Hey Guys,

I think I may have royally screwed up!! I had a slight leak in the radiator, right near upper hose and was losing coolant over time. I've been driving it and topping it off as needed. I'd check and check and levels would be fine, so check less randomly and still fine, but then all of a sudden overflow tank is empty and I can barely see coolant looking right down rad cap...happened twice that way.doesn't seem any loss, then suddenly low. So I finally put some alumaseal in. I topped off coolant that morning as no stores were open yet, I grabbed the alumaseal on lunch. First mistake...I poured it in overflow tank instead of radiator. Second mistake, I bought another one after work to pour into radiator thinking it'd take a long time for overflow tank to circulate it through the system.....NOW my truck is running warmer than usual. Not too hot but the gauge reads a lot higher than it has been, especially being I changed out to a 180 t-stat a few years back. It creeps up a few needle widths past the half way mark sustaining 60 mph hwy...then creeps back down a few less than that mark at little slower speeds....but it's been riding aboit half way between the "normal cool end" and the half way mark.

Am I screwed and this crap has likely bonded wherever it is going to bond? Should I do a flush and compressed air blow out whatever I can? I'm at a loss, I know I definitetly can not afford for my truck to go down right now. I would like to exhaust all options that may result in a solution...thank you in advance

Eric

 

flush it out. the rad flow may be restricted. sounds like you needed a rad anyway.

 

Hopefully you didn't ruin the engine with that stuff. As stated, flush, flush and flush.....hope for the best.

 

Yes, you did. Royally. That stuff is the worst for cooling systems. Make sure you replace your water pump along with whatever else you replace because every time I've seen that stuff used the water pump generally fails soon after.

 

So, as it would appear, most of the issue seems to have been I didn't get the rad cap on tight in the dark last night, cuz I lost a lot of.coolant and rode a little hotter on my way home, and eventually crept up to over heat...I pulled off.immediately and let it cool down. Then was able to make it to store to buy 4 gallons of water. Noticed the cap was loosened and coolant all over engine bay and a bunch of alumaseal bunched up under the cap...I scooped it out, all i could, and the one I poured into the over flow tank appears to have settled in bottom of tank. While being mostly water now, I will have to do a flush, regardless of time available...but do you think I can drive an hour to work and an hour back and flush out tomorrow? It took less than 2 gallons of water and is now running at normal temp, at idle anyway

 

Ok, that was a lie...it ran warm like this morning on the drive home...guess I will be doing a flush in the dark...Or would it be recommended to wait til tomorrow still when I can pull the water pump off and try to blow out the galleys and such?

 

A few years back I was attempting to seal a waterpump gasket leak with that stuff..Well it did finally seal the leak but I think at the expense of clogging my radiator. Never before had I an issue with that powder..Anyways had to replace the radiator. .Check to see if there is cold areas on your radiator at warming up temps..A hot spot and cool spot near same area will be a clogged radiator

 

Ok, so I tore into my truck...I pulled the radiator and flipped it around to try a backflush process...seemed minimal results, I couldn't seem to get the system to burp and fill up. I replaced the thermostat, since I intended on replacing it anyway, and reinstalled the radiator correctly and still couldn't get it to burp, and it got to the point it was boiling the water and working it up and majorly overflowing my big funnel in the radiator spout. I felt the lower hose and it felt like burping, but it wouldn't take any fluid in and kept pouring out the funnel, I then decided it may be boiling the water, not burping since it wasn't drawing in. I squeezed upper hose and water still wasn't getting into it, nor was it blowing heat out the defrost, so it wouldn't draw into the heater core either. My thoughts are either bad brand new thermostat, but unlikely, or the water pump is clogged...Any input???