Katacus

ok. Ive owned my 86.5 for a few years, but due to work Ive not driven too much. Just back and forth to the garage. Im very lucky to have a trusted friend who owns a well respected garage in my community....and he loves my check book.

The car runs great, wonderful compression, loads of power...however...Overheating seems to be an issue. I changed the thermostat, and the thermostat housing (due to a broken bolt). Well, after a spirited trip up a certain mountain, overheating issue came back.

Made it back home with a trail of antifreeze. I check the the radiator with a IR heat laser tool (whatever its called, give me a few more beers and I will remember), and there is a 90 degree difference between the top of the radiator and the bottom. And then there is the reserve coolant tank....nice and brown with gold flakes.

ok....now tell me what I dont what to hear. If you have to lie to make me feel better please do so. **** my checkbook.

I dont want to hear things like, replace head gasket, the water pump I nothing about, timing belt, unclog radiator, or what ever else the PO did my 928.

This whole thing has upset me so much, Ive taken my obsessive ways and picked up gardening......sorry for venting. **** tulips didn't turn out either...

Maleficio

My radiator was doing the same thing a couple of days ago.

It finally started flowing correctly later, though.

I'm sure I have a certain catastrophe on the horizon, too. Thank goodness I'm broke.

Speedtoys

Sounds like prior art with radiator stop leak.

Pull it.

Core it out.

Shane

Check the water pump, mine was getting hot right before the pump started chewing into the block.

blown 87

Golden flakes usually mean stop leak, however if they are not gold, you may have a impeller eating the block.

You need to find out what the issue is.

Lizard928

my first guess is the Radiator engine oil cooler could be leaking as you say nice and brown.

Trip..

Have your tech perform a back flush of the coolant, get the bars leak out of there. Only problem is, there was a reason the bars leak was dumped in there in the first place. Once it's flushed out, you'll find out why.

Check the coolant for oil and check the oil for coolant. The oil will turn into a nice frothy milkshake when mixed. Chances are if the coolant is a rusty brown color with copper sparkles (looks like glitter) you have Bars leak.

I have Bars leak in my beater blazer and it's been performing fine for years, I just flush it out and add another bottle every spring. It's been like that for 40,000 miles, but this truck was about to be scrapped. So the Bars leak kept it out of the junkyard and personally that's about the only time I would use it, just before the crusher or in a derby car. I personally wouldn't put it in anything that I cared about, say a 928.

IMHO Bars leak is a band-aid on a severed arm. Sorry man.

gbgastowers

Good post Trip.

Mako 928

I had a externally leaking head gasket on MY' 85. ( yes I know you do not want to hear this )
It took me a while to find the leak. I used a infrared flashlight in a dark garage to finally find the leak. The anti freeze showed up as a dayglo color, very easy to detect.

This would be a reason that someone would have used bars leak fix on your car.
It would be best to find the reason for this rather than a quick and easy fix.

Also did the mechanic replace the rubber O-ring BEHIND the thermostat?

76FJ55

You state that you had a 90 deg differential between the top and bottom of the rad. These cars have a cross flow rad not vertical flow, so if you saw these numbers numbers on the same end tank or the core it would indicate to me that you have little to no flow indicating a pump issue.

Randy V

WTF?

robot808

It's America man!

Katacus

Im sure I have multiple problems revolving around maintenance issues. It will get handled in the fall or next spring. I will probably pull the engine, and replace everything. The thinking, replace the thermostat and everything will be OK idea is turning out to be a fantasy.

tailpipe

I had my impeller fall of the shaft one time car runs for about 15 mins before it boiled over.

Imo000

+1