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Yeah I've bought the dye and the tester, nothing showed up, but it was putting a vacuum on the tester so I tried it two ways (loose fitting, tight fitting).
Ok, have you pressurized the system to see if it holds pressure? Does it overheat at all? Is it full on the tank? Have you overfilled it to see what it does? How long has it been doing it?
Chris
It's possible the system was never bled right. IE cap at the highest point, heater running to get the air out of the heater core, brought up to operating temp where the thermostat opens and drops the level, then toped off and capped.
It's possible the system was never bled right. IE cap at the highest point, heater running to get the air out of the heater core, brought up to operating temp where the thermostat opens and drops the level, then toped off and capped.
Heater running makes absolutely no difference in bleeding that side of the cooling system. There is no valve, water just flows through that core all the time.
system needs to be bled. It is really really uncommon for these head gaskets to push exhaust gases to the cooling system, often times its the other way around, coolant gets in. When it does, its usually huge and white smoke can be seen on the rear.
If exhaust gases are being pushed through the head gasket, it will
only occur during engine operation. The gases will build immediate pressure and temp, exceeding the 15# pressure of the rad cap, and expunge coolant into the overflow bottle. Overheating will occur raptly, depending on the amount of gases entering the system. The coolant will be hot... not cold.
If there is no coolant flow to the overflow, only gases, then there is insufficient coolant to be expunged in the system.
Any breach, i.e. head gasket rupture, in the closed cooling system will negate the siphon occurring at cool-down, and the overflow
bottle will remain full, and the reservoir will be in need of coolant.
Exhaust gases in the cooling system will not appear in the oil, or
as white smoke exiting the exhaust.
Depends on how bad the breach is, if the gasket is just beginning to die it could take a little while (no long) to get things "poppin". I've seen them die several ways.
Mine does the same thing, has since for at least a year. This thread has got me thinking though. I bled the system last night, and just picked up the tester from O'Reilly Auto Parts. They have it in the tool loaner program FYI.
Update: I did the test, and no exhaust is present in the coolant system. But my reservoir still does the same thing.
It is possible that air is leaking into the cooling system through a deformed rad cap gasket, loose or split hose, etc....... if so, the boiling point would be the normal 212 instead of 260+/- achieved with a 15# pressure rad cap, and you may be seeing boiling water in the overflow bottle.
But, any breach of air would negate the siphon..... hot expanded coolant would still flow to the overflow bottle, but at cool-down, coolant would not flow back to the reservoir (siphon).
The bubbles come when the engine is cold. I did the bleeding procedure as described above, and noticed that the system wasn't pressurized. I'll put a mityvac on it tonight and check for leaks. None of the hoses are hard or brittle, but stranger things have happened.
If a test for combustion gasses in the coolant is negative, I would suspect the water pump seal is compromised. Air can be drawn in past a bad seal, usually decreasing or stopping when the system pressurizes and or the thermostat opens, changing the pump hydraulics.
But I would also think a seal in that condition would also leak coolant.
If a test for combustion gasses in the coolant is negative, I would suspect the water pump seal is compromised. Air can be drawn in past a bad seal, usually decreasing or stopping when the system pressurizes and or the thermostat opens, changing the pump hydraulics.
But I would also think a seal in that condition would also leak coolant.
Haven't thought of that. I don't have any leaks though.
If a test for combustion gasses in the coolant is negative, I would suspect the water pump seal is compromised. Air can be drawn in past a bad seal, usually decreasing or stopping when the system pressurizes and or the thermostat opens, changing the pump hydraulics.
But I would also think a seal in that condition would also leak coolant.
HUH??? How could this happen and no coolant leaks around the water pump???
That would tend to make me believe a crack in the head that opens with heat causing the issue. I assume your still having this issue?
It still bubbles yes. Pulled all the plugs and they look as they should. I did do a test to see if hydro carbons are in the coolant, and it came back negative.
I'll see if I can get around to do a leak down test this weekend. However, I'm still not convinced that a problem exists.