Coolant leak - I think!

[PJ Grady (Europe)]

Hi All

I spoke to Carl today with his overheating problems. To date the electrics are fine, and only possible areas that are suspect are the rad, or the engine. The coolant bottle may be in need of replacement, but that has nothing to do with the coolant fans kicking in late as I have had deloreans that run without a cap on and work right.

After working on my own car today, (yes i have found a couple of hours for TRK) i pulled the heads, and what i saw surprised me, as you can imagine (Those that know) the liners (Outer) were full of rust, making water flow not that great! I have rebuild countless engines now, but mine had to be the worse to date, I suspect that carl's is in the same way. I will take a picture and post for you all to see tom.

On another note Carl's D does not cool herself down when RPM is held at 3000, (Like most deloreans) and i have fully flushed the coolant through all the pipework, and the coolant is still brown! the thermostat is brand new, otterstat is fully working as removed from one of my rebuilds to make sure I was not losing my mind. The water pump is working fine as it is pumping like mad! My thoughts are a blocked pipe either going to the liners (off the water pump) or the liners are full of crud.

I have removed my liners as I had to remove all of the ‘crud’ from them and it was a lot! I am sure that the water flow to carl’s is restricted hence causing this problem.

Best wishes!

Chris

[Tourettes Tony]

the way its going maybe we should set a production line up chris, me smoking and swearing helping out, you doing the rebuilds lol TT

[PJ Grady (Europe)]

Oh you are the man Tony! i owe you a lot! :lol: I think i will be the one having a coffee break while i watch you!

Best Nic

[NickT]

At least it is caught in time !

[Carl Hammond]

A brief update:

Had the car out last night (just poked out of the garage). First of all topped her up, replacing the coolant she'd lost the other night (almost 3 litres!). No leaks which was good.

Then fired her up and let her tick over for a few mins - all fine. Took just over 5-6 mins idling to reach the first notch on the gauge - still no problems so far. I then check the level in my header tank (about 1/3rd full I would say) screwed down the cap on the coolant bottle and let her run for a bit longer. Took another 5 mins or so to reach her "normal" operating level (well normal for mine lol) which is about 3 needles widths away from the 220 mark. It took her another 5 mins or so before she reached that mark and by that time I chickened out! lol

However, no problems whatsoever, no leaking or overheating too quickly - which is good I guess!

By the way, fans were running constantly throughout - as I have them fused to stay on at the minute. I know now from the other night that her boiling point is roughly 3 needles width above the 220, so anything around that mark is getting towards the danger zone! Will just keep my eye on it for now... I don't think any damage has been sustained.

Checked her this morning before work - still good and no suspect leaks. Is it safe to say I would know about it by now if I had any split hoses? They would have shown up by now right?

So, what can I learn from this little experiment then guy's? Surely some encouraging signs here? :?

P.S. Nick, I'm about 20 miles from where you're staying next week. Feel free to come over if you like mate, but don't worry too much about the car. I'm sure it's the last thing you want to be doing after working all day! Besides, I think this is going to be a longer term job! Unless, there is any simple tests we can carry out of course? Do you think it's worth doing a pressure test?

Best regards

Carl

[A Van]

If you have your cooling fans running all the time and the car was idling, I am surprised the temp guage moved at all!!

The fact it got to the first notch so quickly with fans on means the engine is getting hot and pretty quick too, and then kept rising... I know it doesnt sound good Carl but nothing you have said there is encouraging at all apart from you dont have leaks,(mind you if you did at least it would be an easy fix)

A pressure test will only show up leaks, which it doesnt look like you have.

The only way is to start ruling out things, or replacing them until its cured.

But really you need to rule head gasket failure first if you can, by getting it tested as per previous posts.

[Carl Hammond]

I know mate, I know... was clutching at straws I guess...

Right, I'm going to book her into my local for a hydrocarbons test at least get her checked for head gasket problems at least put my mind at rest!

Other than that, I don't really know what to do to be honest. I can't really afford to throw any more money at her for the moment - I have too many other things going on in my personal life to even consider this I'm afraid. Besides, I don't really want to dump her back onto poor Chris again, he's busy enough at it is at the moment! I still feel awful about the personal time he has already dedicated to working on my car. I might just give him a mental breakdown if I brought her back again now! You're a true diamond though Chris and I cannot thank you enough mate.

