I'm at my Wit's end with coolant problem, need some advice...

I'm still running with no thermostat, so coolant temp is staying under 160, do you guys think that is affecting testing?

 

Ok, if I hold it around 3000RPMs for a minute or two, no bubbles at all, until I let off and let it drop to idle, then a get a few bubbles, then nothing?

 

I blew air through the hose, how do you test the pickup or whatever allows the coolant to be sucked back to the radiator?

 

Cut a slit in the plastic, stick the tester through it and see.

Did you blow air through the port on the bottle that the hose connects to?

 

Lol, trying to find a way to make a hole and not lose the gasses before I can get a seal on tester

 

Your not gona lose anything significant by cutting a slot.

 

Are you referring to the test where you pressurize the cylinder with an air compressor and watch for bubbles?

 

Yep, that's the one. You watch the radiator for coolant level rise.

 

I just noticed something. After I got the seepage issue fixed and the radiator full again, the whole night I have had the funnel on the radiator fill, sealed with plastic. It's idled for hours, run at 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500 RPMs for periods of time and the level in the over flow never changed the whole time.

 

doesn't the funnel adaptor block the overflow port? otherwise it would run out of the funnel into the overflow

 

Damn.

 

The overflow tank will ebb & flow as the sealed radiator cap sees pressure and vacuum. With the spill free funnel, the radiator is open to atmosphere so it won’t see pressure or vacuum, so the overflow tank level won’t change.

I still think you have a clog. Somewhere either in the overflow tank, the hose with the worm gear hose clamp, the overflow tank cap, the tube inside the overflow tank, or the hose barb on the radiator neck below the radiator cap. Or your radiator cap isn’t working properly.

 

Last night I put a new thermostat, stopped the leak at the radiator drain plug, all the hoses were new, so using same hoses, I just took off the OEM clamp hose clips and put the old fashioned screw type hose clamps. Flushed the system, put fresh Peak Red/Pink coolant.

Today it seems to have been running at normal temps, EXCEPT when I pulled over to answer some emails for work.

I was stopped A/C still running, with the the transmission still in drive, just holding my foot on the brake. I glanced up at the scan gauge and coolant temp started climbing fast, went from 187 to about 207 in a few minutes??

I started driving again to get everything circulating and get some air flow and temp went back to normal in a few minutes.

I just got home, to test it, I did the same thing, left it in Drive and just held my foot on the brake. Coolant temp started climbing pretty quick again? Is this normal and I just never noticed before????

I'm gonna go hit the interstate for a bit and see what happens.

 

I lost track of parts thrown in, was the fan clutch included? With the engine off, use your hand to spin the fan, it should feel somewhat stiff.

 

Fan clutch is good . It's OEM, maybe 2 years old. I have another one on the shelf, just to see last night i compared how it spins to the one installed.

 

Again, Just to see, I am stopped, I left it in Drive and held foot on the brake. Temp went from 190 to... In a matter of a minute or 2?

 

Still sitting in the same place, but I put it in park... Temps dropped

 

That seems about normal to me, in drive sitting still you have a load on the engine and not alot of airflow through the radiator.
In park there's no load on the engine.
I wouldn't start getting concerned until you start getting up over 220 idling in park, most cars don't even turn the cooling fans on until around 215-225.

 

Lol, a side note, not related to my current issue, just a fun fact, i always noticed when I have music cranked and pulling serious amperage and the voltage drops between 11v and 12v and the alternator is working hard, coolant temp does go up about 4 degrees, lol!

 

Ok, just an update, I found my cylinder leak down tester, forgot I had one. I am leaning towards a minor head gasket leak and the exhaust doesn't really get pushed into the coolant until it runs well above 25000RPMs steady for a good while @Torspd maybe you can chime in on this. I run these 1GR's hard well above 2500 RPMs for sometimes hours at a time. Are these engines just not capable of that? This engine wasn't even one of the ones that shipped from the factory with the defective head gaskets.

Tomorrow I run leak down tests on cylinders.