is this deffinetly the headgasket.....

[pistolpete]

ok so was about to treck to lincoln and go to check my water and see a brown milky liquid in my coolant, but check the oil and oil is the normal black, the car hasnt really been getting what i would call "up to temp" its been sitting at around 70 deg, now i immediately suspect headgasket... am i right and is there anything else i can check?

[Anton]

Bleed the system first

[Ricky]

Change the thermostat, flush and re-fill + bleed the coolant. See if that get's it running at the right temperature.

[pistolpete]

what about the brown sludge in coolant? just a buildup??

[Ricky]

When was it last flushed/changed?

[Dan!]

Brown sludge could just be a build up of the rusty water/crap that gets in the coolant system, or possibly some shit left over from someboy using rad-weld in the past. Could well be HG too, but bleed the coolant first just to check

[pistolpete]

thanks guys, great help! ill get on the case tomorrow when the factors are open! it got me to lincoln and back without an issue! other than running cold.. well about 72 degrees anyway!

[Dan!]

Sounds like the thermostat is broken/stuck open...

[pistolpete]

yeah i think you are right, heading to m&j's tomorrow to pick a new one up

[4WayDiablo]

I'd change the stat as said. As for the coolant. Mine was a similar colour until I flushed it through

[cwspellowe]

The heater matrices on these cars have a habit of rusting on the inside too, turning coolant brown relatively quickly. I suspected HG on my gti6 but it turned out the coolant hadn't been changed in years.