Coolant type for P38

[Keithy P38]

Hello everyone!

I had a close encounter the other week, the night before I was due to fly out west for a week! My rangie has a buggered hose clamp on the hose that runs from the top radiator hose to the thermostat! I hate those self-clamping hose clamps, so i've decided to do a complete cooling system drain and flush seeing as i'm going to lose most of the coolant once that hose has been removed.

I have another hose clamp to replace it with (and a few more to replace all the other spring-type ones). My question is what type of coolant is recommended for the big girl?

Currently it's running green coolant and i've had no dramas in hot or cold weather with the temp. I went into supercrap yesterday and grabbed myself a 5l concentrate bottle of Nulon Red coolant, which is recommended for alloy motors, and as viewed on RAVE, it has a Phosphate free formula and is Ethylene Glycol based. I was just wondering about the small print on the back of the bottle which reads "Not recommended for use with older style copper/brass radiators. For those vehicles, use Nulon 100% Concentrated Long Life Coolant (green)."

Any opinions? I'm not sure what the radiator core in my rangie is made of!

Cheers
Keith

[Junosi]

I'm fairly sure it's an aluminium radiator - having just bought a new one recently myself (well it sure looks aluminium) which is well suited to running the red stuff. Apparently it's important to flush out all the old green before switching to red - mixing them can lead to problems

ps. I'm running red in mine as is Paul I think

[Keithy P38]

Thanks Junosi!

I have just finished flushing the system, it's all water coming out of the block/radiator/coolant tank now! The only thing that I didnt do (which is stated in RAVE) is remove the plug from the left hand cylinder bank. I'm pretty sure there's no green left in the system now! I also put the heater on when i moved the car (so I had room to work on it). It all seems pretty good, time to fix the buggered clamps and fill 'er up!

Thanks
Keithy

[p38arover]

The radiator is aluminium.

[Keithy P38]

Excellent! Thanks for that!

Keithy

[Hoges]

FWIW: For the past 3 years I have been using the GMH orange stuff specified for the LS1 V8... excellent.
cheers

[Keithy P38]

The red stuff went in, car running great on the driveway for 20mins with no leaks and temp fine (after a quick bleed of the air). Go for a drive, now there's a damn leak coming from the water pump seal. ARGH!!

Is there an easy way to pull the water pump off these engines or will I have to dismantle most of the front end? And i'm pretty sure they don't use gaskets either, it's just a matter of getting the sealant product from supercrap for the water pump?

Another tricky one for any auto leccy's, relay #6 and #7 - what amps? I've got some mighty cooked looking relays happening and I want to get some spares! Cant find the amperage listed anywhere on the net or on the car!

Cheers
Keithy

[Junosi]

My new water pump did not come with a gasket, but Rave mentions one 'Remove water pump and gasket' and 'fit new water pump with gasket'. I was unsure myself at the time and used gasket goop. In hindsight I'd probably try and get one or cut one out from gasket paper to fit

[Scouse]

"Not recommended for use with older style copper/brass radiators. For those vehicles, use Nulon 100% Concentrated Long Life Coolant (green)."

I'm sure the heater core has a few copper components in it. I have one that needs a hole soldering up & I'm sure it's a copper section that needs repairing. This is in the early P38 anyway.

IIRC, the GEMS cars used the regular green coolant then when the Thor came out, they went to OAT (as the D2 was introduced at around the same time).

[Keithy P38]

Maybe that makes me a bit luckier! I am running a Thor! Interested about the heater core though... Something that I didnt consider...