Well, today I was helping a friend of mine out with his FD. Well it's still on the orginal engine, well it has started to have problems, so we decided to check out his motor out. Well we took of the bumper and all then we decided to take out the elbow. After we took it off, I noticed alot of black residue in the elbow is this common or is his car fukd. I was also wondering, when he added coolant to the radiator coolant it leaked it out or dose it do that when it's full or is there a leak. srry for the noob questions but I'm jut trying to help a friend out.

 

did you fill the coolant by putting it in the resovior, that is a no no, put it in the filler neck (front left side of engine when looking at it) I am not sure about the black residue though....

 

yea, that's what I meant, we put it in the filler neck, bu t it leaked. I still can't understand why there is black residye oil looking in the elbow

 

I don't see how the turbo's could have blown oil through the intercooler all the way into the elbo but I can't think of another explination... anybody else?

 

yea, That's what I thought, his Fd has been getting worse, that's why we decided to check it out, I'm clueless on how that could happen, It's all black and I mean black.

 

And a stock elbow is black plastic, right?

 

I don't think he is a complete moron.... he has probably rubbed his finger or some cloth in there and gotten some black residue all over his finger or cloth

 

Black residue in the intake elbow is quite common.

 

It might be the turbos going out. I know a guy that had the same problem with oil residue around the elbow area. So thats a posablity but not for sure. On the leaking coolant part either the radator is gone or his motor is about to go out.

 

OK
a bit of grit and resedue in the plumbing IS normal, an excessive amount is not, and believe me you will know when it becomes excessive.
AS for the coolant leaking you need to find out where the leak actually is coming from, when you overflow the filler neck the overflow should then run down a tube ( the one coming from the top of the neck) down into the AST ( air separation tank ) whick is the black plastic thing with a cap on it, check to see wether the AST neck,cap or the AST itself is leaking, also you may find if its an old FD it may need a new gasket between ur filler neck and engine.