From: hippo on 8 May 2010 08:01 Brad wrote: > > In case anyone is interested I found out what was wrong today. > > The head was fine, it was just the radiator. > > The miss that developed was caused by the overflow hose on the overflow > bottle blowing boiling coolant straight on top if the coil. > > It should have been clipped to the side of the bottle. :\ > > > > Brad wrote: > > Anyone want to have a guess what might be wrong here? > > > > 1997 1.3l 4cyl Charade 5spd A/C with 165,000km > > > > It sat around with no water in the radiator for 2 months with a blown > > motor. > > Put a second hand engine it with new timing belt and thermostat and > > the water pump looked good. > > > > Drove it about 1000km around town without any issues but a freeway > > trip at 100kph with hills made it overheat badly. It never went over > > the top of the gauge and I didn't think it had got so hot to hurt it > > at the time. It did blow out a couple of litres of coolant which I > > refilled when it cooled down. > > Had the radiator pressure tested and it seemed fine and could see no > > leaks. Thermostat and thermo fan seemed to be cutting in as expected. > > > > Spoke to the mechanic who did the engine and he said it was almost > > definitely a partially blocked radiator and it should be fine around > > town for a couple of weeks. (it's mates rates, after hours, so had to > > wait for him) > > > > Someone here suggested you could test for a partially blocked > > radiator by pouring water over it when hot and seeing if some parts > > evaporate when others don't. I tried that but the radiator surface > > never actually gets hot enough to evaporate water. > > > > About a week ago I ducked out late at night for a 10 minute each-way > > trip to the 7/11. I didn't even think about the temp gauge but when I > > pulled up home it was steaming it's head off and the temp gauge was > > past the top. I figure it was either low on coolant when I left, or > > using the A/C with windscreen defrost on the trip caused it. > > > > Next day I refilled it, drove to the local servo to warm it up, then > > opened the radiator cap to make sure it was full and found white foam > > bubbling out the neck. > > > > The car seemed to sound and run fine but on the way back home I > > noticed a bad "miss" when I started heading up a hill in 3rd gear, > > where 2nd would have been the right choice. It was kind of a > > vrrrooomm-put-put-vrooom-put-vroom sort of thing. Not regular and not > > constantly, just now and then. I 'think' I could detect a slight ping > > when it was happening too. But that could have been my imagination or > > just loading the thing too much at low revs possibly? It also > > 'seemed' to have more trouble making a hill start than I recall it > > had, but I was really looking for problems at that stage so aren't > > 100% sure. Power seemed normal otherwise. > > > > Anyway, spoke to mechanic and he said that sounds like a head gasket, > > or the head. > > > > I read that on the interwebs that foam can also be caused by air in > > the system or a dieing water pump and I should raise the rear of the > > car and let it idle for 20 minutes to clear any air out the system, > > so did this yesterday. There was no sign of foam at all, I couldn't > > detect any smell of exhaust fumes from the radiator neck with my > > nose, and the only bubbles coming through were few and largish. So > > I'm starting to think (hope) maybe the head/gasket isn't blown. The > > only bad signs I could see were a constant drip coming from the rear > > muffler about once every 2 seconds... although I wasn't sure this > > wasn't just normal condensation effects. The other thing was when the > > thermo fan cut in the engine spluttered about 300ml of coolant out > > the open radiator for some reason and when I topped it up a small > > amount of white foam appeared, this time with slight traces of brown > > film on top. It seemed to wash away and that was the end of it. > > Is it definitely a partially blocked radiator? Or could the initial > > overheating all be due to a head issue maybe? Apart from being left > > empty for that period there is no reason to think the radiator was > > obviously the issue I thought. > > > > If the radiator is causing the overheating, could that short drive > > when it overheated have been enough to cause heat damage to the head > > or blow the gasket? > > > > Can you think of anything else that could be causing the miss > > symptoms? > > And do you think I'm up for head work or not? > > > Woohoo! Sometimes the happy ending can be relatively inexpensive too. Cheers -- Posted at www.usenet.com.au
From: Brad on 8 May 2010 11:07 hippo wrote: > Brad wrote: >> >> In case anyone is interested I found out what was wrong today. >> >> The head was fine, it was just the radiator. >> >> The miss that developed was caused by the overflow hose on the >> overflow bottle blowing boiling coolant straight on top if the coil. >> >> It should have been clipped to the side of the bottle. :\ >> >> > > Woohoo! Sometimes the happy ending can be relatively inexpensive too. > Cheers Yeah! I was very pleased :-)) -- Brad
From: The Raven on 9 May 2010 19:23 "Brad" <optional(a)REMOVEgmail.com> wrote in message news:4be53ff5(a)news.x-privat.org... > In case anyone is interested I found out what was wrong today. > > The head was fine, it was just the radiator. > > The miss that developed was caused by the overflow hose on the overflow > bottle blowing boiling coolant straight on top if the coil. > > It should have been clipped to the side of the bottle. :\ Good work
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