Hey guys,
as some of you may recall, a month or so back i did the f-body radiator and ramchargers dual fan swap on my 85 hotair GN. The car ran great, and MUCH cooler. Since then, I've noticed though that it seems to be consuming coolant (actually just distilled water, no green stuff for me) and if i check the rad soon after the car has been running, there is a lot of foam, or tiny little bubbles in there. At first i thought it was air trapped in the coolant system finding its way out, since it had been sitting draining for weeks in my driveway, but after a few times of filling it with water I realized that wasnt the case. Next thought was of course a blown headgasket, but theres no oil in the water, and when i changed the oil last week, it looked just fine, didnt seem to be any water in it. Then yesterday I put the old compression tester on all cylinders to see if one wasnt holding pressure, but they all seemed to be pretty darn good. the numbers looked something like this
front
driver side-----passenger side
150----------------140
140----------------130
130----------------130
rear
Now thats a little bit more of a gap between lowest and highest than i'd like, but not too shabby, and theres none that are drastically lower as i would expect to see with a headgasket blown.
Now, I didnt hit any higher boost, or drive the car any harder after the rad changeover than I did before, so i dont know what would have blown the gasket. Combine that with the decent compression test numbers, and im thinking its not that. Is it possible to develop a small HG leak, that wouldnt really affect the compression numbers, but would cause the issues im having? Or could there be a leak in the intake manifold somewhere? Im definitely losing water, with no observable leak (no drips or streams when running) so i assume its leakin interally somewhere?
The problem isnt too dramatic; the car still drives fine (no noticeable loss of power), and i only have to add maybe a half gallon of water every other day or so, but I would like to fix whatever it is before it gets any worse. Plus knowing something is wrong with my car and not being able to fix it is driving me crazy.
One last thing, i only noticed this problem after the rad/fan swap, is there any way i could have done something wrong in the process that would have caused this? Oh, and in case this is a clue, my heater only works intermitently, sometime blows hot, sometimes not. Dont know if its always done that, or if that started with the other problem, as this is the first time since ive had my car its been cold enough to need the heater.
Sorry for the long post, I'm just dying to figure out what is wrong with my baby and get it fixed, and I figured I'd give all the info i had available to help you help me
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. thanks is advance!!!
Corey Lynch
as some of you may recall, a month or so back i did the f-body radiator and ramchargers dual fan swap on my 85 hotair GN. The car ran great, and MUCH cooler. Since then, I've noticed though that it seems to be consuming coolant (actually just distilled water, no green stuff for me) and if i check the rad soon after the car has been running, there is a lot of foam, or tiny little bubbles in there. At first i thought it was air trapped in the coolant system finding its way out, since it had been sitting draining for weeks in my driveway, but after a few times of filling it with water I realized that wasnt the case. Next thought was of course a blown headgasket, but theres no oil in the water, and when i changed the oil last week, it looked just fine, didnt seem to be any water in it. Then yesterday I put the old compression tester on all cylinders to see if one wasnt holding pressure, but they all seemed to be pretty darn good. the numbers looked something like this
front
driver side-----passenger side
150----------------140
140----------------130
130----------------130
rear
Now thats a little bit more of a gap between lowest and highest than i'd like, but not too shabby, and theres none that are drastically lower as i would expect to see with a headgasket blown.
Now, I didnt hit any higher boost, or drive the car any harder after the rad changeover than I did before, so i dont know what would have blown the gasket. Combine that with the decent compression test numbers, and im thinking its not that. Is it possible to develop a small HG leak, that wouldnt really affect the compression numbers, but would cause the issues im having? Or could there be a leak in the intake manifold somewhere? Im definitely losing water, with no observable leak (no drips or streams when running) so i assume its leakin interally somewhere?
The problem isnt too dramatic; the car still drives fine (no noticeable loss of power), and i only have to add maybe a half gallon of water every other day or so, but I would like to fix whatever it is before it gets any worse. Plus knowing something is wrong with my car and not being able to fix it is driving me crazy.
One last thing, i only noticed this problem after the rad/fan swap, is there any way i could have done something wrong in the process that would have caused this? Oh, and in case this is a clue, my heater only works intermitently, sometime blows hot, sometimes not. Dont know if its always done that, or if that started with the other problem, as this is the first time since ive had my car its been cold enough to need the heater.
Sorry for the long post, I'm just dying to figure out what is wrong with my baby and get it fixed, and I figured I'd give all the info i had available to help you help me
If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. thanks is advance!!!Corey Lynch
