Any opinions?

[Haireman]

Hey all, my father in-law opened my radiator cap a couple of months ago to see bubbly orange liquid. Now he is trying to fix it for me. He has taken the head of to notice the gasket looks good and the head has no cracks. Any Ideas on what the problem could be?? Thanks!

[A112H]

The orange will be discolouration from rust. You will need to get the block flushed to clean out any rust and scaling and it should be good.
Or, if this is Vaughn's old car it could just be Fanta in your cooling system
I would replace the head gasket anyway.

[Haireman]

What about the bubbles?

[75glnt]

The bubbles would be fanta

[Haireman]

Comon guys seriously lol

[75glnt]

sorry mate couldn't pass it up

But yea I would suggest rust discolouration?? And maybe air bubbles??

[A112H]

Not sure about the bubbles mate but to make bubbles it needs to be sucking air from somewhere or having it forced into the system by the cylinders.
The colour would be rust though.

[Haireman]

What should I do. Put the head back on with a new gasket or get the head pressure tested?

[Scorpma82]

How big are the bubbles and how many come through at a given period of time??????

Has the car got any other symptoms? overheating/lack of power/hard to start at hot or cold

You may have had a hairline crack in the gasket....not big enough for fluid...but enough to air to get through (this is just a guess)

[tubby]

bubbles. well bubbles are never good in you raidiator as said above air getting in somewhere.
as for orange well its probably rust......in a big way. I flushed the engine of my pannel van out to find the entire passenger side of the engine clogged with orange mud (it looked like mud you make with red dust. if you dont know what red dust is, try leaving east coast someday we got a desert this side of those mountains............I digress)
ANYWAY What caused it was a bad earth to my engine and a good earth to my car body. what can happen is the engine needs to be earthed so it drags its negative current through the electrolyte in your coolant from your earthed radiator. when it hits the sidewall of the engine and exchanges its current the sidewall of the engine dissolves through chemical reaction
hope this isn't the case for you buuuuuuuut......check that earth cable maybe.

[75glnt]

You learn something new everyday! thanks tubby never quite understood that