[Glaucus]

Hey Supra fans!

Well, I was driving around and smelled a bit of antifreeze, but it was only momentary and didn't think anything of it (thought it was someone else's car). Then, I parked the car and I smelled it again. I walked around to the front and saw a nice little stream of green coolant trickling down from under my car. uppydog: Popping the hood, I could see that it was coming from the front, driver's side of my engine. At first I thought it was coming from the thermostat housing, perhaps the gasket blew. Well, that seemed fine. The hoses seem fine as well. It seems as if the coolant is coming from somewhere just under the distributor. I couldn't get a good look at, and since I'm not in my home town (I'm in Vancouver right now) I don't have much in terms of tools or places to fix this.

Anyway, a temporary solution so far seems to be to park the car facing up on an incline (when it was parked facing down it was leaking a fair bit). It stopped leaking, but it's possible it just ran out of coolant?!? Now the reservoir is empty, I'll fill it with water and see how it goes, although I'm not sure I wanna drive this anywhere right now.

So I guess right now I'm wondering, what's the most likely possibility here? A little history on the car: Before I drove it out to Vancouver I flushed the rad a few times and changed the thermostat along with some hoses. I did have some heating problems while on the mountains, but nothing too serious, and nothing too surprising as my brad is missing some of the fins and perhaps doesn't dissipate heat as well as it should. But the overheating was only on the highway, only when it was really hot out and only when I was pushing the car hard. Since I arrived the engine has been running solid. Any thoughts on the matter???

I plan to go to the Vancouver mini-meet this Thursday, but if any Vancouver locals want to help me fix this ASAP, I would really appreciate it (dinner and beers on me).

- Mike

 

[SupraFiend]

give me call, I might be able to help tommorrow night. This is most likely your cause of overheating in the moutains. Keep it topped up until then, check it regularly and drive it as little as possible. I lost an engine once to a leak like this.

 

[Glaucus]

Thanks for the speedy reply! See ya tomorrow!

- Mike

 

[Glaucus]

update: Okay, I had this extra clamp so I threw it on the little hose leading towards the back of the engine just under the thermostat housing. It seems that's where it was leaking from. It's still leaking a little bit but a fraction of what it was before. I'd still like to replace that hose as it could give way on the trip back to Winnipeg, so (@SupraFiend) I'd still like to come over tomorrow like we planned. At least we now know what the problem is and shouldn't take too long to fix.

Damn that engine is hot though, I burned my thumb a little bit while putting on that clamp! Oh well, she's running reliably for now at least so that's good.

- Mike

 

[DriftMe]

When you flushed your radiator were you sure to slowly refill it with your coolant/water combination? If you don't pour slowly and just dump it all in using a funnel, then the coolant mixture can fill the passages too quickly and cause air pockets. It could cause overheating or for pressure differences through the lines.

 

[CRF_Rider]

When you replace the line(s) take a close look at the metal tube it connects to. If it is the one I am thinking of it gets pretty pitted and corroded. If it has to be replaceg it's a PITA. A temporary solution would be to put a little gold RTV on it when you put the hose on (make sure it is prefectly dry).

Good luck!

 

[suprathepeg]

Beset solution would be to buy my 85p-type when you get back to the peg. (just kidding hope you get it back to gother soon)

 

[Glaucus]

When you flushed your radiator were you sure to slowly refill it with your coolant/water combination?

Ummm... Nope. I kinda just dumped it in, but slowly so as not to spill out of the rad's filler neck - which I thought was slow enough. How slow is slow enough? Are there any other tricks to eliminate bubbles from the coolant? I was thinking of raising the front end of the car so that air is encourage to escape from the filler cap by gravity. Any methods one can use to remove the bubbles or does it just clean itself over time?

When you replace the line(s) take a close look at the metal tube it connects to. If it is the one I am thinking of it gets pretty pitted and corroded.

Will do, thanks for the tip.

Beset solution would be to buy my 85p-type when you get back to the peg.

I just might take you up on your offer! But first I'll let you finish your restoration! ;-) The last time I tried restoring a Supra some moron ran a red light and smacked my car just a couple of weeks before I was to have the car completely painted! Grrr....

