Thread: Topping up coolant.

Originally Posted by Graeme

No oil in the coolant?

Check the oil level display.

oil level is correct.. ( just ventured outside to check.. bit of a cyclone went through here last night, parts of caravans all over the place...) apart from a little gunge under the cap a day or so ago, nothing in the coolant..

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

I think the ( water cooled) oil cooler is leaking. car looses about a litre an hour?? ( I've only run it for an hour each day in this condition)
When cold in the morning the expansion tank is under a slight vacuum,
If yesterday is any indication it will take at least 1 litre to top up to halfway up the expansion tank, but yesterday I also got a low level coolant warning after 5 minutes running, the warning did go away..

Start the car and fill?
Fill when cold again?

Dunno how the cooling system is plumbed on your car (pressure cap on radiator or on expansion tank?) but the vacuum in the tank brings back memories.

My 74 started boiling after shutdown........... losing maybe half a litre. I just thought it was needing a new rad, but somehow I worked out it was the pressure cap on the expansion tank.

They have 2 springs............ a strong one to hold the pressure in and a really small weak one that allows air back in as the water in the system cools. The seal on the air vent had somehow glued itself shut.

After shutdown the system cools, the coolant shrinks and airs normally allowed in through the cap. If the cap is faulty a vacuum is created and the coolant will boil due the lower pressure.

Exactly the same thing happened on my Courier petrol ute last year (would boil after shutdown) and I just thought 'tired motor'. Pressure cap is on the radiator in that car.

For some reason I started it up with the bonnet raised after it had cooled a little and was 'boiling' and noticed the top radiator hose totally collapsed, i.e. a vacuum in the system caused by a faulty cap.

All fine now, with a new cap.

Not saying it's the cause of your problem, but a vacuum in the expansion tank doesn't sound right.

DL

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

I reckon it had this oil cooler thing when I bought it.. an overnight oil drip, after a new gasket in Darwin...

Just 1 gasket with a new oil cooler or 2 gaskets for the existing cooler, 1 between the oil cooler base and the EGR cooler and another between the 2 halves of the oil cooler?

They put new gaskets on the existing cooler,, I was not contacted, this was a LR Darwin decision.



Yesterday mornings top up was done with the engine running.. there was a lot of gurgling going on down there...
I was informed the low level warning came on again within 5 mins..

is there a tool to actually pull a vacuum( on purpose!) on the system so I know there are no air pockets?

The cooling system for the same engine in my L322 doesn't trap air when filling. Mine has a bleed screw in a pipe that runs across the top of the radiator to the bottle but doesn't seem to need it.

It sounds to me that there is a major leak, possibly from a deteriorated seal or plastic fitting in the vicinity of the oil cooler. The oily mix may just be flushing out residual oil from the oil cooler gasket change.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Me too!! no way to know...
It is being serviced by Bigjon at Mitchem/Adelaide on Thursday/Friday..

Hey, Pedro,
Looking for good Indy in Adelaide - No one like Bigjon listed in the sticky at the top of this category. Who/where is he?
Roman