Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I am fixin a mates radiator. one of his problems is that it has overheated a few times when it shouldn't have. With the radiator cap off, and the engine is running it bubbles and foams like theres no tomorrow. Is there anything this could be apart from the head or gasket. It is way too much to be just air getting out of the system.

rooted block. Crack in blocks water system?

More likely to be the head. Check its not warped and get it pressure tested and a skim then redo

TOM

Check the oil... is it a nice white creamy colour...?

bubbles in a radiator are never a good sign...

Unfortunately it smacks of either a blown head gasket or a cracked head.
I had exactly the same happen to my 80 ser Turbo Diesel and it turned out to be a craked head, hope yours is only a blown gasket mate.....Al

the oil is normal colour. that is the first thing i checked. the wierd thing is it still runs ok. but then again it isn't my car so i could tell if it is down on power.

testing the cylinder compression should tell me for shore if it is the head, right???

will tell you if you got a crack somewhere, sometimes/

i had a cracked HG and perfect compression (minus a rooted ring)... had the same deal with the bubbles, except it would blow the coolant overflow bottle to pieces.

the crack in the gasket was between exaust routing and the water routing

it will be a cracked head, helped a mate with his patrol and it had good compresion but it kept pushing all the water from the radiator into the overflow and the water in the radiator bubbled like you said. You can by a crack detector kit which you can spray on yourself, or find or mechanic friend to do it

cheers
andrew

get it hot
take the plugs out
pressure test the cooling system wait about 5 min
crank it over and check for water coming out the plug holes
or put cold screwdrivers in the holes and see if condensation forms on them (dont crank with screwdrivers in it )
hope this helps
if it comes out ok it may just have an air lock in the system
but by the sounds of things the might have to come off

have fun!

vando3 bundy wrote:get it hot
take the plugs out
pressure test the cooling system wait about 5 min
crank it over and check for water coming out the plug holes
or put cold screwdrivers in the holes and see if condensation forms on them (dont crank with screwdrivers in it )
hope this helps
if it comes out ok it may just have an air lock in the system
but by the sounds of things the might have to come off

have fun!

although this test won't show you if it's a crack like where i had mine... was post exaust valve,

true but if u were to turn it over by hand the water sitting ontop of the valve from the leak should leak into the cylinder

u could use a teekay head check otherwise but u will need to find a workshop that has one, most do

It would definately have to be the head. This just happened to my B engine and i only pulled the head off the other day and took it to the head man and she was cracked between the valves and a few other places! Not cool.

Made some enqs on a new head and the cheepest aftermarket one here in SA was $1300 (no valves or precombustion chambers) and the cheepest i have found elsewhere was $1056 with precombustion, valves and shipping from QLD!

Just thought I'd put in somehting i experienced. On my VL i was losing coolant and had bubbles in the radiator too. I was told it was the head as this was common on these cars. I couldnt find a leak in the system anywhwere so I resigned myself to it being the head. One day though i actually left the engine running when i checked. Turned out the water pump was screwed and was leaking. every other time i checked id turn the engine off and by the time i got to look the heat of the engine had cooked the leaking coolant away. The only visable sign was a bit of crusty shit that really didnt stand out in the rest of the crustyness of the engine bay. Replcaed the pump and no more dramas.

John

Just thought I'd put in somehting i experienced. On my VL i was losing coolant and had bubbles in the radiator too. I was told it was the head as this was common on these cars. I couldnt find a leak in the system anywhwere so I resigned myself to it being the head. One day though i actually left the engine running when i checked. Turned out the water pump was screwed and was leaking. every other time i checked id turn the engine off and by the time i got to look the heat of the engine had cooked the leaking coolant away. The only visable sign was a bit of crusty shit that really didnt stand out in the rest of the crustyness of the engine bay. Replcaed the pump and no more dramas.

John

I have almost the exact same thing happening to my 2F. Its leaking coolant aroung the water pump and is showing signs of a head gasket - bubbling in the coolant when cap is removed, wants to stall at idle. The problem is it will do this for a few hours of trying to get it to run, then all of a sudden it will be fine for a few days buggered if i can figure it out, but i think i'll check out the water pump now.

sorry for the hijack... just removed my spark plugs, cranked engine, no evidence of water coming out, put them back in and she runs fine. Same thing happened the last time it wouldnt run, i did the same procedure as above and it was running again.. any ideas?

EDIT: still has occasional bubbles but runs no worrries

I have seen some crappy coolants that will foam from the impellor. If all other things check out ok replace the coolant with pain water and see if it still happens as straight water will not foam like some coolants