- Mike

 

[DriftMe]

It is best to fill when the engine is cold, and make sure your coolant cap seals are good and not cracked. I should also say, you should use deionized water for your coolant/water mixture because it will not promote the forming of deposits or the slow oxidation of the radiator core, you can get it for $0.67 usd a gallon at some grocery stores. If you were to use tap water or even spring water the elements and materials in the water can form deposits inside your radiator under the high heat and pressure. Be sure to clean out any material deposits from your overflow tank.

When filling, remove the radiator cap and the filler neck cap and make sure the radiator drainage plug is secure (you should also check the seal on this as well if you can). Slowly pour your mixture into your filler neck using a funnel. Go by the rule that you should take five minutes or more to pour an entire gallon (4.75 quarts). This way, you are taking about a minute and twenty seconds to pour a quart, as apposed to dumping in a quart in five seconds if you pour quickly. This helps assure that your coolant mixture trickles down through the system and is given proper time to displace the air and push it out of your radiator and block. When your radiator filler cap overflows then put the cap on there, then resume filling slowly. Once you've filled your entire system, place on your filler neck cap and then fill your overflow tank to the proper level.

Then, start your engine and allow it to idle and raise to normal operating engine temperature. If the needle rises close to 3/4 then shut off the engine and allow it to cool again. Open the filler neck cap, any small air pockets in the system should have come to this point. You should be able to see a difference in the coolant level if there were air pockets. Slowly fill the rest of the way, replace the cap, and start the motor and let it run to operating temperature again. You may need to repeat twice if there are lots of air pockets, if your motor keeps overheating at idle then you should consider that there may be deposits. If you have no irregularities, then enjoy the clean running motor and it's better efficiency.

I also suggest that whenever you change your coolant you perform an engine flush. To do this, simply drain your coolant, slowly pour in 2/3 the recomended mixture volume of deionized water, then drain out the water. It should be discolored because of some coolant still remaining in the system. If you want, you can repeat this again, but fill the system with deionized water and let the engine run until about 2/3 hot, then shutoff and let cool. This should help free up any deposits by running the clean water through the hot system. Drain the water while the motor is slightly warm before the deposits settle.

One of the great things about having a solid iron cast block is that it is good at pulling away the heat from the combustion chamber and passing it into the cooling system. A big problem is that some people neglect their cooling system and not all of the heat is transferred. The result, heat not transferred to the coolant is transferred to the air/fuel mixture prior to combustion. This is bad, because it can cause knock if very severe, but most of the time it just makes for an inefficient combustion chamber. There are two good ways to optimise the cooling efficiency of a motor. Decrease surface tension, which allows for better transferrence of energy to the coolant, or to increase the surface area of the radiator and allow for better energy exchange.

There are some really great products which decrease the surface tension of the water/coolant mixture. Redline's Water Wetter, and Royal Purple's coolant additive; adding one bottle to your coolant mixture before putting it in the motor is a great thing to do. I use Water Wetter, because I didn't spring the extra three bucks for Royal Purple, but I'm told Royal Purple is the shit and works a little better. If you're cheap though, adding some Dawn or Jet-Dri will do the same thing, but I don't like the idea of bubbles forming if there is air in the system.

 

[DriftMe]

BTW, I can write detailed and technical posts, but they're usually good to read

 

[Glaucus]

@DriftMe,

Thanks for the info!

Btw, last night I went over to SupraFiend's place and we (actually, I should say "he") replaced the broken hose, which developed a nice big hole and allowed the coolant to just pour out. I just wanna say that he's the best! Not sure if there's too many people out there that would go to that length to help out a complete stranger! I owe him big time for that! Thanks Seamus, and I'll see you tonight at the meet!

- Mike

 

[suprathepeg]

Props to Suprafiend!

 

[suprathepeg]

Hey Mike,

I don't know if you are really interested in the 85 but $3000.00 talkes it as is or $4400.00 with paint and all body work done. I really need to get rid of it as I no longer have a place to keep it, I have put a ton of new parts and work into it in the last 2 years. and the body is rust free other then a couple stone chips whick I can fix as I said. Only 172k kms on it.

regards,

 

[Glaucus]

@SupraThePeg,

Hmmm... very tempting... Well, we'll talk when I get back to town - which will be next week sometime. Take care.

- Mike

 

[suprathepeg]

sounds good to me.