Coolant gone, next steps?

Jaysus there's always something. Finally got a rad after waiting a while for delivery from Germany. And of course it's wrong. Apparently the broken rad that's in it has a built-in oil cooler at the bottom, I've never heard of that on a rad before, I learn something new every time this car goes wrong.

Anyway this is probably a totally stupid question but I presume you can't get a separate oil cooler and stick that in alongside the rad - all the Koyo/Mishimoto rads I've seen online don't appear to have anything that would suggest they have this built in.
 
RCM do oil coolers, not sure who else. But yeah, you can get it sorted.
 
Seen that since alright, cheers will have a hunt about, might just get an oem rad altogether at this stage if I can find one be easier.
 
Go into to your local motor factors and given your Reg number and they will order you a rad for your car it will have an oil cooler in it
 
Cheers, yeah I didn't do my homework properly on this one, it show compatible with my reg but it's autodoc Germany so who knows how accurate they are.
Anyway Im after sourcing one from finnegans in ballymahon, ex (or possibly current) subaru dealer supposedly, sound guy there seemed to know his stuff, Hopefully picking that up tomorrow.
 
KrakityJones said:
Cheers, yeah I didn't do my homework properly on this one, it show compatible with my reg but it's autodoc Germany so who knows how accurate they are.
Anyway Im after sourcing one from finnegans in ballymahon, ex (or possibly current) subaru dealer supposedly, sound guy there seemed to know his stuff, Hopefully picking that up tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Ex Subaru dealer the garage is now a motor factors
 
Those cooler loops are used for an auto gearbox , is yours auto ?
As mentioned, reg number given in any decent motor factors will have gotten the correct rad .
An aluminium rad is of no advantage until doing track work , the plastic end tanks are perfectly fine on a standard rad
 
Yeah figured the standard will be fine for me, one that's in it is possibly the original that went in 21 years ago so can't be all that bad. Mines manual, which is odd because yeah the rad it needs is usually for auto. Anyway sure be sorted and back on the road shortly I'm sure.
 
I’m just confused now 🤦‍♀️🙈
Your car is manual and you ordered a rad that fits but it doesn’t have the oil cooler that you car doesn’t have .
where do the pipe go to
 
So I might not be out of the woods yet. Would appreciate yer thoughts on this.

The Rad is in (and yep even though it's manual it has an oil cooler at the bottom.. odd but anyway). The mechanic said there was pressure building in the header tank after filling, and he reckons the head gasket is on the way out. I thought this at the start too but as I said before I tend to jump to the worst case scenario. I'm hoping he's wrong but I'm gonna have to find this out for once and for all.

So when I took it out the garage and was driving home the heaters were blowing cold. Drove for a while and watched the temperature using torque, it went as high as about 114c and started dropping back, at which point the heating kicked in. To me that's the thermostat opened up and dumped a bunch of coolant through. Crept up again briefly before again dropping back to normal (about 88c), again presume that was the thermostat opening a second time. It stayed normal after this.
Got home, let it cool off and checked the header tank, had dropped a bit so topped off with maybe a half litre. I have a feeling maybe it was just filled up and not "burped", hence the pressure he was seeing, plus explains the change in temp/drop in fluid when the thermostat opened.

I ran it again there and can't see any bubbles in the header (filled to the top), so that's good. Oil looks clean. Exhaust is definitely smoking a bit white though, and the bigger issue - there's a lot of fog/coolant smoke coming from the front, down by the driver's side of the engine, so there is coolant hitting something hot. If you did have HG issues you'd hardly see it externally would you? That leak would be internal and get passed out the exhaust I assume?
 
Don't worry to much I know not easy if can let it run with top rad cap off for 20 mins should burp its self..

Second you are going to be smelling coolent for a while as when just pulling hoses alone goes everywhere nevermind leaks ect so be a while before goes away

See how u go hopefully he didn't burp it and that's all..
 
Cheers Ciaran, yeah let it run and it all seems settled on levels. I'll check again later when it's cooled down.

It's more than spillage I'd say, its been heated up/cooled down enough times now to burn off anything that was there after the rad change I think. Also notice when I rev it there's a good blast of coolant smoke right after. I might try get a video of it there shortly actually.
 
KrakityJones said:
Cheers Ciaran, yeah let it run and it all seems settled on levels. I'll check again later when it's cooled down.

It's more than spillage I'd say, its been heated up/cooled down enough times now to burn off anything that was there after the rad change I think. Also notice when I rev it there's a good blast of coolant smoke right after. I might try get a video of it there shortly actually.
Click to expand...
Will still take a while daily driving did for me anyway..

Did you get all new hoses ect sounds like there's still a leak give top hose a squeeze when engine hot 👍if not keep a eye see if any of the connections weaping ect

Bloody annoying but ull get to the bottom of it
 
I'd say not, he was basing it purely on the pressure I think. Ever used on of those co2 chemical test packs out of interest? If they're any bit reliable might pick up one rather than tormenting myself guessing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top