• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.

    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Portland Drive

DNK

Great Pumpkin
Country flag
Offline
Sorry about this long diatribe

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Let me preface this by saying that I should have known there was a problem when I started the car and the fan belt screeched!
Back up to Wed. on a trip to Seattle to talk to the folks at Autosport. John noticed there was anti freeze on the alt. bracket and ask about a leak somewhere. Naw, I said. I just filled the system and as Ted instructed me, I filled it thru the top hose. Just forgot to clean that area I said.
Forward to Sat at 7:30. Filled the tank in town and headed out.
I observed the temp gauge and instead of just after half it was about 5/8th. Hmmm, OK. At about Tacoma, 50 mile mark, it had climb to just under 3/4.I grumbled ,been good all summer and you have to act up on a long drive. Bloody British car.
At about Olympia, 100 mile mark, it was just past the 3/4 mark and slowly, slowly climbing higher.
Kept my eyes half on the road and 3/4's on the gauge.
By about Centrallia, 120mile mark, was about 7/8s so I pulled over at a Starbucks to use the loo and get a cup a joe. Let it cool for a bit and started on my way again.
Dropped down to 3/4's and vacillated back and forth from 3/4+ to 3/4's- for a while and at about Vancouver it had slowly climbed to H

OK this is too hot so at about the 180 mile mark I turn off at an exit and I noticed the check engine light is on and it stalls going down the ramp. I pop it back into gear and there is steam all over.
Pull into the closest lot and pop the hood and wait to things to clear.
Too hot to touch the rad cap so I go across the street to a McD's and use the loo again.
Arrive back at the car and open the header tank and it is empty . SH....I say.
Luckily there is a Chevron across the street so I go and buy a gallon of premixed. Pour it in and it takes it all!!!!
Still nothing in the tank. I go back across and get another gallon and it takes about 1/2 or so of that. Leave the cap off and start it up and watch the level fall. Add a little more and then replace the cap but no tight and go around to the drivers side . I look at the tank and there is coolant pissing out the lower corner. What the???
I turned out my ECM sits on a heat sink plate and that plate had cut a lit into the tank. ARRRGGGG!
I contemplate the joys of maybe owning a Japanese car for a while and ask a near by store if there is an auto parts store nearby.
"Yeah, just around the corner for about a half a mile."
YES!!!
Arrive at the store discuss my problem with one of the employees and he walks me over to the fix it aisle and hands me a small package.
"this will work, though I would recommend a little carb cleaner first."
Did anybody know that JB weld is now sold in a log that you just squish together and it make a clay like putty and will fix anything.
I buy the JB, carb cleaner and another gallon of premixed, just in case.
I clean the area ,after I bent the heat sink away from the tank I pinch off the JB roll it in my fingers for a little bit and then smear it around the slit, which I really can't see.
I wait about 15 minutes and refill the system with the original anti freeze purchase and start her up.
I'll be danged. No leak.
Tighten the rad cap get back on the highway and drive the last 8 miles uneventfully to the show.

How was your Sat.?
 
I use JBQuick, which obviously that is, or you'd still be there waiting for it to cure.
On vacation two years ago, an EGR backpressure sensor bolted to the intake plenum on the wife's Exploder......silicone hoses rotted, fell off, torched a big slot in the plastic plenum.
MASSIVE vacuum leak.
Drove it from where it occurred (top of Snoqualimie) into Ellensburg, pulled the part, JBQuick'd the slot (don't even clean the edges....rough surface is better), temp'd the hoses, and continued.
Still working that way, two years later, except I got proper hoses in Walla Walla.

How's the noise?
 
Worse.
Got another opinion and they said Liner??? ha
Got to be bottom end.
and since it got real hot on Sat. probably worse. I ought to just build a 4.0 bottom end
 
Back
Top