Got Pink Strawberry Shake for Engine Coolant?

[RonG]

I'm posting this here in hopes that it might identify some things for others with "Pink Coolant" and/or transmission fluid. I'm also curious as to how many owners have experienced the same thing. How did you go about resolving the issue?

I have always found that the more information given on a subject the better others could parse out what is relevant to their own situations. Still, I apologize for this becoming a danged book!

I have a 2005 Ram 3500 5.9 Cummins with 316,000+ miles. The transmission has always been strong in this truck. A couple of years ago I did a little repair inside the tranny to alleviate a "hard to get out of park" issue, but nothing major. I'm embarrassed to say that I have only changed the transmission fluid and filter twice in the nearly 200,000 miles I have put on it since buying it used. But I say this to make the point that sometimes you get lucky... and, you happen to buy "a good'un"!

Two days ago I was about to make a 175 mile trip and just happened to need to make a stop less than 3 miles from home before leaving town.
Well, I may not be real lucky, but I was certainly fortunate, because when I made the stop the truck was IDLING at 1,000rpm. If I had hit the Interstate, I'd likely have gone many miles before realizing the problem; burnt up the engine as well; had to have been towed back; etc.
When I looked at the dash, the temp gauge was almost pegged out. After checking under the hood -- nothing seemed, felt (or smelled) overly hot, at all. It was too warm to attempt opening the radiator cap, so I restarted the truck and turned the a/c off. The temp came down a bit (within the high-side of "ok") so I opened my windows, turned the heat up in the cab and eased back home --- yeah, I know, a real bonehead chance to take. The temp didn't go all the way back up but it didn't really return to normal either. I shut her down as soon as I got home and just let it cool down before doing anything. When I opened the hood and removed the radiator cap, the coolant level was too low to see it, but there was a pinkish "milkshake" looking stuff visible. Knowing that transmission fluid is the reddest substance available to make this color change, I pulled the tranny dip stick. Yep, same strawberry shake going on there!
So I did some research and found that what has occurred is that the transmission cooler (located near the starter -- NOT integrated in the radiator as is true of some other makes) has failed/ruptured and corrupted both the trans and the entirety of the cooling system. It is possible that it started as a tiny leak and may have driven many miles with the cross contamination going on. Sometimes the "strawberry shake" shows up only in the engine coolant, and, evidently more rare, sometimes only in the transmission.

There seems to be two trains of thought on how to take care of all this:

1. Replace the failed transmission cooler; Completely rebuild, or replace, the transmission; Totally and thoroughly flush the cooling system, replacing ALL rubber (and/or plastic) parts. And I saw a few ideas on "flushing" a cooling system that I've never run across before too! "Powdered dishwashing detergent"?

2. Thoroughly flush both the transmission itself, related components, i.e., torque converter, cooling lines, everything; AND engine cooling system. It was emphasized to be extremely thorough with the flushing, doing everything possible to ensure that all contaminates are removed from each system.

The "Replace it all" folks insist that merely flushing will not get rid of all the contaminates... especially in the trans and converter. The naysayers of the "just flush" also say that the transmission fluid will eventually render all the engine cooling system rubber (and sometimes even plastic) parts useless and highly likely to result in system failure down the road.


The "Awww, a good flush will do the job’ers" boast that you shouldn't go to all the expense and work right off because, "what if it works?"


So, at better than 316k miles, I'm aware that I've been riding on borrowed time for a while. I acknowledge that it's truly the right time (in this case) to go ahead and bite that financial bullet and repair the transmission or replace it. I am leaning toward rebuilding it myself. I'm curious what/who others have decided on for the rebuild source(s)? Why did you go with the source? What deciding factors led to your choice? How have your rebuilds turned out over time? I'm aware there are several providers out there that are popular, especially with the "power"/speed happy folks. There are also a lot of much less expensive choices, when it comes to initial costs. How has the "cheap(er)" route panned out for the ones who simply couldn't afford the pricey rebuilds?

This IS my daily driver and I need it up and running as soon as possible, but I really don't want to make a rush decision that I will regret in the near future. I truly would like this to be the last truck I own... unless I can find my original 1959 Chevy Apache. So, I want her done "right" but without going completely crazy with the costs.

