[bowlofturtle]

Well first off here is past on the car. The radiator was installed brand new about a month ago after the old one leaked. The cooling fan was replaced 2 weeks ago and the temp gauge for the fans last week.

Now today i noticed that my back-up tank of coolant was GONE. So i refilled it, while doing that i also thought maybe the radiator was somewhat empty as well. so i checked it. there is sludge of coolant on my cap and at the top of the raditor mainly around that little rim where the cap is. Well the sludge wasn't much. 1/2 a square of a paper towel did the trick. But is this something that i should be worried about.

The car runs nice and smoothly but while on the highways going 75-90mph i could smell a slight oder of something burning. Now after i drove it for a little bit i parked and checked up on the coolant. It was nice and full in the back up tank. I couldnt check the cap tho. But what i noticed was a slight smell of coolant burning ( assumition)

 

[hillbilly]

usually when I smell coolant cooking it usually ends up. bust being the heater core. as far as that slude is concerned, I have no idea! has it come back since you cleaned it up?

 

[bowlofturtle]

well the sluge part wasn't huge it was about the size of a 1/2 dollar coin. but i haven't had a chance to check it out yet seeing as how my car was hot.

Can you give a little more info on the heater core. I'm thinking it could be from the upper piping from raditor to something

 

[Flashmn]

IF the coolant is under pressure, there will be alot of water in the backup tank. HOWEVER. You can still have air in the block. So whenever you change, add etc. you always have to run several days with the heater on full heat to purge any air from the block.

 

[bowlofturtle]

but there wasn't anything in the back up tank period. i'll do the heater thing you told me but what about the whole burning smell ?

 

[CrawlingEye]

since it has a reservoir, shouldn't the air stuck in the system be pushed into it?

 

[Flashmn]

it wont do it if the heater is off, you'll still have air in the system. Plus it does take some time to do. 4A-F is a tricky bastard to air

but there wasn't anything in the back up tank period.

Thats because it either boiled out, or you had so little coolant that it all got sucked in the engine, then along with air after the coolant was finished.

 

[Hatch]

couldnt the gumming problem be because the coolant wasnt mixed with enough water?

 

[Flashmn]

No, coolant wouldnt gum up without water. it would just overheat, because coolant as itself isnt a engine "cooler".

 

[bowlofturtle]

i figured it boiled out as well. but i didn't assume it sucked in air as well.

yea coolant isn't doesn't make the engine cool. besided i refilled it with the 50/50 batchs at the store so it was prefect ratio on that.

So to recap what you said flash. There is/might still be air in my engine block that is causing the burning smell ? in order to remove air i would need to run the heater for a while to pressure out the air.

 

[Hatch]

When the temperature of the coolant gets too high without enough water it will turn to a jelly - try pouring some into a pan on your BBQ or something and watch what happens.

All coolant does is increase the 'specific heat capacity' of water so that it will absorb more heat and get hotter than 100deg C.

Jeff

 

[bowlofturtle]

but what about the burning smell