I think I dodged a bullet. (1 Viewer)

[byrd_hntr]

Last fall I was cruising around western Colorado and I noticed I was over heating. So I stopped and I had a big split in the top seam of my radiator. I was about 300 miles from home on a Sunday. So I limped it home pouring water in it every time the temp began to climb. I got home and dumped a bunch of antifreeze in making sure is cycled through the whole water system and shut it down for the winter. The whole time I was sure I at least blew a head gasket.

Fast forward to this spring I ordered a new radiator from Beno and slapped it in expecting the worst. I check the tstat while I was at it as it seemed to be opening. So today I finally got to it all put back together and so far no sign of a compromised head gasket. I put about 50 miles on it today and the temperature never climber over halfway on the gauge. I'll keep an eye on it but for now I think I may have dodged a bullet. Let the spring wheeling begin!

 

[byrd_hntr]

 

[shelfboy1]

nothing new those seems have been doing that for years usually just re solder and your good to go

 

[Augusts96]

They don't build em like they used to

 

[handcannon]

Hopefully you did dodge that bullet. But, my experience wasn't so good with my "F" motor. My problem was a water pump leaking around the shaft seal, and being away from home on a hunting trip. A replacement pump was ordered and would arrive the next day, so I drove back to hunting camp. I kept adding water to it, but it ended up getting low enough that the coolant was below the temp sensor, rendering the sensor unable to tell me when it got too hot.

Ended up cracking the head. I was given a head for the motor, but after being checked by my auto machine shop, it also was cracked. It wasn't as badly cracked as the original head. Repairable, but the repair costs put it in that gray area of questioning whether I wanted to gamble on possibly wasting my money if the repair didn't work.

Don

 

[bikersmurf]

Sounds like you did.

I lost the block heater... Temperature gauge didn't work, so the first sign of trouble was clouds of steam everywhere. Parked it for the night and added 2-3 gallons of coolant after replacing it... No problems.

Soong as you keep topping the coolant up, you should be fine. I've done it several times over the years.

 

[byrd_hntr]

nothing new those seems have been doing that for years usually just re solder and your good to go

I had it soldered once already about 4 years ago so I went ahead a put a new OEM radiator on it. So far so good.