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coolant leak


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Fan not required… 

I use 180 degree Mr Gasket in all of my vehicles.

In heavy traffic , with the AC on, the engine will still reach its 195 to 200 degrees… On the highway it stays at 180 to 190 range….  It just opens faster. I should probably use the 195 in the winter.  I've been known to partially block the airflow to the radiator in the dead of winter to compensate..

Not recommended, but it keeps the temps up. I have two temp gages on my Monte… one for the top of the intake and one for the passenger side of the engine…. I can always tell when the the thermostat open and closes…. 

If you look closely there is a small hole on the inner edge for air embolism… I still drill a small 1/8 hole …. Mister Gasket thermostats have never failed me. They turn the mechanism to open rather than pop open. I've had the standard ones fail, but never this style.

 

Personnaly, I never put anything in my radiator other than the proper mix of Anti freeze.  

If your radiator is that bad, you may want to have it professionally cleaned and rodded out… Cheap insurance ...

Ed

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Most thermostats come from the same place, but companies like Haynes get first pick of the batch, so more likely a better piece.

Not a big fan of the chemical flush as it could damage gaskets and seals...... Like I said earlier, I just "tee" in a garden hose and let the engine run until the water clears up.

And yes, the settings for the heater are right to flush that out too....

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If you have some distilled water handy, it can't hurt to flush it out at the end with that. More important after that though, find out what the cooling system capacity for your particular setup (small/big block, A/C, heavy duty cooling system, etc). Then, add half that total amount with straight antifreeze and top the rest off with the remaining distilled water you have. That'll ensure you have a 50/50 mix of coolant/water.

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I have to say I only use distilled water in my cooling system, even during a flush, because there are no contaminents to possibly get lodged in the small passages of the radiator fins and eventually cause issues. I used to do the garden hose trick all the time however without any problems but afterwards a thorough drain, reflush with distilled water, and fill with the correct mix is my hard and fast rule. 

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FWIW, GM procedures on newer vehicles simply say to fill the cooling systems with coolant and "clean drinkable water".

I still use distilled water on my vehicles when refilling though.

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That’s funny about the distilled water. When I used to work on customer cars I always used distilled water. But never have I used it on my personal cars. Go figure. Karen used to go to the store and pick me up a few gallons every time. I still have about 5 gallons in the basement that’s almost 10 years old. You would have thought I would have used it in the 71. 

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I have a skin issue where it dries out really bad and cracks. Almost like exxima (?) it was really bad when I was younger, not uncommon for me to have 10-20 bandages on at one time. About 20 years ago I bought a 3000 dollar water purification/ softener whole house setup. That’s how I learned how to do plumbing, moving it from house to house. Lol. No major issues ever since. So I figure if it’s good enough for my body it’s good enough for the cars. Lol. 

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I never used Distilled Water in any of my cars.  What got me using DI water was my Model A Ford.  For years I had issues with my Model A overheating.  When I completely drained the block and radiator the tap water came out so orange along with some gunk that I realized I needed to do a cooling system cleaning.  A member of the Model A Restorers Club said you are running DI water, right?   

Running the tap water in the Model A had gummed up the radiator so bad it could not be saved unless I had wanted to put over $1000 into having it restored and there would have been no guarantee.  After I did a system chemical cleaning I installed a repop radiator and have been using DI Water ever since.  Prior to this I could not go more than 5 miles without the Model A overheating and me having to add more water.  Since then I rarely have to add any DI Water.  Not only that if I drain the system I get no rusty water draining out of the block or radiator....not bad for the block being the original 93 year old cast iron block.

I will never run anything but DI water.

rob

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My garden hose water comes from a well that is at least 200 years old. It’s pretty cool it’s like a stone tower but built into the ground.  I wouldn’t drink it though, could be anything down there! The plants like it fine. I think I’ll use it to flush everything then flush that with distilled. Then a good burping. Good banter here!

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21 hours ago, Crom Cruach said:

Ok brilliant I know what to do. Scott, with the hose flush do I need to flush the hose water out with distilled water first, or just drain and start adding coolant?

I just drain through the cock at the bottom of the radiator..... Which over the years I've found to leave about a gallon of clean water in the block.

I then add a gallon of pure A/F, start the engine, add a second gallon of A/F, and top with tap water. 

I see here that some prefer distilled.... But here in Calgary, we have some of the purest water in the world straight from the tap, so chemical/iron content is a factor to consider.

One thing of note. You may want to add an overflow tank, (there's a great tread on here regarding that). Just to keep from loosing fluid. 

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I have to tell you this because now it’s funny. I had a 1979 Camaro Z 28 back in 1982 that had a very dirty cooling system I could not clean it out. I  used Drano. Cleaned it out great, but I forgot to neutralize it afterwards with baking soda. I ended up replacing gaskets and frost plugs. Now I laugh about it but I wouldn’t try that again.

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1 hour ago, John S said:

I have to tell you this because now it’s funny. I had a 1979 Camaro Z 28 back in 1982 that had a very dirty cooling system I could not clean it out. I  used Drano. Cleaned it out great, but I forgot to neutralize it afterwards with baking soda. I ended up replacing gaskets and frost plugs. Now I laugh about it but I wouldn’t try that again.

Yeah but I’ll bet it was super clean

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I grew up watching the old man use nothing but the garden hose for radiator flushes followed by the 50/50 distilled/AF mixture. Pops always said distilled is best as you never know exactly what kind of mineral content you’d be leaving in the system right from the hose spigot. Considering the time, all the water supply pipes likely contained a quantity of lead also as this was before copper repiping gained popularity. 

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