Ripinator
Old Man with a Hat
I really love your car! And I'm so envious.
My 440 GT boils after I switch the engine off
- Thread starter Wollfen
- Start date
I really love your car! And I'm so envious.
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
So I went to a restaurant today with the car, 10 miles there and what did it do? Got effing hot again of course. Spewed coolant after I stopped. Ugh, after the meal I decided to simply drive home and see how it would go. Damned thing cut out while driving along and the needle was hard over to the right. Anyway, got it started again and managed to get home, needle still hard over to the right. Put the thermo gun on it and it reads 220 at idle. Then I shut it down and I can hear coolant bubbling in the radiator hose. I let it cool for two hours then started it again with the cap off and looked, ah hah! It looks white! Is it oil in the coolant? I get a flashlight and look more closely, nope, that's a stream of bubbles in the coolant. DAMMIT! Looks like I'm pulling the heads.
Unless you are 100% that it's a bad head gasket, and not trapped air from the boil... I have a couple kits similar, but prefer the second picture style as it makes it easier to prevent coolant from contaminating the fluid. If you buy the first style, drain off the top couple of inches of coolant from the radiator (the tool goes on instead of the cap) so you don't ruin the test fluid... if you do draw in coolant just toss the fluid and rinse the tester and start over.
Very simple to use, CO2 is the primary byproduct of combustion, you can draw the air you exhale into the fluid with the squeeze ball and change the blue to yellow to see how well it works. Pump fresh air and the fluid will change back to blue. Any combustion leak will put out CO2 and should cause the change, I have had small head gasket questions that took a long time to prove out with this tool, but a big bubble stream that makes you think "head gasket" will cause it to change right away if it is really a combustion leak.
rags
Senior Member
worked at a shop that had a 4 gas analyser for doing emissions work. put the sniffer over the fill on the radiator with the engine running. if it picked up co, game over. sorry to hear about this. hope it is something simple and easy to recognize if you pull it apart.
No poke at you... but that method required somebody smart enough NOT to allow the machine to drink coolant, which killed the gas bench... I've heard of many dead machines due to a foolish tech trying that... otherwise, it worked great.
Do you know for sure if the coolant is flowing through the bottom radiator hose?
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
The new hose is not blocked and the spring in it is still intact, how should I check? Would it account for a stream of tiny bubbles?
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
I'm going to pull the rocker covers and torque check the head bolts since it has new gaskets, hey I might get lucky!
I know I'm mentioning basic troubleshooting stuff. But sometimes it ends up being that stuff. Like the water pump shaft snaps and the impeller isn't moving any coolant.
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
I can see the coolant running by the radiator opening when I run the engine revs up by hand.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
Cap
Wouldn't do the job... those would be for HC's only... you would need one for CO2... I'd try the fluid test.
rags
Senior Member
after he put the radiator back in he says the engine developed a skip. likely the cylinder with the combustion leak. skips produce high amounts of hc. pretty much moot at this point though.
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
Ignition wire fell off , put it back on, miss gone.
Rwc
Senior Member
I had An old d-`100, 82' that was doing this, or very similar. drove me crazy. an older guy that specialized in radiators told me to change the thermostat housing because he bet it had a very slight crack in it that was letting it suck air, but not leak fluids. i thought he was basically sending me after a left handed monkey wrench. i put a different one on that i had, bled the system fully and it never bothered again. if you have another it might be worth a try.
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rags
Senior Member
d'oh!
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
The water pump housing? Or the alloy housing that bolts to it that the hose goes onto?
LocuMob
Fluid Technician with a hat
The alloy part the hose goes onto.
Wollfen
Old Man with a Hat
I will give it a close inspection, that is a new one on me.
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