coolant leakage (*%#*!!)

[Kerry Griffith]

The viscosity of the plot changes. After some archival searching, I'm 
think that my fan wouldn't operate if the fusible link was bad- but 
let's not forget Darwin- I'm far from q-knowledgeable.
More importantly, I became concerned about possible head gasket 
failure. So I started the car and watched to see if bubbles would 
arrive in the expansion tank. I had refilled the system (50/50 
h2o/coolant) to replace the 32 fl oz that had escaped. Backed car from 
garage so incline of driveway caused coolant in expansion tank to rise 
to inside of cap. Lo and behold, coolant began leaking from beneath the 
(new) cap immediately. Ambient temp and temp of motor 77F -car hadn't 
been started for 24 hours.

So I'm back to wondering if the plastic tank has cracked threads, or if 
there's some weird blockage elsewhere in the coolant pathway causing 
pressure sufficient for coolant to be forced through the cap- I assume 
the odd looking black plastic thingy inside the cap is a valve to allow 
for such an event.
I'm very much hoping that it's just the tank- even I can replace that.
Any wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Kerry



On Sunday, July 17, 2005, at 04:25 PM, Phil Rose wrote:

> At 2:02 PM -0600 7/17/05, Kerry Griffith wrote:
>> Cracked threads or tank is my hope and my assumption. If anyone can 
>> explain a different cause of this symptom (other than a loose cap), 
>> I'd like to know.
>
> Your previous post was about leakage when your car "gets hot enough", 
> so I've gotta ask the obvious:  is the radiator fan working properly 
> at that point (i.e., at stage-3 speed)?  Is the 80-amp fusible link 
> intact?
>
> Phil
> -- 
>
> Phil Rose
> Rochester, NY
> mailto:pjrose at frontiernet.net
>