case of the disappearing coolant
 

when i first bought my 84 in febuary i noticed the coolant was slightly low in the overflow so i topped it off thinking nothing of it, sometime in may when i took it in for its first oil change they mentioned the coolant was slightly lower then it should be so ive been keeping an eye out on the ground

well the other night i took it out for a drive in the snow and i saw the temp guage soar from 209 degrees up to 242 then drop to 210 again concerned i parked it in the drive way and let it cool down upon inspecting the car the radiator is empty and the reservour is empty no trace on the ground, i filled everything back up today and let it run in the driveway and nothing leaked on the ground


should i be suspecting possible intake or headgasket failure?

the only exhaust smoke i ever see is upon start up and the first couple mins idling in the driveway in the cold no coolant smell is presant tho ive delt with a blown headgasket before on my thunderbird i know its not pretty

My '95 is doing this a little. I thought about the two radiator caps...maybe they are not sealing and letting steam out....not much, but enough. Something to check.

Sounds like you had air trapped in the block behind the theromostat....the coolant in the block got hot enough and opened the thermostat and move the air pocket to the radiator. Ensure that your oil is not milky looking and ensure that you have the proper water mixture...burp the coolant system...then monitor the coolant system's level again.

:thumbs:

Go to Autozone and borrow their cooling system pressure tester. Small leaks sometimes only show up under pressure. I had a small leak at my thermostat housing and never had any water on the garage floor. Fixed it and tested it at 16 psi, 24 hours and no pressure drop.

Possible head gasket problem. Engine eating coolant And of course burping the system is a must!!! A stuck or malfunctioning thermostat would drive the tempurature batty as well and cause the vehicle to overheat then cool rapidly. 242 degrees? is kinda hot no? My vehicle was bouncing all over once. Replaced the thermostat to 180 degrees and got rid of the pull fan relay. My fan is on all the time now. Im a believer that heat kills. Especially all that plastic and wiring under the hood. a steady 180 usually unless I put the AC on. Good luck

Follow RWDsmokes suggestion to pressure check the radiator first. But if you are not getting coolant on the ground, this is probably no the problem.

Next pull spark plug #8 ane #7 checking for coolant. The head gaskets hav a water passage hole very close to these two cylinders. Chances are this is whee your problem is.

I've had two leak conditions where no coolant was found on the garage floor and no steam in the exhaust or odd exhaust odor due to coolant going out the exhaust. I had a head gasket leak on the left head and coolant dripped onto the catalytic converter and changed to steam without reaching the floor. I have also had a head gasket failure that pressurized the block and pushed coolant into the overflow bottle. I had to, "burp", the cooling system and pump coolant out of the overflow bottle every day until it could be repaired.

Ah this brings back the Memories!......I even believe I named my post almost the exact same title!

What I FOUND to be the issue in my 91 L-98, is that I had a waterpump going bad. Look very closely at the area below your waterpump and in the area of the front crossmember and steering rack. If you see residual water/coolant, your waterpump is leaking and on it's way out. I would also consider the other coolant paths after I did this simple check. HOWEVER this is EXACTLY how my waterpump went bad on my 91 on two separate occasions. Either way, good luck and keep us informed of what you find YOUR situation to be!

R/Noland

after staring at the car awhile and muttering a few choice words at it i burped the system as best as i could and borrowed a pressure tester and found the water pump would leak if i pumped the tester up to about 20lbs or so, i went to advanced auto parts and picked up a cardone pump for roughly $65 and new hoses and a cap as well and i plan to see if that completely fixes my problem


yes i realize 242 degrees is very high it caught me off guard really since the lights in my cluster cut out from time to time and i couldnt read the guage clearly i drove it awhile today after filling the coolant to see if anything happened because of it getting so warm but its still running great


now if i can only fix the....worn out carpet, broken interior pieces, blown rear speakers, broken headlight motor, rusting aftermarket exhaust, and all the other issues it has it would be a nice car :willy:

I got my LED instrument cluster repaired at "Mr Wizzard" Google it and you will find him. I think it was 169 bucks with free shipping. I paid the extra 29 bucks for UPS to wrap it right. Got it back id sayw within a week and plugged it in, No more blinking on and off :smash:

Ops UPS charged 20 bucks. :D