Since I had the parts lying around for the TBB, I figured I would install it yesterday and had a bit of an issue.

I have an '02 Z06 and when I disconnected the 2 lines that go to the tb and joined them together with the brass tube an hose clamps and started the car, coolant started to pour out of the bottom tube of the tb.

Did I do something wrong? Before I ever started the car, I hooked up a tube to the upper fitting and blew air through it to try and get all of the coolant out of the tb, but it just kept flowing.

So I put it back to the original configuration, but it made a mess with the coolant and it took me a while to clean it up... total waste of time.

I will probably leave it alone now, but I just wanted to know why this happened. When I did the TBB to my LT1, it was no problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Chris

 

Coolant should definitely not keep coming out of the throttle body. There is only room for an ounce or two in there. The inlet and outlet on the throttle body are fairly close together, pretty much straight across from each other. Make sure that you had the correct tube disconnected.

Mike

 

Mike,

The inlet tube is at the top left (if you are facing the front o the car) and the outlet is at the bottom left, correct? These were the only 2 feeds I saw going to the tb.

Did I disconnect the wrong bottom line, because that is where the coolant was coming from.

 

No, there is no tube on the top associated with coolant. The coolant tubes are the two small ones on the bottom. One points forward (left one) and one points to the right and slightly down (the right one). The other one on the top is actually for crankcase ventilation.

Mike

 

He's correct. Check your oil and make sure you didn't just pump a bunch of coolant into your crankcase. Coolant will destroy engine bearings in no time.

-Chris


[Modified by Chrisbequick, 5:55 PM 5/24/2004]

 

Stupid butt me! I just ran it for a 20 seconds and no coolant came out of the top hose when I took the two pieces apart.

I will check the oil when I get home. Hopefully there is no coolant in the oil. I assume I will be able to see it on the dipstick?

I did not actually drive the car, but I did let it warm up so I could get the correct coolant level.

Man, I hope I didn't screw things up too bad!

Chris

 

I just realized that I hooked the return line of the tb (I know this, because this is the tube that the coolant was pumping out of into the engine bay) to the crankcase ventilation, so hopefully it will be fine.

I should have gotten a clue when the top tube had no clamp on it.

I was just thinking back to my LT1 and that tb only had 2 feeds (if I remember correctly).

Chris

 

Just to complicate matters, my wife drove the Vette to work today without telling me (which is normally ok, except now I may have a potential problem).

As I metioned in my last post, I ended up hooking up the return line (passenger side) to the crankcase vent hose.

When I started the car, it was cold, the coolant level in the resevoir was about a 1/2" low, and I only let it run long enough for me to jump out of the car to see the coolant flowing out of the passenger side tube on the tb. I then ran back in the car and shut it off.

I then immediately put both of the hoses back to their respective places/original configuration. When I pulled these two hoses apart, I did not see any coolant at either ends of the hoses, nor on the brass fitting.

I then proceeded to water down the areas of the car that were covered in coolant. Next, I let the car warm up by intermittently reving it to 3000 rpms until it reached 210F. I then filled the resevoir to the appropriate level, let the car cool down, and refilled again to the mark.

Is there any chance that the return line could have pumped coolant into the crankcase? I figure since I just ran it for 20-30 seconds with the cooling system open (the hose removed from the passenged return tube) and the car was cold, so there was little chance that there was backflow from the return line into the crankcase.

Do you guys think that the 20-30 seconds of stupidity could cause any coolant to get into the oil? I will not know until my wife gets home. I told her to take it easy on the way home.

Also, I should be able to see coolant on the distick f the oil is contaminated, right?

Thanks for all of your help, and I hope this turns out alright.

Chris

 

If there was no coolant in the hoses or return tube, most likely not. I would double check the oil though. The PCV system would not have had vacuum with that line disconnected so it shouldn't have drawn any coolant through. As long as the pump didn't pump any coolant backwards, you should be ok.

Mike

 

Thanks Mike! I will check the oil as soon as my wife pulls into the driveway.