I appreciate any thoughts, advice, or even anecdotes in response. I appreciate everyone who contributes to this and all forums of this nature. I believe it is the finest use of the modern communications tools at our fingertips. Thank you all for your time, knowledge, interests and introspects.

 

[Hagar1]

First off, fix the leak. If it was mine, I'd run some powder or liquid dishwasher detergent in the cooling system with just water as a coolant. I would do this a couple of times. I would also flush everything including the heater until the water comes out clean.
As for the transmission, I would flush it out as thoroughly as possible, put in fresh oil and filter, I would drive it maybe a couple of hundred miles and dump the oil and flush again. You could probably get an oil analysis from Blackstone or one of those guys. Do that after your second change. The materials in transmissions are usually pretty resilient. If there is a problem after an oil analysis, then I would elect to do an overhaul, flush the cooler and lines and replace convertor. The convertor is the most difficult part to flush.
Just my opinion.

 

[RonG]

Hagar1, thanks for the input. There are evidently a lot of folks out there that agree with you on this. Even I do, to an extent. I just wonder how many flushes it will really take to get all the contamination out of all parts of the transmission? There are a lot of nooks and crannies in a tranny. And I have heard some horror stories about truly flushing out a torque converter. My concern is that with over 316,000 miles, it seems that at best, I may be just borrowing a little time before having to go into the transmission again anyway. THEN... there is the co$t difference to consider (especially in today's economy). Factoring in that this transmission has never slipped, leaked, run hot, etc., makes me think that the flush just may be a cost effective option. I am really torn over which route to take, and info like yours makes me want to try and wait just a little longer for that fancy rebuild project. Thanks again.
Now, to find that darned leak.

 

[Hagar1]

Hagar1, thanks for the input. There are evidently a lot of folks out there that agree with you on this. Even I do, to an extent. I just wonder how many flushes it will really take to get all the contamination out of all parts of the transmission? There are a lot of nooks and crannies in a tranny. And I have heard some horror stories about truly flushing out a torque converter. My concern is that with over 316,000 miles, it seems that at best, I may be just borrowing a little time before having to go into the transmission again anyway. THEN... there is the co$t difference to consider (especially in today's economy). Factoring in that this transmission has never slipped, leaked, run hot, etc., makes me think that the flush just may be a cost effective option. I am really torn over which route to take, and info like yours makes me want to try and wait just a little longer for that fancy rebuild project. Thanks again.
Now, to find that darned leak.

I would go with flushing the trans twice. the initial drain and refill plus one more. The way that I look at it, a few hundred dollars in oil and filters is much more cost effective than a multi thousand transmission tear down. If you win on the flushing, you are clearly money ahead.
the transmissions are far more resilient than many think.
Like I previously suggested, after some driving, get the oil analysed, that will tell the story.

 

[Burla]

run rmi 25 through radiator, it takes all contamination and deposits in overflow, just use your wetdry vac and suck it out. but of course the oil line needs to be fixed.

 

[Atcer2018]

Hagar1, thanks for the input. There are evidently a lot of folks out there that agree with you on this. Even I do, to an extent. I just wonder how many flushes it will really take to get all the contamination out of all parts of the transmission? There are a lot of nooks and crannies in a tranny. And I have heard some horror stories about truly flushing out a torque converter. My concern is that with over 316,000 miles, it seems that at best, I may be just borrowing a little time before having to go into the transmission again anyway. THEN... there is the co$t difference to consider (especially in today's economy). Factoring in that this transmission has never slipped, leaked, run hot, etc., makes me think that the flush just may be a cost effective option. I am really torn over which route to take, and info like yours makes me want to try and wait just a little longer for that fancy rebuild project. Thanks again.
Now, to find that darned leak.

I’m with Hagar1 on this. It’s probably time for a good cooling system overhaul so a detergent flush would be a good route. After you flush the system run the RMI25 through the system as Burla recommends. It’s good stuff and worked well for me with coolant/oil contamination. Could be time for a water pump and new hoses at more than 300k miles. As for the transmission, yes it’s a gamble but I’m with Hagar. A lot of transmissions are pretty stout and can withstand some abuse. It’s a few hundred dollar gamble but even at a 50/50 shot in my mind worth the chance. Personally I’d run three or even four drain and fills but it depends on what you feel comfortable spending on supplies in the event it fails. Whatever you decide I wish you the best outcome.

