Empty bottle

[JimL]

Checked coolant while offroading other day, bottle empty. Threw about a pint of water in there and carried on. No overheat signs at all, no bubbling sounds, top hose firmish. 4 weeks since last check, last flush + new stat and cap fitted Oct 19th.

Next time in surf was today. Before I started her, topped up at rad cap, took good litre and half to top up and fill bottle (holy cow). Ran her for a few mins with cap off and after a min or two the level at the cap slowly and calmly rose to overspill out of the cap, this aint good is it from a cold engine. Then pulled a loaded trailer 20 miles at 55mph. No probs and the coolant is maybe an inch higher than it was when cold which is right I think coz heated water expands?

Could it have been a big 2 mth old airlock - hardly, added 8 ltrs of coolant at last flush.

I presume with the cap off on a cold engine, after 3 mins nothing should happen coz the stat is still closed. If the stat was stuck open then coolant would be looking for a way out with the cap off hence the nonbubbly overspill. That said a stuck open stat would not explain an empty bottle.

Thats it. Just food for thought on a quiet Saturday night. Not expecting Gandalf to show up, and she did pull a loaded trailer 20 miles at 55mph without sneezing.

I love that US site Yotatech coz you dont see anybody talking about overheats and paranoia about the 22RE's cracking, they just overheat with each other over absolutely anything.

[gemini]

Checked coolant while offroading other day, bottle empty. Threw about a pint of water in there and carried on. No overheat signs at all, no bubbling sounds, top hose firmish. 4 weeks since last check, last flush + new stat and cap fitted Oct 19th.

Next time in surf was today. Before I started her, topped up at rad cap, took good litre and half to top up and fill bottle (holy cow). Ran her for a few mins with cap off and after a min or two the level at the cap slowly and calmly rose to overspill out of the cap, this aint good is it from a cold engine. Then pulled a loaded trailer 20 miles at 55mph. No probs and the coolant is maybe an inch higher than it was when cold which is right I think coz heated water expands?

Could it have been a big 2 mth old airlock - hardly, added 8 ltrs of coolant at last flush.

I presume with the cap off on a cold engine, after 3 mins nothing should happen coz the stat is still closed. If the stat was stuck open then coolant would be looking for a way out with the cap off hence the nonbubbly overspill. That said a stuck open stat would not explain an empty bottle.

Thats it. Just food for thought on a quiet Saturday night. Not expecting Gandalf to show up, and she did pull a loaded trailer 20 miles at 55mph without sneezing.

I love that US site Yotatech coz you dont see anybody talking about overheats and paranoia about the 22RE's cracking, they just overheat with each other over absolutely anything.

keep an eye on the level in the bottle and top up as necessary, dont remove the rad cap let it take in what it wants through the bottle, it probably came back out because there was to much in, only top up when cold, when engine is hot the water in the bottle should be higher and will go down as it cools, but then you know this jim anyway

[kitesurf_phil]

Sounds like you had an air lock because the cooling system was sucking at an empty bottle for a while and needed winding (not long back from seeing the baby grandaughter- hence the analogy).
I changed my coolant in August and I don't think I have put more than a half pint in the expansion tank since then, despite the top edges of the rad sweating.
Keep checking and good luck.