Radiator Fluid
Radiator Fluid
My truck heated up on me once because the radiator went to crap on me, so I would not be surprised if my head gaskets got fried and are leaking... Don't think the heads are cracked though... Anyway. New radiator was bought and put in, but it's never been the same since. It is loosing coolant somewhere, probably burning it, but no blue smoke or overwhelming odor is present in the pipes... The crazy thing is that the resevoir stays full, but the radiator can be quite a bit low... I replaced the radiator cap, thinking it may be loosing suction, but that didn't seem to do anything. Also, I've had to replace two water pumps. One was the original, it made it about 225,000 miles. The replacement made it about 75,000... The truck doesn't seem to circulate water very well... It doesn't appear to be flowing in the radiator very well,m and the truck likes to run around 205 - 210 degrees now. I'm still running the factory-rated thermostat and plan on switching to a lower temp one the next time I have to do any work on that area of the engine...
What could be causing the lack of cooling and why won't the resevoir fill the radiator like it's supposed to?
What could be causing the lack of cooling and why won't the resevoir fill the radiator like it's supposed to?
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 3,811
Likes: 3
From: Bett-neee
RE: Radiator Fluid
the tube coming from the neck of the rad to the resevoir can have a leak in it and causing the "vacume" required to let the rad refill itself from the overflow bottle.. and could be the same spot where your leaking from.. they sell kits that u can use to die the coolant a with a special .. non-harmful additive and you use a special flashlight to look around for the leak.. the additive will glow a bright color under the special light.. usually IR or UV light..
theres so many areas where your leak can be coming from its hard to tell where without doing a leakdown test with that kind of additive.. your local autoparts store.. like autozone/advanced/napa sells them.. also summitracing.com sells them aswell
theres so many areas where your leak can be coming from its hard to tell where without doing a leakdown test with that kind of additive.. your local autoparts store.. like autozone/advanced/napa sells them.. also summitracing.com sells them aswell
Record Breaker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 2,400
Likes: 1
From: Warren, NJ
RE: Radiator Fluid
If you have a leak, you'll never build a vacuum to suck coolant out of the tank.
Lack of cooling could be low coolant level, crappy replacement radiator, stuck thermostat, poor circulation ... to name a few.
Lack of cooling could be low coolant level, crappy replacement radiator, stuck thermostat, poor circulation ... to name a few.
