Rapid coolant loss, overheat, slight engine fire.
05-17-2012, 03:46 PM
#16
Drifting
I'm sorry to hear about this.
I have a spare radiator in the attic if you need to borrow it (and happen to be in town visiting or something)... I bought this one a while back and never did anything with it.
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-2-cooler.html
I was orgianlly planning of fiddling/mounting this with a slight tilt. Never got around to it and bars stop leak 'fixed' my original.
Hope you get this sorted and back on the road soon.
I have a spare radiator in the attic if you need to borrow it (and happen to be in town visiting or something)... I bought this one a while back and never did anything with it.
https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-2-cooler.html
I was orgianlly planning of fiddling/mounting this with a slight tilt. Never got around to it and bars stop leak 'fixed' my original.
Hope you get this sorted and back on the road soon.
05-18-2012, 04:03 AM
#19
Rennlist Member
05-18-2012, 12:01 PM
#20
Chronic Tool Dropper
Lifetime Rennlist
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Take a look at spark plugs on that side. All the plugs actually. Coolant washes the plugs to white. Hopefully, the smoke you saw was outside the exhaust, from oil on the exhaust system. Then drawn back under the car as you coasted. Meanwhile, check the oil level and quality and see if there's water in it. Drain it for sure, and grab a sample for later analysis.
On my '89 car, there's a coolant level switch and a coolant pressure switch working together to tell me when coolant drops in the reservoir. Folks reading at home should verify that those are working, easiest when changing coolant annually. Those give some advance warning that there's a problem, and let you take evasive action before any overheating. That said, I've had one incident when a radiator hose came off (separate story) and the cooling system emptied itself in a few seconds. I coasted to the side of the freeway through traffic, engine off, and that part alone was exciting enough for me.
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There are lots of diagnostic steps available, but the easiest and most straightforwad starts with the oil inspection. If no coolant in the oil, change it for new. Fix the obvious coolant leak, and fill the system with just distilled water. Inspect the plugs, and maybe do a simple compression check to find internal headgasket failure. But the plugs will tell you about that if they are washed white. Then start the engine, listening and looking. If all is well as it comes up to temp at idle, you dodged a bullet. If not, you'll be able to see what's failing, and start your Christmas parts list early.
On my '89 car, there's a coolant level switch and a coolant pressure switch working together to tell me when coolant drops in the reservoir. Folks reading at home should verify that those are working, easiest when changing coolant annually. Those give some advance warning that there's a problem, and let you take evasive action before any overheating. That said, I've had one incident when a radiator hose came off (separate story) and the cooling system emptied itself in a few seconds. I coasted to the side of the freeway through traffic, engine off, and that part alone was exciting enough for me.
-----
There are lots of diagnostic steps available, but the easiest and most straightforwad starts with the oil inspection. If no coolant in the oil, change it for new. Fix the obvious coolant leak, and fill the system with just distilled water. Inspect the plugs, and maybe do a simple compression check to find internal headgasket failure. But the plugs will tell you about that if they are washed white. Then start the engine, listening and looking. If all is well as it comes up to temp at idle, you dodged a bullet. If not, you'll be able to see what's failing, and start your Christmas parts list early.
05-18-2012, 02:06 PM
#21
Drifting
Thread Starter
Plugs look pretty normal. Oil doesn't appear to have any coolant in it, nor does the coolant appear to have any oil in it.
I still have the leaking radiator, so I can't get the car up to temp to do a proper compression test, but a cold test showed 180, 180,190,180 on the driver's side and 180,200,180,190 on the passenger side.
I still have the leaking radiator, so I can't get the car up to temp to do a proper compression test, but a cold test showed 180, 180,190,180 on the driver's side and 180,200,180,190 on the passenger side.
Last edited by Brett Jenkins; 05-25-2012 at 04:52 PM.
05-18-2012, 03:44 PM
#23
Drifting
Thread Starter
I did some patchwork on my radiator end tank and slowed the leak enough to run the engine a bit, up to temp.
Last edited by Brett Jenkins; 05-25-2012 at 04:52 PM.
05-18-2012, 03:49 PM
#24
Fleet of Foot
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I did some patchwork on my radiator end tank and slowed the leak enough to run the engine a bit, up to temp. There is definitely a pretty steady oil leak from somewhere. It was dripping steadily from the PS rack cover, so I removed that figuring it was just pooling up in there first. The oil was coming down off the engine mount area, following it up, it seemed to be running pretty steadily OUT of the middle exhaust manifold port. The top side of the manifold is dry. You can see how oil soaked it is in the picture and it just drips, streams almost from that area when the engine is running. Does this mean I have a piston ring problem and oil is squirting past into the exhaust?
05-18-2012, 05:14 PM
#28
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Probably leaking from the cam cover. Need to clean it really well, using brake clean, then have somebody else start the car and see where it starts.