Little help with cooling system please.

-
iw378

iw378

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2013
Messages
794
Reaction score
112
Location
Suisun City, Ca
69 Barracuda 318. This car is about 2 months new to me and I'm still figuring (or trying to) it out. Anyways the radiator is not the original one as it is a 26 inch wide radiator. Here is a pic of the numbers on the top.
wv7x.jpg

Someone went out of their way to put this in there. The water pump is one of the aluminum ones.
s6uv.jpg
. The temp gauge does not work so I have been keeping tabs on the temp with a temp gun. At the thermostat housing I get about 180 to 190 degrees and at the bottom of the radiator at the bib for the bottom hose I get about 100 to 110 degrees. And at the center of the intake near the head about 210. is this acceptable ? When I shut my car off it pukes coolant out of the over flow. Last night I put a new 16 pound cap on it and when the thermostat opened it burped coolant.
Any help appreciated.
Luke
 
Is it possible that you have a leaking head gasket or other combustion leak? Rad shops used to be able to perform a chemical test for that, we always called it a "block check"

Have you run it long enough with the new cap to allow the level to stabilize?
 
<<<<< Failed to read the last 2 sentences.

Like 67Dart273 mentioned, you could have a hydrocarbon check of the coolant to see if exhaust gasses are getting in there.
 
I only ran it for a few miles and then let it idle in my driveway to see if I could over heat it. Does not puke out the overflow while idleing only after shut down.
I checked the compression and they were all at about 120 but I did it wrong (I did not depress the pedal) But the compression seems consistant ??.
 
67Dart273 said:
Is it possible that you have a leaking head gasket or other combustion leak? Rad shops used to be able to perform a chemical test for that, we always called it a "block check"

Have you run it long enough with the new cap to allow the level to stabilize?
Click to expand...
What level are you asking about , temp level or coolant level ??
 
Coolant. If it's full enough to "hydraulic" lock it will puke a little here and there until the level stabilizes

Your temps don't sound bad to me
 
Since I'm gonna have it apart tomorrow putting on a new intake do you think I should slap some new head gaskets on it just to eliminate them from the mix??
The "block check" is probably not doable tomorrow. Just gonna make my day a little longer doing head gaskets. The compression is consistant maybe just a re torque of the heads??
Luke
 
Okay, last weekend I put a new intake and carb on it. 67dart was right about the level thing. I put about 200 miles on to an from work this week (even though it's not my daily driver) just to see what it would do and tune the carb. Puked a little coolant the first day and not a drop since. I kept checking the temp with a temp gun whenever I stopped and it was never above 170 at the t stat housing. Looks like I was over filling it. If there is about a half an inch of coolant above the tubes I'm all good.
Thanks 67dart and the others that have responded.
Luke
 
Good you didn't pull the heads. People jump into that too often without checking first. It is normal to have a little air space at the top. If not, the cooling system corrects, as yours did. I have a "combustion gas leak check kit" I got years ago. Cal Vans brand I recall. I recently read about a new coolant that changes color if it sees combustion gases, to warn you. I was searching for "waterless coolants".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top