freaking car is pissing me off

[QWKSNKE]

Been battling coolant overflow all damn week. Fixed a thermostat screwup (by your truly when the motor was being assembled) then drove it a 100 miles last Sunday with no problems. Drove it Tuesday afternoon to do some data logging, had no problems. Get up Wednesday morning, hop in the car to drive it to work, and the mother #$#%er thermostat sticks closed which causes the car to get hot and push all the damn coolant out the overflow before I get 5 minutes from home. Stop by a rip off exxon station to get antifreeze (10 freaking dollars) and fill it up. Idle the car until the t'stat cycles and drive on to work with no problems.

Come home from Work Wednesday, t'stat sticks closed again and blah blah everything happens again that happened that morning.

So today I finish up the thermostat replacment. Hop in the car to stop by the shop for a few minutes. See about 10 psi of boost in 2nd and 3rd along the way and hear spark rattle. Then I see freaking coolant come out from under neath the hood , sprinkling on the windshield. Pull up at the shop and see a little coolant come out of the custom belt hole in the reservoir. Get it straightened out but the car is running a little warmer all the way home then it did on the way out to the shop (1 bar higher on the OEM gauge)

So tomorrow I am stealing the reservoir off the 88 to see if it fixes the problem. If not, then on to a head gasket inspection :fuss:

[TheJeanyus]

I'll trade with you. :D

[NightHawk756]

Dang Lee, sounds like you've got a run of my bad luck. :nono:

[Wicked]

That sucks. I'm sure you'll get it fixed. :nice:

[Craig K.]

Could you run a blocking plate instead of a t-stat? These are restrictors which limit the amount of flow, but it is always open. Bascially an aluminum ring with a hole in the middle.

It sounds like your blower belt cut a hole in the overflow tank? Could you put something on the front of the blower pulley to not allow the belt to move front to back on the pulley?

Sounds just like a lot a different problems, just all attacking your coolant system

[93Cobra#2771]

Lee - is it possible you are just having a hard time getting the air out of the system? When filling it, pull the ECT sensor out of the coolant line - it will let air vent out of the system while you are filling the rad.

Freaking air pockets will make a tstat do some wierd things.

[93Cobra#2771]

Of course the other possibility is the HG went south on you and exhaust gas it getting into the cooling system... :(

[Purple1995Pony]

with the amount of driving he's been doing there shouldn't be any air left in the system... it's something else like the head gasket

[Purple1995Pony]

Been battling coolant overflow all damn week. Fixed a thermostat screwup (by your truly when the motor was being assembled) then drove it a 100 miles last Sunday with no problems. Drove it Tuesday afternoon to do some data logging, had no problems. Get up Wednesday morning, hop in the car to drive it to work, and the mother #$#%er thermostat sticks closed which causes the car to get hot and push all the damn coolant out the overflow before I get 5 minutes from home. Stop by a rip off exxon station to get antifreeze (10 freaking dollars) and fill it up. Idle the car until the t'stat cycles and drive on to work with no problems.

Come home from Work Wednesday, t'stat sticks closed again and blah blah everything happens again that happened that morning.

So today I finish up the thermostat replacment. Hop in the car to stop by the shop for a few minutes. See about 10 psi of boost in 2nd and 3rd along the way and hear spark rattle. Then I see freaking coolant come out from under neath the hood , sprinkling on the windshield. Pull up at the shop and see a little coolant come out of the custom belt hole in the reservoir. Get it straightened out but the car is running a little warmer all the way home then it did on the way out to the shop (1 bar higher on the OEM gauge)

So tomorrow I am stealing the reservoir off the 88 to see if it fixes the problem. If not, then on to a head gasket inspection :fuss:


just rying to cover all the bases here..... FMS thermostats have a much larger opening in them than say a generic brand from walmart..... also you could drill a by-pass hole in it if there isn't one already.... or a larger one...


still sounds like a head gasket to me though.....

[QWKSNKE]

yeah. I am thinking head gasket also, just trying to cover all bases before I start tearing the $%@^^ heads off.

Wouldn't be a big deal but there is the huge ass supercharger in the way that adds an easy hr to the disassembly and assembly :fuss:

[86GT]

I have seen a device that looks like an eye dropper that can take a sample of the coolant and determine if the head gasket is blown. It almost looks like a hydrometer for the battery test.

[Purple1995Pony]

more wrench time = less drive time unfortunately :fuss: