Thread: Replaced radiator, still losing coolant

Took a long while to find the very fine spray coming out of my radiator, as it used to dry up from the heat of the engine and it was where it couldn't be easily seen. Until it became bigger. There was pink coolant marks all over the engine because the fan was obviously spreading it around. I just kept topping it up every 1000 k's or so as that is what it took to just use a couple of cups full.

LOL! my bad.
I missed that you have a TD5, not a v8 ..

serious bimbo moment on my part .. sorry.
My comments re cracked block/liners relates to V8, not TD5.

but I stand my other comments about fixing, not replacing.

Also .. just looked up Toolondo too.
Nice area. I could possibly do a drive out that way one day soon.
Haven't been to Lake Albacutya and Rainbow for quite some time now.
if I did, I reckon there'd be more than enough room for me to carry my radiator pressure testing kit too.

Thanks Arthur. It's a long drive and not able to offer much hospitality, but I hear the fishing is not too bad. I have a USB endoscope ordered which might get here on Wednesday or Thursday. In the meantime I'll stew on it and find out how to crack the injectors for a look when the gadget gets here, though not sure what I'm looking for. Also hoping to jig up a pressure test. It run's so nice - pulled the caravan over Mt Hotham the other week no probs other than the vanishing coolant. I reckon I owe it to the old girl to have a crack! If it's a "simple" HG job is there any reason why the local engine builder can't do the job on the head, or is it more specialised?
Thanks,
Pete

Once again sorry for my misinformation. I had multiple threads opened and confused myself as to which one I was reading .. and didn't read your sig!

DOH!

ps. the drive is actually a short one by my usual standards, so that's not a problem.
I do the photography thing when I can, and that's been the problem recently .. not easy to find the free time too.
Rainbow and Lk Albacutya, and Patchewollock are further than where you are, and I've been past your area so many times .. just never heard of it, or remember it.
My last trip out that way was the floods at Charlton .... maybe couple of years ago.

Other thing I'm thinking is do you park on a surface that will show obvious signs of a leak(eg,. concrete or bitumen and suchlike) or over gravel/sand/etc.
That is could there be a leak, but you just don't obviously see it.

I've read that the expansion tanks can crack. I have experience with 3 D2s: bros TD5, and my two V8s and none of which have cracked tanks.

With bros Td5, we did have one very very hard to locate leak, and the pressure test didn't show it up either.
That is, we changed coolant, and a few days later it started to leak from multiple sources.
Fuel cooler, couple of hoses AND waterpump.
The waterpump was hard to track as it didn't drip and leave obvious signs .. until much later.
It obviously got worse over time(maybe a month or two) and eventually bro located it.

That's my limited experience with TD5 stuff.

I use the removed leg of a puller to pop the injectors Pete, works a treat

that or half a plumbers adjustable pipe wrench, which is what we used on brothers TD5.

Note while you're at it with the injectors off, may as well do the seals.

FINDER-Universal-Adjustable-Pipe-Wrench-Multi-functional-Pump-Pliers-High-Quality-Water-Pipe-Cla.jpg

we used the top half side.

Arthur, no probs mate about the confusion. I'm very grateful for the interest shown in my problem.
At present the car lives outside as I'm in the process of reducing the junk in the shed, but now, as well as a heap of real junk outside I now have a pile of Really Nice Things that are old, scratched, worn but still functioning on the garage floor while I ponder how to deal with them. I find it very hard to let go of stuff that still has life in it. Anyway, short answer is that the car sits on the gravel. But your logic is true: I should put a flat panel of something underneath and after a run look for traces. As another poster mentioned I just top it up as necessary and have done so for rather a long time. I am using the Nanocom to warn me of coolant temp but so far no warnings.
I guess my main worry is that if I take the head off and find the job is bigger than I can chew I then have a non-functioning wreck, rather than a car with problems that runs very nicely. I'd think the running car would be more saleable than a dead one.
If you were to come this way, yes, it is pretty nice country, being close to the Black Range, Grampians and Rocklands Reservoir. After this rain it will start to blush green any day now. If we have the time we like to take the longer trip from Melbourne, turning off at Stawell or Ararat and coming "over the mountain" via Hall's Gap. You would be most welcome but I would not encourage you to do the trip on my behalf.
Thanks also to Rob and yourself re popping the injectors. New seals sounds sensible. My only experience of this is on an early '70s Yanmar 80hp mariine diesel and we used a wheelbrace I think. We shimmed the worn injectors with washers cut out of Coke cans and reassembled listening for a satisfying squeak as we primed them. If only it was as straightforward on the TD5. Sigh........

I replaced the injectors on my Tdi, and had one recalcitrant one ... Tdi injectors easy to get too, so other than the effort to remove .. not a problem with access.
on that hard one it was trivial to screw a nut on the injector and ring spanner under the nut and tap it out.
You don't have that option with the Td5 injectors.
That was the only thing I worried about using the pipe wrench method. Had to be careful not to put too much side force on them and risk damaging the bore or the injector barrel(or whatever they're officially called).
We were prepared to buy an expensive slide hammer tool and mod it to get a stuck one out if needed.
But they came out relatively easy, just needed a light prod from the underside and using hands to keep them straight as they came up.
Effort required a lot less than the Tdi injectors.

Hopefully you'll have the same luck we had on the Td5.

Done the Grampians millions of time .. with millions of photos results.
But never really been or seen much of the south side of Horsham .. I mainly do the desert country north of there.

Reason I've been thinking of the trip is:
1/. totally stuffed up and forgot to call work to offer for a shift for Sunday(mothers day). I have the kids over this weekend, and they go to their mums for MD, which leaves me free now. What I should have done is call work and say I'm available .. but too late now.
2/. so tomorrow I'm free and 'have nothing to do' .. but in reality I should do more work on the shed build I'm doing.
I got to lay a gutter down, sand, rock, etc .... and then gutter .. but it's back breaking stuff, and I prefer to avoid it
Shed material comes in a few days, so the build is soon to happen, and I really shouldn't avoid, but my preference is too!
3/. haven't been out photographing stuff for a while(due to lack of free time) .. and I didn't buy all my gear to NOT get out and do it.

Dilemma time.

actually still kicking myself for forgetting to call work!
I'll probably end up just doing the gutter tho.

Anyhow, do you have a time frame on when you reckon you'll start attacking the problem?(ie. the borescope part) .... days? weeks?