Coolant Problem
08-06-2007, 09:59 AM
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Coolant Problem Ok, so I've searched through several threads looking for some answers to this problem for my 2001 Stock SS 92k miles.
Over the last few months, I've had air getting trapped in my coolant system. I found this out the hard way by seeing my temp. gauge shooting up close to the red, and then as fast as it went up, it would return to normal. So I had air trapped in the system due to coolant loss or whatever (no low coolant light in 2000+ so bad on my part for not inspecting a little closer). So now why was air getting trapped? I looked at the coolant, not a spec of oil in there. I looked at the oil, nice clearish brown color like it should be no milky color, and it never smokes. So for the moment, I ruled out a blown head gasket.
This weekend, I did a good tune up on it, plug change, wire change, had to replace the alternator and I seafoamed it. Well, after my "spirited" smoke screen drive, I stopped by the store. Upon leaving, I noticed a nice pool of coolant by my car. Now I live 500 feet from the store, so I limped it home, popped the hood and could hear the coolant boiling but without any additional spillage. So, with air in the system, boiling point goes down, etc,etc. Car never overheated according to the precise readings of the OEM temp. gauge. I let the car cool down, and proceeded to bleed the system by removing the TB coolant line yada yada yada. After I started it back up, everything looked normal. When the thermostat opened, the coolant didn't decrease like I would have expected, but increased in the radiator slowly, but was running off into the overflow. Here comes the good part, I started seeing some air bubbles, oh yeah, just what we want to see in our coolant, but they were not systematic at all, just really random. I'm hoping it was just air in the coolant system bleeding itself out because it would seem if you had a blown head gasket, there would be some type of repetition of air bubbles, not sporatic.
So I figured the first things to do would be the easiest things:
1.) Replace radiator cap
2.) Replace thermostat (90,000 miles on it, it's time)
3.) Leak down test......
Any comments, suggestions, ideas, etc?
Over the last few months, I've had air getting trapped in my coolant system. I found this out the hard way by seeing my temp. gauge shooting up close to the red, and then as fast as it went up, it would return to normal. So I had air trapped in the system due to coolant loss or whatever (no low coolant light in 2000+ so bad on my part for not inspecting a little closer). So now why was air getting trapped? I looked at the coolant, not a spec of oil in there. I looked at the oil, nice clearish brown color like it should be no milky color, and it never smokes. So for the moment, I ruled out a blown head gasket.
This weekend, I did a good tune up on it, plug change, wire change, had to replace the alternator and I seafoamed it. Well, after my "spirited" smoke screen drive, I stopped by the store. Upon leaving, I noticed a nice pool of coolant by my car. Now I live 500 feet from the store, so I limped it home, popped the hood and could hear the coolant boiling but without any additional spillage. So, with air in the system, boiling point goes down, etc,etc. Car never overheated according to the precise readings of the OEM temp. gauge. I let the car cool down, and proceeded to bleed the system by removing the TB coolant line yada yada yada. After I started it back up, everything looked normal. When the thermostat opened, the coolant didn't decrease like I would have expected, but increased in the radiator slowly, but was running off into the overflow. Here comes the good part, I started seeing some air bubbles, oh yeah, just what we want to see in our coolant, but they were not systematic at all, just really random. I'm hoping it was just air in the coolant system bleeding itself out because it would seem if you had a blown head gasket, there would be some type of repetition of air bubbles, not sporatic.
So I figured the first things to do would be the easiest things:
1.) Replace radiator cap
2.) Replace thermostat (90,000 miles on it, it's time)
3.) Leak down test......
Any comments, suggestions, ideas, etc?
08-06-2007, 10:06 AM
#2
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thats a good start. mine was doing pretty much the same with 85,000 on it and I changed the thermostat and radiator cap for a start and it fixed the problem. I pm'd you a link to check out.
08-07-2007, 11:34 AM
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I did a flush about 8 months ago to get rid of all the DEX-COOL so I can use the new universal green stuff. The DEX-COOL looked awful, it had gummed up and had all this residue in the reservior. Flushed it clean, haven't had any build-up since.
I guess my main question to follow up on the original post would be what does a blown head gasket do to your coolant as far as air bubles are concerned, does the coolant look like it's boiling, are they small bublbles like a soda, or is it random like I described earlier?
I guess my main question to follow up on the original post would be what does a blown head gasket do to your coolant as far as air bubles are concerned, does the coolant look like it's boiling, are they small bublbles like a soda, or is it random like I described earlier?
