Chico's 1988

[chicofuentes0224]

The coolant system is flushed.

I cheated. Took it to Valvoline because I didn't trust myself and figured their machine would do a better job than my garden hose.(And the fact I didn't want to shoot antifreeze all over my front lawn.) :wall: I made sure I went when my friend was working so I'd know the job was done right.You should have seen the crap coming out. And that's after the fact that when I changed the thermostat in the winter I tried to drain as much coolant out as possible and refill it. So, back at the house, engine is still running at 215*-220. Of course it's not under pressure because of the faulty cap on the plastic tank and my buddy said that I was loosing pressure at the hose that goes into the side of the plastic tank. Hopefully all new hoses and aluminum tank will remedy this.

I pulled all the old hoses off to replace them with new ones. The two that went into my heater core were impossible to pull off. They were factory original so I don't know if they were glued on or melted on from 20 years of use. Ended up splitting and cutting them off with a sharp blade.

Got all my new hoses, clamps, heater control valve, tee, aluminum tank, and resorvoir tank out. Now I can't remember how it all goes back together :wall:

[chicofuentes0224]

Yep, got everything back together but the gauge says I'm still runnung hot.

I'm going to have to check it tommorow with a laser thermometer. Is it possible the cap they sent me doesn't let coolant into the plastic reservoir bottle because I can't see or feel any going in there?

[jtdesigns]

Yep, got everything back together but the gauge says I'm still runnung hot.

I'm going to have to check it tommorow with a laser thermometer. Is it possible the cap they sent me doesn't let coolant into the plastic reservoir bottle because I can't see or feel any going in there?

 

The reservoir is only to let system pressure be caught... The cap should be around like 16psi or so meaning when system pressure raises higher then that it will escape and not explode!!! Go Boom! hehe

[chicofuentes0224]

Installed everything. Here's the pics. The plastic overflow tank from NAPA was crap. I couldn't see any fluid going in it because it wasn't. The nipple on the bottom of the plastic overflow tank that I put by the air filter didn't even have a hole in it. I had to make one. Factory defective. Guess where it was made? Yep, CHINA. :D .

 

 

 

[chicofuentes0224]

My door hinges on the driver's side have rusted off. I dropped it off today with a friends uncle to have him weld it up. Here's a pic of my driver's side floorboard. Please take note of my fingers sticking out through the bottom.

 

 

[PIKE]

I used PIKE's link. Guess where the overflow bottle was made.

_________________

 

Hi Chico, Hey if you ever find a better overflow let us know. I'm not to fond of China stuff either.

 

I think I saw a photo of a 2.5 enjine bay on this site somewhere and it had a bottle that looked like it would work.

 

If I could find an OEM bottle that would work I think that would be great.

 

:cheers:

[chicofuentes0224]

Pike, I was going to talk to Eagle about the overflow bottle he has. I'll let you know when I do.

 

On a side note. I ordered a CSF radiator (87-90) for a closed system from MotionOffroad Thursday afternoon. I got it this morning via UPS. Three bussiness days later. Great fast shipping. Here is the site from Motion.

 

http://motionoffroad.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=136

 

I'll be putting it in as soon as I get the truck back from the welder and will update.

[PIKE]

I have the same radiator in my truck. Happy so far. can't remember where it was made though. I seem to remember that it wasnt USA

 

:USAflag: Sure is hard to find anything made in this country anymore. :USAflag:

 

I'm going to try and find that picture with the oem overflow. I have seen the one that Eagle has and not any better quality than ours.

 

This is the water pump I went with

http://www.cardone.com/English/Club/Pro ... 0Flyer.pdf

Seemed like it was built a little better than the others. The Flow Cooler and Hesco just looked like "snake oil" to me and expensive.

 

:cheers:

[chicofuentes0224]

Pulled the old rad with LEAD NOT FOLLOW"S post.

 

http://comancheclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7695

 

Put the new one in but I'm still running warm.

Bought a new waterpump from Autozone for $35.00. Make sure you buy the one that says reverse rotation.

 

I also got a bottle of Prestone cooling system flush. I'm supposed to run it thru the system with just water and that for 3-6 hours of operation. This is supposed to loosen up any build-up and rust in my block from years of neglect. When I drained my 50/50 mix last night again to add this all of it came out clean with just a few specs of crap in it. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I'll get it all buttoned up this weekend, but it's getting kind of hard doing it outside at night with a flashlight in between my teeth and under occasional thunderstorms. I envy everyone on here with a well lit garage :D

[chicofuentes0224]

Well, over the weekend I ran Prestone's flush thru the engine with water and the heater on full blast for about 4 hours. It sat in my driveway because I haven't put the front clip back on yet.

Drained it out.

Pulled the rad again.

Changed the waterpump.

Put them back on, filled the system back up. Ran a couple heatup/cooldown cycles and burped the system out of the back temp sender. (It didn't need it).

Still no change in temp. I'm still running 215-225*

I'm gonna button everything back up and run my electric fan on a switch to see if that will bring the temp down.

 

MY REMINDER TO PUT A PIC HERE.

[A-V]

truck looks good mate.

