owner. The problem ended up being a severaly internally radiator which was most due to the previous owner never flushing or doing any type of maintanance with the cooling system. I did a couple of cooling system flushes, replaced the thermostat, new hoses, and new radiator and the car never had the issue ever again for another 2 years till the bad accident late last year.

 

But it doesn't sound like a head gaskit leak right? I mean there's no black or white smoke coming out of the exhaust...

 

it looks more like a plugged up radiator than a head gasket. check your oil level and condition to be sure though.

 

4grim what's "severaly internally radiator".

I'm going to replace:

waterpump
radiator
timing belt
thermostat

Is there anything else?

 

i believe he means a severely internally plugged radiator or contaminated. its not great either way

 

Did you by chance mix the green coolant with the orange coolant?