Jump to content
SAU Community

Radiator And Overheating Issues

monkeykplunk

By monkeykplunk,
in General Maintenance

 Share

Recommended Posts

monkeykplunk Mentor

monkeykplunk

Posted
Posted

So, from the beginning.....

A while ago I started noticing a liquid leaking from underneath the passenger side of my dash. At first it was cold so I assumed it was just some sort of condensation from the aircon as it had been on full for a while.

Then it was a hot liquid.

A few weeks after that, a friend noticed that the carpet in the passenger footwell was soaked, and upon closer inspection, it was a brown slightly greasy liquid that seemed to be coming from around a plastic like box behind the dash.

Then that week, the car overheated, and when it finally got cool enough for me to fill it up again, the radiator was bone dry and whatever was left in the overflow bottle was actually boiling!

I filled it, watched it for the next few days, and put it down as an isolated incident.

Earlier this week, it did it again.

This time I've been checking it before I go to drive the car.

So far I've been putting in about half a litre after every drive. And I started noticing more of the liquid inside of the car and that it looks and smells very similar to that within the radiator.

I have also noticed that instead of the car temp being at about 1/4 on the guage its been sitting at around 1/2 which is where it would normally sit on a very very hot day.

I've talked with some people, and my father suggested it could have something to do with the heater box or the pipes leading to it.

Does anybody have any ideas or any ways I can test out some theories?

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/109840-radiator-and-overheating-issues/
Share on other sites
predator Grand Master

predator

Posted
Posted

two issues.. your heater box as above - and maybe also its so bad its leaking enough pressure to causing the whole car to overheat. A small leak in the cooling system can make a huge difference to its efficiency

2nd possible could be that the thermostat or the like is busted.. causing overheating.. the overheating as a side effect has caused your old and wearing heater core to spring a leak due to a lot of expansion and heat.

monkeykplunk Mentor

monkeykplunk

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks Predator and Merlin

ok, so if I reroute the heater core for now, and monitior the temp, I should be able to find out if its my thermostat thats gone as well?

If so, 2 questions....

I assume the hoses for the heater core are the rubber ones heading into the fire wall that exit the engine on the drivers side. Am I able to just reroute them directly where the exit/enter the engine?

And how hard is it to change the thermostat and where abouts is it located?

predator Grand Master

predator

Posted
Posted
ok, so if I reroute the heater core for now, and monitior the temp, I should be able to find out if its my thermostat thats gone as well?

yup, you'll have eliminated the heater core entirely, so you can narrow it down to whether its that or something else. Even if it is something else as well, if its leaking through the cabin, then you'll need to replace it at some point if you want your heater back.

I assume the hoses for the heater core are the rubber ones heading into the fire wall that exit the engine on the drivers side. Am I able to just reroute them directly where the exit/enter the engine?

yeah.. if you get access down there, or rig up a hose and a couple of hose<->hose connectors just where it goes through the firewall. Probably easier 2nd way.

And how hard is it to change the thermostat and where abouts is it located?

on an rb25 the thermostat is a bit easier to change than rb20.. but its located just where the bottom radiator hose goes into the engine.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • GTSBoy
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      I don't like "actual computers" for in car use. They take time to boot up, have OS annoyances, and so on. Arduinos etc are ready to go a few seconds after power on, don't mind being agressively powere cycled, because everything is non-volatile, don't mind being shaken and stirred.
    • MBS206
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By MBS206 · Posted

      As Fred would tell us, it's all about interpreting the rules. It's not a water sprayer, it's a water mister... But everything else you've said, 100%! Even a raspberry Pi would be great, use HDMI out for a display, and add a raspberry Pi CANBus hat to read values out from the ECU.
    • GTSBoy
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      Being a race car, and being in the era of the Arduino, one would think it would take little effort to build a controller to do the spraying based on a real physical measurment. Waaaaay back in the dim dark AS days, JE "designed" (as in, he had help) a microcontroller based intercooler spray system. It watched the difference between a temp sensor stuck on the core and one in the free air in front of the cooler, and if the temperature difference exceeded a (settable) threshold, it would activate the sprays. Thus, it only ran water when there was an actual need for water. If you stop to think about the actual physical things that are going on in that stack of coolers, there's probably at least a couple of triggering conditions one could come up with, and one could probably even run one pump with more than one solenoid valve, to allow water to be placed where it is needed, or at all points at once (if it is needed at all points). We're in the age of science baby. But.... I suspect that intercooler water sprays are on the forbidden list in most circuit classes, no? So only good for Targa type stuff?
    • MBS206
      Torana Lx Gtr Hatch, Lots Of Pictures

      By MBS206 · Posted

      I'll just leave this with, holy shit, those cars at work are awesome, and this will look wicked!
    • MBS206
      Duncan's V37.......race car?

      By MBS206 · Posted

      Could you modify this duct so instead it pushes the extra air through the radiator too and not down and out? For temps, I know it's not the greatest idea, but as a bit of a last resort, you could use a very intermittent misting spray onto the front of the coolers/rad. You don't want to be soaking them such that water is dripping off, but a small most on/off so that the water evaporates. That point of it constantly evaporating, rather than being soaked in water, will pull a LOT of heat out of the cooler. I'm literally thinking just the little mist sprayers for a garden from Bunnings. Being in a low humidity climate it will help even more! The other trick if you want to be ghetto is some shade cloth hung in the opening, and keep it wet. Pretty much now it's acting like an evap cooler on a house, but cooling the air you need to use to cool the radiator...   On a topic to think about too though, when air enters through the bumper, is it all nicely ducted from the edges of that opening back at a nice angle, or is it like most cars, and the edge of the opening just stops, and suddenly it's wayyy wider behind that? If it does the later, get it shrouded out at nice angles. When that opening changes too rapidly, it can actually cause a high pressure zone between the front bar and radiator, and limit air flow into that area, which means less air for cooling, as it effectively stalls the air, AND adds to drag...
×
×
  • Create New...