 

[RonG]

I appreciate everyone’s response here. My apologies for not having gotten back here before now. There has been a whole lot going on in life since I last posted; going to have to just leave that at that.
The original coolant/transmission fluid leak was a failed transmission cooler (mounted on driver side of engine block) that allowed the tranny fluid and engine coolant to cross contaminate. I replaced the cooler and the fluid cooler in front of the radiator — which turned into an ordeal in and of itself. Removed the radiator and thoroughly flushed it and did a fair flush of the engine cavities. I drained and removed transmission pan and filter, then cleaned and reinstalled them. Flushed fluid lines. Refilled with fluid, engaged transmission and ran until it began to warm up (about 120°), then drained and repeated the process. After two such “flush/cleanings”, I drained everything again, put in new filter and refilled transmission fluid. I have no idea if all of the “pink foam” was flushed from the torque converter or not, but after the second round of flush/cleaning, I did not see but a drop or two when I drained it the last time.
I found more of the pink “strawberry milkshake” foam in the radiator coolant than I did from the transmission. I simply took paper towels and kept dabbing it out of the top of the radiator opening until I no longer saw any of it. I suppose I dabbed that stuff three or four times a day for about a week before did not see any more in it. And I thought that the engine and radiator got a better cleaning out than the transmission would have, considering how much the torque converter could’ve been holding.

NEW ISSUES, OR CONTINUED AFTERMATH?
Truck seemed to be doing fine. In the year+ since first posting have driven about 6,000 miles without any problems.

Back in late January we had an unusual cold snap and record breaking snowfall; after which, my truck blew out a core/freeze plug on the passenger side of the block. Now, this was the first time after the cold weather that I drove the truck, but it was several days after any freezing temperatures. To be specific, I have no reason to believe that the coolant in the truck ever froze. But I had driven about 8 miles when the freeze plug gave out. I was able to get the truck back to the house, but then another series of events in “life“ kept me from being able to work on it at all for many weeks. The freeze plug that came out of the engine block looked like I could have just picked it up brand new from a parts store! There was absolutely no rust or staining on the inside of the plug and only a light covered of grease/dirt on the outside. I wiped it off with a rag and you would have sworn I just bought it brand new so, why did this freeze-plug blow out? Is there anyway possible that that “pink strawberry shake“ slimy sludge could’ve helped loosen it over all those miles?

I’ve replaced several freeze plugs in my life, but this one kind of turned into its own nightmare. I purchased three different kinds – – although none of them were the press-in type because I could not get them to go in the block right without removing my turbo charger and other things for clearance. Long story shorter, I ended up buying a billet aluminum plug with screw and bar for locking it in place on the block. That one seems to work great. Just a word to those who may face the same issue, my experience with the very overpriced aluminum plugs that have two screws are absolutely not worth your time or trouble. That type failed four times to seal, even before finishing filling the system. Three of the single-screw billet plugs cost less than One of the 2-screw plugs, were easier to install, and have not leaked. Just relaying my experience.

Within about 400 miles of taking care of that issue, the truck started a new issue. Every time I stop — at a traffic signal or stop sign, just whenever stopping — the engine was trying to increase rpm and was trying to lunge the truck forward. You could tell from the exhaust sound that the engine was lugging to try to go. It even got to the point that I had to press the brake pedal extremely hard to keep the truck from keeping going. It does the same thing in reverse and when you leave reverse or drive gear, the RPMs jump up instantly to nearly 2000 RPM and then instantly drop back down to an idle when put in neutral or park. I haven’t figured this one out yet, but I’m thinking it must be something in the torque converter, locking up or some issue related to that. It almost seems as if you’re driving a standard/manual while you’re mashing the brake and the fuel pedals at the same time without using your clutch.

Have any of you guys ever experienced anything like this? I would be forever grateful for any information on the problem and how to remedy it.

Again, I truly regret that I have not been able to post back here before now. And on so many levels, I hope it won’t take me so long to get back again.