2000 GMC Safari Brown gritty Coolant & Oil leak

nophilangie
Thu, 21 Apr 2022 22:06:01 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

I am looking into buying a used van. In this market its hard to find anything in my budget ($3000) thats not a rusted out bucket with a million miles on it. Anyway, I found a 2000 GMC Safari with a vortec 4.3 motor. I am pretty okay with cars but mostly import not american and certianly not a van or truck.

I took a look at it today and it starts and runs well. I drove it and it seemed fine. I was told it needs front tires as its rwd. No big deal there. Oil was fresh and didnt smell as if coolant was in it. But heres my 2 concerns. Firstly the cooland in the resevoir was brown. He had mentioned he thought the radiator was replaced a couple years ago. Didnt look like it to me, so then i pulled off the rad cap and saw really brown almost like rusty gritty coolant. I know technically dex-cool is orange but it didnt look right. I texted a mechanic friend and he said it just needs a flush. But when i called a place i get work done they said if someone put green coolant it could have clogged the water jackets in the block. Im not looking to get into a money pit.

I also am going to post some photos below of an oil leak that i saw by the pan as well as some suspension parts. Please let me know if its worth my time.

Most of the vans in my area are $5000 with over 200k miles since this is lower mileage at 135k and hes asking $3000, thats why im interested. He didnt seem like he knew a ton about cars so he had his mechanic print out the records from 2017 to now and it looks as though the radiator hoses were replaced and a coolant flush was preformed. sorry its a long post i just want to be thorough.

Will post additional photos in comments

Thank you so much!

-Shannon

21 posts - 10 participants