cooling system pressure tester.

[Dobbslc]

Heads gone.

The coolent is perfect, no sweet smelling exhaust, as for seeing any leaks there aren't any, I looked everywhere from above, below, in daylight, at night with a torch plus the UV test nothing.
It runs fine with just a bit of chugging for a few seconds sometimes when cold.
I'm just keeping an eye on it and hope it gets me all the way to Lincolnshire on Sunday to collect a lathe!

[BUSHWHACKER]

Heads gone.

Wrong!

The head is still there, it's just fawked.

[Bogus]

Heads gone.

[shokenore]

About 1/4 of the overflow bottle every 2-3 weeks.

Do you have any antifreeze in the system?
Does the exhaust have a sweet whiff?

It is obviously losing a fair bit of coolant, might be worth having another look under the bonnet for signs of a leak.

[Dobbslc]

About 1/4 of the overflow bottle every 2-3 weeks.

[shokenore]

The dye glows bright yellow under uv I know because I got it on my boots!
Yes a double negative as the oil glows slightly yellow straight out of the bottle,
As far as loosing water goes I only have to top it up every few weeks but it defiantly goes somewhere.
No strawberry milkshake though.

So how much are you losing after what time scale?

[Dobbslc]

The dye glows bright yellow under uv I know because I got it on my boots!
Yes a double negative as the oil glows slightly yellow straight out of the bottle,
As far as loosing water goes I only have to top it up every few weeks but it defiantly goes somewhere.
No strawberry milkshake though.

[shokenore]

Are you saying that be because you can see yellow in your transmission oil you have a false positive ?

What colour do you think the uv dye should glow under uv light?


If you had coolant in your transmission your ATF would look like strawberry milkshake.
Are you absolutely sure you are actually losing any coolant?

[Dobbslc]

Update:
Just got some of that uv dye that goes in the rad then you run the engine and check for leaks with a uv torch.
Couldn't find a thing! all clear. Then I thought lets check the transmission oil and bingo it was glowing yellow so I thought the rad / tranny cooler had gone.
Then I checked some new oil and that ###### well glows as well!
So back to square one.

[NiftyNev]

The 'header tank' isn't a good way of monitering coolant level, its only an overflow, its not really part of the system and the level can change, the engine can only take coolant back from the tank if there is a vacuum in the system, its really just an expansion tank.

Always check coolant level from the rad cap.

Sorry Tony, have to disagree with this. I'd be lucky if I remove my radiator cap once a year just to check the seals. Always monitor the level via the expansion tank. Level goes up by about 20/25mm when hot and drops back to cold level, when engines cools down. If not then I start looking for a problem. This is how I found that I had a leak from rear heater. Expansion tank level was dropping below the cold full mark. It was loosing coolant and using the reserve in the expansion tank. engine was always full of coolant though, because I topped up the expansion tank to compensate for the loss. Providing all hoses are connected and working and there's no change to hot and cold levels in the expansion tank then all should be ok.

Nev

[Dobbslc]

The 'header tank' isn't a good way of monitering coolant level, its only an overflow, its not really part of the system and the level can change, the engine can only take coolant back from the tank if there is a vacuum in the system, its really just an expansion tank.

Always check coolant level from the rad cap.

Good point, the rad is normal full it was only the first time I checked it that it took a bit to fill it up.

[TonyN]

The 'header tank' isn't a good way of monitering coolant level, its only an overflow, its not really part of the system and the level can change, the engine can only take coolant back from the tank if there is a vacuum in the system, its really just an expansion tank.

Always check coolant level from the rad cap.

[charvell]

sorry mate. If i were you i would go get a sniff test done to at least rule it out

[woodwarm]

Mine was doing that and it turned out the head was cracked.

thanks you've cheered me up

[charvell]

About an inch out of the header tank every week or two...

Mine was doing that and it turned out the head was cracked.