extreme_21
New Member
Did you dump the stuff out of the coolant resevoir and see what the brown stuff your describing is?? What is the cooling system doing by saying "isn't quite working right"??
fuel in coolant?
- Thread starter veggiemike
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veggiemike
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I dumped the coolant res out. I have no idea what the brown stuff was, but it wasnt oil. It was just a quarter inch of bdirty rown fluid. Seemed about the same consistency as coolant.
Driving to work, keeping an eye on the temp gauge, the temp seems to climb too high for my liking. But not always. It's kind of erratic really. Just enough to make me wory about it on really hot days. I think the hottest day this summer it was sitting between the A and L in NORMAL. I was getting pretty worried that day. But most of the time it sits on the R with an occasional climb towards the M.
I was already thinking of preemptively replacing my thermostat and water pump before i started worrying about the head gaskets. I mean, they're bound to fail soon anyways... 17 year old car with 165k miles and all. Radiator got replaced last summer, and I havent leaked any coolant since then.
Driving to work, keeping an eye on the temp gauge, the temp seems to climb too high for my liking. But not always. It's kind of erratic really. Just enough to make me wory about it on really hot days. I think the hottest day this summer it was sitting between the A and L in NORMAL. I was getting pretty worried that day. But most of the time it sits on the R with an occasional climb towards the M.
I was already thinking of preemptively replacing my thermostat and water pump before i started worrying about the head gaskets. I mean, they're bound to fail soon anyways... 17 year old car with 165k miles and all. Radiator got replaced last summer, and I havent leaked any coolant since then.
extreme_21
New Member
If it's staying in the "normal" range I wouldn't worry to much. When my rad went, I put in a aluminum one..hehe thing is huge, had to tuck the fan harness from catching the water pump pulley. My cooling was just like your prior to the aluminum rad and now the hottest days with the a/c on it''ll reach the "M-A"..few weeks ago hit 100F and the needle touched "L".
You can change the stat and add a coolant additive like Water Wetter, that'll help it out a bit. Just don't buy into the 160F stat's, an original(180-195F) is much better for street use. The only real way to lower the temps would be to fit a bigger rad..aka aftermarket aluminum rads on the market. For the water pump, I'd spend the money on some underdrive pulley's instead, when driving hard the underdrive pulley's help slow down the water pump rotation, this actually helps pump the coolant smoother/better through the system with less air bubbles, rather than the pump spinning to fast and creating air bubbles in the mixture. May sound crazy but it's true..
example:
Think of it as passing in front of an A/C machine at home, if you walk past it, you'll cool down faster..if you run past it..well hehe did you feel anything???
So in other words; A/C Machine = Car Radiator; You Running/walking = Water Pump; Temp you feel on skin = Coolant
You can change the stat and add a coolant additive like Water Wetter, that'll help it out a bit. Just don't buy into the 160F stat's, an original(180-195F) is much better for street use. The only real way to lower the temps would be to fit a bigger rad..aka aftermarket aluminum rads on the market. For the water pump, I'd spend the money on some underdrive pulley's instead, when driving hard the underdrive pulley's help slow down the water pump rotation, this actually helps pump the coolant smoother/better through the system with less air bubbles, rather than the pump spinning to fast and creating air bubbles in the mixture. May sound crazy but it's true..
example:
Think of it as passing in front of an A/C machine at home, if you walk past it, you'll cool down faster..if you run past it..well hehe did you feel anything???
So in other words; A/C Machine = Car Radiator; You Running/walking = Water Pump; Temp you feel on skin = Coolant
