is this normal for the cooling system.........

jmonsrvr

jmonsrvr

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
819
0
montara, ca & newport beach, ca
the other weekend i was down in big sur exploring all of the back roads and a funny thing happened. after driving up and down steep hills for hours and running the a/c off and on we decided to make our way to plaskett or prewitt ridge (cant remember the name) from where we were it was pretty much all up hill...it was hot so i ran the a/c the whole way up and down (i had to switch between high and low gears quite a bit...anyway we got to the top and i turned off the car....after about a minute the radiator resevoir was "releasing" a lot of coolant through the cap. I started the truck to get the fluid flowing again. No overheating on the gauge and the car ran fine the rest of the way back to camp and home and now. could it have been combo of a lot of low gear use and A/C use that could have caused excess pressure or is this a radiator/core problem...
 
H

Hoot

Well-known member
Apr 19, 2004
234
0
52
Bloomfield twp, MI
eduardo,

sorry i cant help with your cooling issue, but i am curious where in big sur were you driving? forestry roads? i am curious. i live in norcal and would like to know more specifics on where you were driving.
 
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PHARAOHDISCO

Guest
Hi Eduardo,

Just read your post. Sometimes if you have air trapped in your cooling system your engine might slightly overheat without an indication on the gauge due to the trapped air and when you stopped the air was being released from your reservoir. Ofcourse some fluid will also be released.
Another possibility will be that you had too much coolant in your system. The normal level should be at the center of your reservoir. With too much heavy driving, there was no space for the expansion of the fluid and therefore the pressure increase had to be released through the relief valve in the cap which is a safety measure to prevent the radiator from being damaged due to excess pressure.
There should not be a problem with your radiator. If you did have a blocked radiator and the coolant flow was being restricted you would have definetely sensed a temperature increase on your gauge in heavy driving.
 
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bazzle

Guest
When cold in the morning check rad plug to ensure system is full.
Also after the HOT run it is waise to lnot tirn straight off as localised hot spots in blosc/head can boil abd cause gas.

Bazzle
 
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ParrotheadinALB

Well-known member
Jun 1, 2004
56
0
Farmingdale, NY
On a somewhat related note, I need some guidance as to my radiator woes. Recently I took my truck for its first really serious offroad venture. (I had to pull out two Cherokees and a loaded Wrangler, needless to say I love the truck even more now). The road to the trail involves an extremely steep rocky path both times I went up it, first in Hi then in Lo, I started overheating. While the hill was really steep, it was an easy ride, never had to really gas it, and the RPM's were held below 1500 the entire time. Once we leveled of and started plowing through the mud, the temp droped back down, and no mater how hard I pushed the truck on the more level surfaces it was as cool as on the highway.

Just wondering if this might be an indication of water pump problems? The radiator fluid was topped off (to the correct cold ammount) and both cooling fans were running. Any help would be appreciated.

For the record its a 95 D1 with 74K on the clock. Fairly stock, with the exceptions being OME springs and Bilstien shocks...


Thanks
 
J

Jim

Guest
It's been my experience that if your water pump is dry (not passing coolent through the 'blow-hole') and quiet, then it's doing its job.
And even at low speeds it sould remain cool if the electric fans are working. You'll get a lot of people telling you to check your viscous coupler, your thermostat, your temp sender, etc. but what you probably need to look at is the radiator.

Don't cringe.

My DI ran "a little" hot for a year, ran "pretty" hot for a year, ran hot enough to make me turn off the AC in summertime for a month or so until I finally got off my butt.

Pulling the radiator is as easy as pulling the fan, popping out the shroud, 2 nuts, hoses and lift it out.

Turns out that it was about 80% blocked, for $50 I had it rodded and boiled and now I'm driving in AZ heat (108 today, looking at 112 by weekend) with AC blasting, up hills, down hills, heavy traffic, you name it, gauge stays at normal mark.

Heat kills, have that radiator looked at.

J
 
J

Jim

Guest
Well, any old GOOD radiator shop. I took mine to a little hole-in-the-wall place but I talked to them first. One of the problems with rodding is that if they pierce a cooling tube they'll usually just close that one off (which isn't that odd or bad), but if they pierce more than a few and just close them off, they're essentially by-passing the part that cools the water, so you need to take it to a reputable place.
If it's too rotted to be rodded without damage, coring is an option, far more affordable than the $700 for a new radiator.

Check out your local radiator shop first, if it's clean and has been in business for more than a few years then they probably do good work.

Good Luck!
 
jmonsrvr

jmonsrvr

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
819
0
montara, ca & newport beach, ca
just one thing jim....the temp gauge which works....never went above half way...so im not sure about the over heating..

could the viscous fan be the culprit. i checked and it indeed is leeking..it has the dry gluey type residou coming out
 
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