Please check my thought process on this
Safety Car
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 3,736
Likes: 56
From: anchorage ak
Hey all,
Thanks for all the excellent feedback and ideas - it is GREATLY appreciated.
Super 6 - you are correct. Pressure cap on the radiator and snap on plastic cap on the overflow tank.
Today's update: I rented a block tester. If you're not familiar with them, here is a link that describes how it works.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6240dyJZeZU">YouTube Link</a>
I ran the car up to full operating temp (shows 190 - 195 on the gauge) Actual temp with an IR gun is 185. Tested it off of the radiator directly, and found NO exhaust gases in the cooling system.
With that said, I still have an issue, but this test eliminated the head gasket / cracked head from the equation.
I did discover another problem in that when I started the car (cold) with the radiator cap off, I immediately had coolant flow in the radiator. This tells me my fail-safe thermostat is stuck open, which is what it should do if it fails. Will have to replace that for sure. I'm also going to flush the cooling system and put a new radiator cap on it at the same time. Both the cap and thermostat were replaced when we put the new motor in at the beginning of 2012, but that doesn't mean they are still OK (obviously).
The other part I'll replace is the coolant overflow cap. That cap is part of the recovery of coolant as the motor heats up and cools down (fills up as the coolant expands and then the radiator draws coolant back out as is cools off).
While I'm doing this I'm going to crawl under the car and inspect the radiator for leaks just in case.
Something isn't quite right, but there was zero change in color of the chemical in the block tester, so that's a very good sign.
Adam
Thanks for all the excellent feedback and ideas - it is GREATLY appreciated.
Super 6 - you are correct. Pressure cap on the radiator and snap on plastic cap on the overflow tank.
Today's update: I rented a block tester. If you're not familiar with them, here is a link that describes how it works.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6240dyJZeZU">YouTube Link</a>
I ran the car up to full operating temp (shows 190 - 195 on the gauge) Actual temp with an IR gun is 185. Tested it off of the radiator directly, and found NO exhaust gases in the cooling system.
With that said, I still have an issue, but this test eliminated the head gasket / cracked head from the equation.
I did discover another problem in that when I started the car (cold) with the radiator cap off, I immediately had coolant flow in the radiator. This tells me my fail-safe thermostat is stuck open, which is what it should do if it fails. Will have to replace that for sure. I'm also going to flush the cooling system and put a new radiator cap on it at the same time. Both the cap and thermostat were replaced when we put the new motor in at the beginning of 2012, but that doesn't mean they are still OK (obviously).
The other part I'll replace is the coolant overflow cap. That cap is part of the recovery of coolant as the motor heats up and cools down (fills up as the coolant expands and then the radiator draws coolant back out as is cools off).
While I'm doing this I'm going to crawl under the car and inspect the radiator for leaks just in case.
Something isn't quite right, but there was zero change in color of the chemical in the block tester, so that's a very good sign.
Adam
