4agze coolant issues

[jamekins]

I just got my first sprinter today. It has a gze in it and it seemed to be in good nic. But the magic was ruined when I got it home after a few hours of driving on and off, to discover that when I turned the engine off coolant leaked out of the top of the filler bottle. There was no line of coolant on my drive way but a puddle of coolant under the car dripping from the bottle so i can only assume the it started when the engine was stopped. I checked in the radiator to find a large amount of foam. The previous owner didn't have this happen but he drove it like a normal car and hardly ever got it onto boost.

Any ideas as to what I've done?

[egg_83]

New radiator cap should stop it. Sounds like the one you have isn't holding pressure hence why the overflow bottle is filling up

[Marco]

foam...? when you take the oil filer cap off does the stuff inside the cap look like coffee? if it does headgasket/ warped, damaged head.

[daz]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (marco @ Jun 25 2008, 07:40 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> (index.php?act=findpost&pid=552349)</div>
foam...? when you take the oil filer cap off does the stuff inside the cap look like coffee? if it does headgasket/ warped, damaged head.[/b]

Hate to say it but sounds like ya head gasket might be shot. Seen it before, the bubbling and foaming caused by exhaust gases leaking into the water galleries causing excessive pressure in the coolong system. Best bet is to take it to your local mechanic and get them to do a check on the cooling system to see if there is any exhaust gases in the system.

[jamekins]

the coolant is still green and the filler bottle is over full if thats any help. After the first time this happened it had a heap of coolant in the bottle but the radiator wasn't full (core was just visible above the coolant) so my dad and I put the stuff from the bottle back in the radiator. I drove it today and there was no overflow but the foam was still there. so Yeah not to sure at the moment. I'm gunna be hella cut if its the gasket. thanks for the help

[mech`s blue]

i would recommend that you change the coolant and flush it all out properly.

refill with fresh coolant.

its possible that the foam might be made from the previous owner putting chemy weld in the cooling system which loves to foam.

and do a compression test on the motor after you have compression tested the cooling system

[jamekins]

We did a compression test on the motor before we got it and and all the cylinders were around 150psi give or take a few pounds and the coolant seems new. I'm probably going to flush it and put some of that gap sealanty stuff in my self and see what that does

[jamekins]

Just took it for a drive then and the engine has started making a different noise when I give it the boot when I'm under 3,000rpm. almost sounds like a cylinder isn't working not sure though. I almost stalled it in second too after taking off. Me thinks my gasket is gone

[sdm86]

i did a radiator swap on a lady friends civic a she had a crash and damaged most of her front end.
she had foam on the top of the radiator and after time it just went away and i kept topping it up, i initially though it was the gasket, likewise my mate who is a 3rd year mechanic. But i think it was just because she ran it so hot when the radiator was fucked and some of the water mix coolant bubbled/frothed as it got extremely hot/boiling point and moved to the top of the hose

this also happened with my mates Subaru L series with the the turbo motor (EA82 for those in the know), it has a top mount water to air cooler and when we took the cap off to flush it it had white froth on the top, i can only assume this is because the coolant gets to such extremely hot temperatures and starts to bubble/froth.



keep an eye on it, if you notice significant amount of power loss or loosing a lot of oil. or the same white "Froth" on the inside of your oil cap your questions should be answered.

i hope its not a gasket for you sake.

and as for the low rpm noise i would not have any idea.

hope that helps ?? :huh:

[jamekins]

Its ok it turns out that the gasket is fine :D It would appear that the initial reply about the radiator cap was correct. the top seal doesn't appear to hold enough pressure. The noise was due to a missfire caused by wet spark plugs. I assumed head gasket because I'd had a simmiar thing happen in my L series (NA ea82) and that turned out to be the gasket. But thanks for the help it pretty much gave me the info to figure out that the gasket was fine.