I think I got got.

[Kentetsu]

I wouldn't worry too much yet. A glimpse of possible oil in the radiator? No sweat, could be anything.

And that rattling sound from the tranny? Any chance that could be exhaust noise, like small backfires popping in the cat?

Also, a side note on stop leak products: A couple of years back, I installed a used 12a that turned out to have a bad coolant seal. Huge clouds of white smoke, no way it could be driven like that, hell you couldn't even see the car sitting in the driveway for all of the smoke. I had a race the next day, and no other motor, so I had to find a quick solution, even if it was only temporary.

After a bit of research, I picked up a bottle of Alumaseal. I chose this because it uses aluminum rather than copper or anything else. Also, this is a radiator stop leak, not a "block sealant". I figured that if any of the aluminum flakes managed to find their way into the combustion areas, they would just burn off rather than cause damage like copper could (aluminum flakes are actually highly flamable).

I dumped it in the radiator and let her idle for about 20 minutes. 95% of the problem was gone! Drove her for another 30 minutes, topped off the radiator, and never had another problem with it.

That was about 2.5 years ago. Since then I've been daily driving it, racing it on weekends, made several road trips including Michigan to North Carolina and back for the Deals Gap Rotary Rally last spring. I've had no problems with it, and have full confidence in the car.

So I just wanted to add that not all sealants are bad, and it's not always a bad idea to make use of one.



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