Fellas, My car started acting up last week driving very poorly, since I didn't have time to check it I parked it in the garage. Today I get under the hood to see if I can find out where the problem is coming from and I come to find out that the Radiator is completely dry .
There are no signs of any water leaks on the floor and I can't explain how it became empty. so as of now I could only put less than 1/2 a gallon of coolant and filled it up with the water hose. has this happened to anyone else, can someone plz try to explain how or why this happened and I still don't see any kind of water leaks. what else should I check, should I empty it out and add more coolant ?
please give me some advise .

TIA,
C.

 

Who knows? It could be a bunch of problems or just one. You almost have to start at the beginning which is to clean out whatever's in the system now, and it'd really help if you told us things (like in your profile) of engine mods, mileage, last time flushed and filled, etc. You know, the basics.

I seem to recall, if it's pre-'95, use green coolant, '95 and '96 Dexcool (not generic stuff either). Flush, make sure rad cap is either new and/or working, clean out white plastic overflow tank. Mix up 50/50 DISTILLED WATER and proper coolant (green or Dex), pour it in via rad cap on expansion tank, burp, add more until full, add to proper level in overflow, too.

All this is done and afterward watching CAREFULLY your temp gauge, the digital one. And, of course, you've checked that the fans are coming on at the correct temp, belt's not slipping, etc.

And you've looked this up in the advanced search for anything that I missed (which I will be corrected on/by others far more knowledgeable here on CF).

Whatever you do, don't go for a ride until you get this right. If you're not going to do any of this work, don't drive it to the garage, or you may be driving it to the salvage yard or the "new-engine" shop. Flatbed it if you have to. You know the saying, pay me now, or pay me later.

Good luck.

 

My vette is an 86 all stock no engine mods. last time the radiator was flushed was probably 2 years ago.

 

Do a complete flush (complete) and replace with 50/50 distilled water and not hose water and antifreeze. If you are still loosing coolant, do a radiator pressure test and see if there are any leaks and correct the problem. The above flush needs to be done yearly.

 

You dont know over what period of time you lost the coolant so fill it up and the clock starts now. Check every day or so to see if there are any ovious leaks.

Since there has not been any signs of coolent, run your fingers under the waterpump weep hole both when cold and hot. If even slightly wet thats your probably your problem. Even a pressure tester might not find a slow leak at the weep hole. It might only loose some coolent when hot and runing. If the waterpump is bad, you will be repalceing most of the coolent anyway. Best of luck, Charge on.

 

Thanks, I will do that this Weekend. after I filled the radiator I let the car sit for a while to see if I detected any leaks but I was not able to see any and the water was still all the way up , I tried to turn on the car but it wouldn't start so I let it sit for a bit longer and than it started but a lot of black smelly smoke was coming out from the exhaust so I just moved it back into the garage and parked it. I don't know what the reason for the dark smoke was or why the car didn't want to start the first time I tried it.

 

have you checked your oil

 

When it started did you let it run up to operating temp? Did it quit smoking once you got it running? It could be a blown head gasget.

 

Coolant is sold now as 50/50 mix. So just buy two jugs.

 

You trust that stuff??

Fast, what 5 and Big are saying is your oil may contain some/all of your coolant IF in fact you've got a blown headgasket. I'd think instead of black smoke you'd get white smoke, but I like being educated. So, consensus is at very least pull the dipstick and see what it looks like. Let's hope there's no coolant in it.

 

Who sells it like that? What brand?

 

Prestone - any auto parts store.

Sorry I thought this picture showed the jug better but it's Prestone.

 

That's what I use. I get it from autozone or pepboys. Why shouldn't I trust it? It's just coolant and distilled water, right? I do believe Dex-Cool is evil stuff though.

 

Thank you everyone for all your advise. I will check the Oil tonight when I get home and give you guys an update. I sure hope I don't have a blown gasket or coolant in the oil.

 

no as soon as it stared smoking I turn it off, so it never got to operating temp. I will post results as soon as I have more details.

Thanks.

 

Just some additional thoughts:

You might want to treat the loss of coolant and the poor running as 2 separate problems (depending on your findings). It almost sounds like its running to rich. As I remember from posts, those years were notorious for bad injectors. A good start might be to measure the resistance of all eight injectors to see if they all measure the same. Can’t remember what the resistance should be. My car is 12 ohms but yours is different, but close. If there is a leaky injector, there are a few ways to check for this. Much information in the forum on this.