4 Life coolant....cheese maker!!!!

[alanr]

My thoughts...
If it were me I would now fully flush all the crud out of the engine and radiator and fill it with plain water and run it and see what happens.
If it runs just fine without boiling or anything untoward it would point to it being highly probable that it is a 4Life problem. If however it runs rough or boils you will know that it is not the 4Life and your engine requires further investigation and possible strip down having head gasket/cracked block/head or whatever.

Alan.

[rgh0]

I assume you had fitted a new upper radiator hose. If so it could have been poorly made and the rubber not fully cured and some of the un-reacted curing chemicals were leached out and reacted with the coolant.

cheers
Rohan

[bloodknock]

Ok chaps,
I'm once again very grateful for all your comments / suggestions, which i will progressively investigate. Below is the response from 4 Life:

Dear Bloodknock
Thank you for the information.
As the rest of the coolant is normal, then this would suggest that whatever the substance is it was already in the system and has flushed round and clogged in the thermostat. 4Life does have better flow properties than regular coolant, so it?s possible that it has dislodged deposits or sludge from somewhere that hasn?t been noticed before. As the red dye is visible on the substance, it does not suggest gasket failure either.
There is nothing present in 4Life that would make it solidify, so it?s not the coolant itself.
Kind regards,
Dan

Hello Dan,
I built the engine myself and the build was scrupulous, the block was rebored and chemically cleaned, as was the head, the radiator was re-cored, all hoses and the water pump are new. I understood that there must be no water present, I checked every accessible gallery for cleanliness. As far I am concerned the build could not have been cleaner.
Would the coolant react to any other materials in the engine system?

Dear Bloodknock
It would not react with any engine materials that we are aware of and it has been used for many years, especially in motorsport. If it was a reaction of some sort, then the rest of the coolant would not be normal, it would not just react in one place. Looking at the image it appears to be something foreign in the system ? which is why it only has traces of red dye on the edges. If it had been the coolant itself then the whole lump would be red.
Kind regards,
Dan

So, as you can see, no pointers there!
Regards
Bob

[rgh0]

I still like my uncured chemicals in the upper radiator hose causing polymerisation of the coolant theory.

cheers
Rohan