I wish I could possess the technical expertise to tackle a job like this myself. I can always start to read up on it maybe take one step at a time, could be a nice little project - but then don't really have the room for the car AND parts in my garage!

Anyway, looks like she's probably going to have to sit in the garage for the foreseeable future I guess, at least she won't come to any harm there!

Thank you to all you lovely people for all your awesome help and advice, I simply could not do this without you!

Best regards

Carl

[NickT]

When I am at norwich I will show you where the drain plugs are at the side of the engine.

Hope you have a hose and a pressure washer

NickT

[Carl Hammond]

OK Nick, only if you've got the time to spare matey, I don't want to put you out!

I can rob my Dad's hose and I'm sure I can find a pressure washer from somewhere! :wink:

I will pay you back through the currency of beer!!

Best regards

Carl

[Rich H]

Hmm, sounds very odd to me this one.

It's possible it could be the heads blowing combustion gases into the coolant but the symptoms aren't right for that. One quick check you can do is when the engine is cold, open the coolant cap, start the engine and have a look at the jet of water just inside the coolant tank. Rev the engine and look at the stream, does it turn to lemonade (ie fizzy)? Do you get lots of tiny bubbles in the top of the water in the tank? That would suggest a gasket failure.

If you're cooling fans were on constantly, then really the temperature gauge shouldn't have risen much above the quarter mark - and it should have took a lot longer than 5 minutes to get there. Even with a gasket blown.

If as Chris says, your coolant is continually going brown, then something a seriously gunged up somewhere and it's beginning to sound like the water jacket.

The most painless solution to start with would be trying a high pressure flushing of the block.
This will involve removing the inlet manifolds and pipes to the water pump. Then blasting water from the top of the heads down into the water jacket and out through the Y-Pipe. Then going back up the other way. Something like a jet washer would be a good source of high pressure water. Keep going back and forth till the water runs clear.
Not ideal, but certainly easier than taking the heads off!!

[Guinney1971]

the only thing I would add to what Rich Has put Carl, is that what your car is doing
*temperature wise* is the same as what Flopsy continued to do even after having had
both cylinder heads replaced, new gaskets, 'stat and water pump - mine was down to
having a gunged up radiator, and ever since I had that reconditioned, *touch wood* my
cooling system has been fine.

However, I didnt have the brown water symptoms that you've got.....

What mileage has Lily done btw?

[JamesRGUK]

Claire Usher Wrote:the only thing I would add to what Rich Has put Carl, is that what your car is doing
*temperature wise* is the same as what Flopsy continued to do even after having had
both cylinder heads replaced, new gaskets, 'stat and water pump - mine was down to
having a gunged up radiator, and ever since I had that reconditioned, *touch wood* my
cooling system has been fine.

However, I didnt have the brown water symptoms that you've got.....

What mileage has Lily done btw?

I had the gunged up radiator problem on an old triumph spitfire, fortunatly they have very short pipes and access is easy to flush the system.
I put in a serious dose of rad cleaner, ran it for a few miles, left it overnight and then rigged up a hose to flush the entire engine/rad for about 15-20-mins until the water ran clear.

It fixed the problem, i could have built a small sand castle with the crap that came out, chaces are all these cars have sat at some stage with old/defficient coolant in them, change your coolant every year and it should help prevent such occurances.

James RG

[Guinney1971]

Top Tip that James!!!

[Carl Hammond]

Claire Usher Wrote:What mileage has Lily done btw?

Good question Claire! The truth is I don't know, but at a guess I would say it's no more than 2000 miles!! Yes, really!!!

Anyway, plenty of great tips there people thank you and lot's to keep me busy with! Next stop is a HC test! (fingers crossed hey).

Will take a look at the water pump flow tonight and report back!

ttfn

Best regards

Carl

[Chris Williams]

Carl Hammond Wrote:

Claire Usher Wrote:What mileage has Lily done btw?

Good question Claire! The truth is I don't know, but at a guess I would say it's no more than 2000 miles!! Yes, really!!!

Anyway, plenty of great tips there people thank you and lot's to keep me busy with! Next stop is a HC test! (fingers crossed hey).

Will take a look at the water pump flow tonight and report back!

ttfn

Best regards

Carl

Mine had only done 10k when the block failed. This was stuffed full of crap in the gap between the liners and block. I still think you should look at the radiator again, Has Al still got any new ones? perhaps he would be good enough to loan you one to try and see if that helps/

Chris