I was having some very slow warm ups when first starting the car in the morning so I suspected that the Thermostat may have been removed.

To this end I got a new Thermostat from Jagworks in Penrith, NSW but when removing the Thermostat Housing there was a load of brown sludge in there? Can anyone shed some light on this and possible causes?

I was cleaning the old gasket from the Thermostat Housing and then lined up the new gasket but it's slightly different? I'll get a photo up in a bit. Are there different types?

 

Brown sludge is usually oil in the coolant, either the engine oil, or trans fluid from the cooler in the lower hose/radiator.

Gaskets are gaskets, and maybe the one you got is just cut wrong. I get this regularly, and it is frustrating. Depends how different it appears to be??.

 

sounds like the thermostat was slow in opening or it was opening later by design, and all that crud built up in time. You might check the thermostat you just got for the right temperature range for your region. In other words, you need a thermostat that opens sooner if you're in a hot region, or later if you're in a cold region, or no thermostat at all in some extremely hot cases.

flushing and back-flushing the cooling system is a good start.

 

That sounds plausible as my engine oil level was just below the lower limit. I'll have to have a look tomorrow.

Is this engine oil cooler (heat exchanger) as easy replacement?

Woz