 

On the engine "gunk" buildup issue, if there's buildup inside the engine I found out that the only way to do something about it was to remove all lower freezeplugs (the big ones on the sides) and use a round wirebrush and/or screwdrivers to remove all that you can find. Those engine cooling flushes usually just clean up the places where the gunk is loose.

 

One of my engines had more than an inch (up to 2 in places) of gunk that had gathered on the bottom of the cooling 'canals' around the cylinders. Removed that and after new freeze plugs noticed an instant change in the cooling. The gunk was almost like fine sand, composed mostly of rust and it was blockin fluid circulation around the cylinders. This is what happens when people run the engine cooling with just water and/or never change their coolant fluid.

[WahooSteeler]

Well, over the weekend I ran Prestone's flush thru the engine with water and the heater on full blast for about 4 hours. It sat in my driveway because I haven't put the front clip back on yet.

Drained it out.

Pulled the rad again.

Changed the waterpump.

Put them back on, filled the system back up. Ran a couple heatup/cooldown cycles and burped the system out of the back temp sender. (It didn't need it).

Still no change in temp. I'm still running 215-225*

I'm gonna button everything back up and run my electric fan on a switch to see if that will bring the temp down.

MY REMINDER TO PUT A PIC HERE.

 

Chico my man, the PO on my truck hard wired the electric fan to the fuse box, i.e. it runs full time. Since I don't see a negative to this, other than when working on the truck and might need the key/power on to check something, I roll with it. I'm substantially below 210* almost all the time.

[chicofuentes0224]

Bloody hell,

The waterpump was leaking.....somewhere.

Problem was it only did it while running and of course it was somewhere underneath the pulley.

So.....off with the whole front end of the truck again. All was smooth until I went to take off one of the waterpump bolts and the head snapped off. Luckily there was just enough bolt sticking out of the engine that I grabeed on with vice-grips and got it out.

Bought another waterpump just to make sure the one I have wasn't defective.

In the meantime I stuck a garden hose up to the small hole above and to the left of the hole for the impeller and shot water thru there to try and clean out any more gunk. All was clear and I let it sit till today but when I went out the once clear water was murky brown ( I thought it was oil in my water at first but upon closer inspection found that the "brown" wasn't really brown, more of an orangish and it was settled at the bottom. So I have a good amount of rust in the engine.

1)Is this normal?

2)Should I run more water thru it and try to remove as much as possible or leave it since it will just keep rusting?

3)Freeze plugs were brought up. I see them on the driver's side of the block. Are there any on the other side? How do you remove them? And what are the chances of removing them with the engine still in the truck?

4)What are the chances of me removing them and screwing something else up? :D

[mvusse]

If you have hard water, the water you put in can turn brown in a matter of minutes when exposed to air (oxygen). The orangy stuff (rust) will then settle out and plug the radiator. Even if you have a water softener, the outside spigots are almost never hooked up to it.

 

That's one reason why you should use distilled water. Not as convenient as a garden hose, but at $0.59 per gallon at Wally World, what is the excuse the not use it?

[jtdesigns]

If you have hard water, the water you put in can turn brown in a matter of minutes when exposed to air (oxygen). The orangy stuff (rust) will then settle out and plug the radiator. Even if you have a water softener, the outside spigots are almost never hooked up to it.

 

That's one reason why you should use distilled water. Not as convenient as a garden hose, but at $0.59 per gallon at Wally World, what is the excuse the not use it?

The only thing with using bottled water is you don't have any pressure other then gravity..

[mvusse]

Gravity has been enough for me. Fill through upper radiator hose, holding the end up in the air.

[chicofuentes0224]

Thanks fer the reply's in my tech thread guys. I put everything back together a couple of days ago. Didn't screw with the freeze plugs.

 

Temperture came down from a max of 225 to to 219.

I went ahead and wired my electric fan to a switch inside the cab. Hornbrod posted this diagram up a while ago and I just followed it.

 

http://www.ado13.com/techs/relay.htm

 

The temp with the fan on fulltime now runs at 200-210 at the thermostat housing. I still have to borrow someone elses laser thermometer to verify that mine's correct.

 

Here's the kicker. If I turn on my HVAC on hi on any setting (like defrost) with the lever on cold or hot the temp comes down to a perfect 201* at the thermostat housing showing a perfect 210* at my gauge.

 

Now I understand that kicking the heat on full blast will bring my engine temp down but is the same true for the cold setting and does anyone know how that works?

 

It's not really a problem to run my fan on full blast and the HVAC controls to keep my temps down, just strange that everything is brand new in the cooling system and I have to do this much to keep the engine cool :nuts:

[chicofuentes0224]

Couple pics

 

Driver's door hinge welded back on

 

Fan connections

 

 

 

 

And my temporary floor board fix

[chicofuentes0224]

Post to self.

Catalitic Convertor has been removed, hollowed out and reinstalled.

And I forgot I put a new belt on when I did the water pump.

[chicofuentes0224]

Post to self

Changed out the Harmonic Balancer and Front Main Seal.

"Weird Noise" thread problem solved.

[ejndssn]

Post to self

Changed out the Harmonic Balancer and Front Main Seal.

"Weird Noise" thread problem solved.

ay chico so that's what it took to fix it :cheers: