My Dumb Present Owner moment

[Jim_Gruber]

I thought I was brilliant yesterday when I found a 45 degree piece of 1" copper elbow to fix a spot on my top hose where it was collapsing and I believe causing car to run hot cruising above 65 for more than 10-15 minutes. Definite narrowing of the hose just past where it connects to the neck on the engine block. I am running a 1098 with a crossflow radiator and the hose doesn't quite line up correctly. Thanks again to Trevor who spotted this problem on Bugsy a while back.

I cut the top hose and with a couple of hose clamps my pinched hose problem was gone. Nice smooth bend for the top hose and all looked right with the world until I picked up the jug of Prestone and began to pour, not realizing the jug I picked up contained old oil not antifreeze. After several loud expletives and self flaggelation, I realized oil was floating on top of the antifreeze, not a lot mind you, probably < 2 oz.

Brillant Idea, use mini shop vac and small tube to vacumn oil off of top of tank. Trip to hardware store and find a small kit of attachments that connect directly to shop vac with a tube that fits right through the radiator top plug. Brillant, get home connect all up, fire up shop vac, oil sucked out and then it happened.

As I went to withdraw the tube from the radiator, the nice, tight fitting, small wand extension, now lubricated with slippery antifreeze, pops off and drops to the bottom of the sidetank on the radiator. Sound of even more expletives and swearing emanate from my garage.

Rather than not worry about several drop of oil mixing with antifreeze which I'm sure would harm nothing. I'm now faced with the prospect of needing to drain and pull the radiator to get a 6' long piece of plastic pipe out of the radiator. I've got one more shot after draining of trying to snag with one of those flex springy things with claws on the end. If that doesn't work will need to jump through hoops and do a real messy job to pull the radiator which on Bugsy also now involves pulling the oil cooler as well. Think I can get by without pulling the front hinged BE Bonnet off but I kept working though engineering exercises all night long trying to figure out a way to not pull the radiator. Hopefully I'll get lucky in a few minutes and simply draining rest of radiator will allow my to see the little plastic tube and allow my to snag it and pull it out.

It was one of those days. On the bright side, Bugsy might now be able to wander away from home and cruise at far higher speeds than I've been able to maintain for the past few years. Addition of BE Bonnet = less airflow to SWA Spridget radiator. Now that hose kink is fixed will be real curious to see if my running hot issues are resolved.

 

[RickB]

The thousand mile trip begins with a single step...
I sure have been there - some days it would be better to just get out the lawn mower and work on the yard. Hope you can snag it without removing the front of your car!!

 

[Pythias]

Good luck with all that. It does remind me of something. I have a 1098 with the stock downflow. The "side tube" that comes out to connect to the heater core didn't align very well. I thought no big deal, until two years later it broke off the from the main hose. CRAP! When I installed the new one, I cut about an inch off the end where it connects to the block to get a better alignment. PLUS I bought a Kevlar reinforced one from VB, the only place I know of where you can get one like that. ..

Get rid of the oil cooler. Every time you change your oil, you leave the dirty oil in the cooler to mix with your nice clean new stuff.

My 2 cents.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Bill,

Oil cooler was replaced with a new one < 2 years ago. I had the same thoughts about dirty old oil but it does seem to make a difference in cooling of the engine. I had to relocate it as a result of installing the BE Bonnet. Sits now mounted on the radiator shroud midway down in front of the radiator.

Work on Bugsy will need to wait until next weekend. Better half has me deep into yard work instead. Got to keep her happy so I can keep working on Bugsy.

 

[RickB]

At least you're 'doing no more harm' to Bugsy while doing the yard work.
That's the way I think about it sometimes. :wink:

 

[histerical]

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. It's plastic so it won't corrode or rattle. It's round and thin so it shouldn't plug any of the cooling passages. It's probably not going to go anywhere until the next time you pull the radiator. A good radiator flushing product should get rid of most of what's left of the oil.
Bill

 

[regularman]

Jim, refill the radiator with water and see if the plastic hose floats. It should. and you might be able to see and grab it then.

 

[Guest]

Done the same thing, dumped old oil into my freshly rebuilt motor for some start up lube. Not allot mind you; about 2 oz.

Oh, and I dropped something somewhere stupid trying to correct another stupid move and had to take a bunch of stuff of to get it. Can't rememeber what though.

 

[davester]

I long ago lost track of all my dumb owner moves. It's easier to count the relatively few smart owner moves.

 

[KSIS]

What about a set of mechanical finders? reach down into the tank and grab the end,slip it out. I did the same thing. I was checking the mix on my anti freeze with a tester and the tip fell off. grabbed the finger and lifted it right out.

 

[scoutll]

A few years ago a buddy called me up and asked if I had 5 quarts of oil he could borrow. I said yea, why? He said I'm changing my oil. I said, well, you are supposed to have the oil on hand before you start the job.. He said yea, I did.... Drained the old stuff out, replaced the filter and poured the new stuff in.......... Looked down and noticed fresh oil all over the floor..... and the pan plug setting where he put it when he took it out ... He still hears about it all the time.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Mechanical fingers is my next trick. Need to drain the rest of the antifreeze out so I can see it. Plastic tube sinks in antifreeze. Kim, I may try adding water to see if changes in specific gravity of fluids = ability of plastic to float. No time to work with it until Saturday AM. Oh well forecast is rain, rain, rain for next 3 days.

 

[JPSmit]

another thought would be something like a coat hanger with a bit of a bow in it - shove in tube end and there will likely be enough bite to pull it out, or even if you can make a "claw" of some description to let down beside and grab into - maybe even a long wide screwdriver along side, I suspect it won't take much to "drag" it up so you can grab it.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Thanks JP. Just need to find a few hours to get into it. Saturday morning looks like at this point. Commuting to work 200 mile round trip daily from Dayton to Columbus doesn't leave me a lot of time in the PM nor energy to dive into a greasy, messy project. With plenty of time to cogitate on this I think I can retrieve and fix without pulling the radiator. Thanks all for the help and suggestions.

 

[regularman]

Patients Jim. Think about it and you will figure it out. I remember one time dropping a screw that went right in the spark plug hole of a just new rebuilt motorcycle engine. Nothing would fit in the hole and I thought I was going to have to tear the engine apart or at least take it off. Then it hit me. I got 4 more guys and we turned the motorcycle completely upside down and shook it and the screw came out and we turned it over and set it down. It worked like a charm except I was in the Air Force and my captain just happened to be driving by while we were doing that and he yelled out. "That thing rides a lot better with the wheels down guys" and he never let me forget it LOL. There has got to be a way Jim. You will do it without pulling that radiator, I know it.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

I know I will, again I'll provide a full report on Saturday hopefully.

 

[Gundy]

Patients Jim. Think about it and you will figure it out. I remember one time dropping a screw that went right in the spark plug hole of a just new rebuilt motorcycle engine. Nothing would fit in the hole and I thought I was going to have to tear the engine apart or at least take it off. Then it hit me. I got 4 more guys and we turned the motorcycle completely upside down and shook it and the screw came out and we turned it over and set it down. It worked like a charm except I was in the Air Force and my captain just happened to be driving by while we were doing that and he yelled out. "That thing rides a lot better with the wheels down guys" and he never let me forget it LOL. There has got to be a way Jim. You will do it without pulling that radiator, I know it.

Jim...don't try and lift the Spridget upside down and shake the thing out. Trust me on this one.

 

[regularman]

Patients Jim. Think about it and you will figure it out. I remember one time dropping a screw that went right in the spark plug hole of a just new rebuilt motorcycle engine. Nothing would fit in the hole and I thought I was going to have to tear the engine apart or at least take it off. Then it hit me. I got 4 more guys and we turned the motorcycle completely upside down and shook it and the screw came out and we turned it over and set it down. It worked like a charm except I was in the Air Force and my captain just happened to be driving by while we were doing that and he yelled out. "That thing rides a lot better with the wheels down guys" and he never let me forget it LOL. There has got to be a way Jim. You will do it without pulling that radiator, I know it.

Jim...don't try and lift the Spridget upside down and shake the thing out. Trust me on this one.

Oh, I got another story to tell but its too much to type now. Gundy made me think of it with that comment LOL

 

[nomad]

Baleing wire, the farmers friend [I farm!] !! Seriously a little hook pushed thru the tube and pull it out.

Kurt.

 

[Jim_Gruber]

Success,

I was able to get the tube out of the radiator. I learned serveral things just in case this happens to you.

1) A Mini 2 Gallon ShopVac is very effective in reducing the level of coolant in your radiator when coupled with a piece of 1/2" Vinyl tubing. Granted potential for explosion with electric motor and flammable antifreeze but that part went successfully and I didn't need to make a huge mess draining the radiator.

2) I is virtually impossible to see into the radiator. A Flashlight coupled with the angle at the top prevents you from seeing what is down there.

3)Flexible claw thing might have worked but I could not see into the tank to direct it to grab anything. No light penetrates down to the bottom of the radiator sidetank.

4) What could I possibly use to get a small light source into the tank, that was flexible enough to get into the hole and still allow me room to see and work. Do I have any flashlight bulbs I could jury rig...Light Bulb goes on moment, yes I have hundreds and hundreds of tiny lights that I can use to illuminate the tank, already put together and only needed to plug into AC power. Opened basement closet door, took some Christmas icicle lights out, plugged in, fed end of string into hole, let there be light, and I was able to easily grab that little sucker using a long piece of heavy aluminum wire with a slight curve to it that fit right down into the middle of the tube and held the tube so I could pick up and retrieve.

You have no idea how glad I am that this worked out. Thanks again all for alll of your tips and ideas. I used a combination of all of them to solve this rather vexing problem. Antifreeze is topped off and Bugsy is aboutto go run a few errands. Thanks again.