Header tank froth,

iangrant

iangrant

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Sure someone will be along soon to answer my daft pleadings for help!

I was losing a couple of pints of coolant every hour or so of running on the stbd engine.

This aft I poured in a bottle of coolant and ran uo the engine, changing the caps over between engine, then by chance found a loose jubilee clip dripping, on the hose to the heat exchanger, so that was where the coolant was going!!

Now, having topped up with blue coolant from the local garage, (then thinking, Hmm the other engine header tank has green in it) the stbd header tank has a bubbly froth on the top,

Question is, do I leave it to settle, if it will, or grain the whole lot and start again??

Thanks in advance


Ian
 
Thanks Paul

PaulGooch said:
The blue and green usually mix OK in cars Ian. I'd leave it a while and check to make sure it doesn't lose any.
Click to expand...

To take it further

I took a sample drawn into a measuring thinghy that tells the temp hot or cold the mixture can handle.

All looked fine, when I washed out the thinghy (I'll remember at some stage what it is called) what was left in it frothed up.

I was concerned it was a head gasket but there is no oil in the water and it all settles down when I turn off the engine. There isn't a lot but it's clean blue bubble froth and no crud or oil.

Ian
 
Am I right in assuming you have Ford Sabre's, if so remove cap and start up, allow to run and they vent themselves, if upon the thermostats opening you observe needle bubbles crossing the filler hole then you have done the head gasket. You may also have eruptions of bubbles and venting prior to the thermostats opening. An hours running with your eye glued to the temp gauge will confirm or deny your fears.
 
It's only since...

omega2 said:
Am I right in assuming you have Ford Sabre's, if so remove cap and start up, allow to run and they vent themselves, if upon the thermostats opening you observe needle bubbles crossing the filler hole then you have done the head gasket. You may also have eruptions of bubbles and venting prior to the thermostats opening. An hours running with your eye glued to the temp gauge will confirm or deny your fears.
Click to expand...

I put blue antifreeze into the header tank. When I topped up with water before I found a loose jubilee clip all was ok. The temp gauge rises exactly the same as the port engine and levels off at 75 degrees.

The foam forms before the thermostat opens and it's "clean" and blue bubbles, no crud.

Oh and yep Ford Sabres
 
Further tests reveal.....

Took a sample of the antifreeze from the header tank and put it into jam jar, clear as a whistle, shook the jar and it foamed up!


Checked the other header tank, that one foams on the surface as well!

Shook two more samples from mates garages (both mechanical types) and sure enough they foamed up as well.

Guess no one ever thinks to do the shake test or run an engine with the rad cap off, I've only ever checked levels and put the cap back on before I've started the engine.

So, one for inqusitive type, run yer engine with the cap off and see if it foams??


Ian
 
There was a thread not too far back about topping the header tank up when the floor only gives a few inches of space ..............

solution was to use a fairy liquid bottle with a straw stuck in the end.........

Just for clarity Ian, it might be an idea to empty the squeezey bottle of fairy liquid and rinse it out first :D
 
iangrant said:
Took a sample of the antifreeze from the header tank and put it into jam jar, clear as a whistle, shook the jar and it foamed up!


Checked the other header tank, that one foams on the surface as well!

Shook two more samples from mates garages (both mechanical types) and sure enough they foamed up as well.

Guess no one ever thinks to do the shake test or run an engine with the rad cap off, I've only ever checked levels and put the cap back on before I've started the engine.

So, one for inqusitive type, run yer engine with the cap off and see if it foams??


Ian
Click to expand...

Ian, i think you're inventing a problem mate. The blue and green stuff do mix, i've done it loads of times. In fact, now i think of it, i lost most of my coolant when i had to remove some pipework for a cambelt change a few weeks ago, it had been filled with green, i used blue. No problems.

Head gasket was mentioned, problems here are varied. The symptoms will depend entirely where the head gasket has failed, but can be oil in water, water in oil or both. You can also just get a pressurised coolant system, where the gasket fails between a cylinder/s and the water jacket. Not to mention, if it fails between two cylinders, you just get some erratic running.

It doesn't really sound like you have a gasket gone. A cheap block testing kit from Ebay would soon confirm, if you have any further symptoms.
 
Paul, I think you are right

Checked the jam jar again and no traces of anything.

Yes indeed:- inventing a problem..

Paranoid, moi??


Ian
 
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