Foamy Coolant

[B_to_C]

A little back-story...

Two weeks ago I drove down to New MExico for a week of off-roading. 50 miles south of pueblo colorado my water pump bearing decided it had had enough, and falied. I open the hood to see coolant coming through the center part of the water pump, hitting my fan and shooting 20 feet out of my hood off the side of the highway. for those of you that don't know...this is the middle of NOWHERE. luckinly a friend was driving with me so he drove back up to pueblo to an auto-zone (got to the auto-zone around 8pm...good thing we didn't leave any later then we did.) Bought a water pump and brought it back to me on the side of I-25 South. With the minimal amount of tools I had it took me 4 hours to replace it (Go maglites!) Sot on the road again at about 1am....

The week went great (Except for getting stuck in the dessert for two days, with second degree sunburns, then having to pay a guy $100 to pull my truck out of one hell of a suck.) I could tell that I had a coolant leak -little puddles everywhere I parked, so i stocked up on water and prestone for the drive back. right before I got to the NM / CO line, my temp guage pegged out, and when I pulled over I could hear the coolant boiling. I had just enough coolant / water to fill it back up, and got on my way again. I've driven around for the last week pretending that the leak doesn't exist. But today I took the radiator cap off, and all I saw was foam. Is this bad? I filled it up with coolant again... /forums/images/graemlins/ears.gif

 

[justhorsinaround]

Back when I was havin radiator issues on a buddies Ranger folks were sayin there might be an air bubble up in there somewhere. I don't know if this is true or not cuz the problem turned out to be just about one of the dumbest things I have ever done workin on vehicles. /forums/images/graemlins/doah.gif

Anyways, try forcin some water through the motor and see if that helps out any. Seems to me (remember I'm an idiot) that your water pump isn't pushin much fluid just kinda stirrin it up like a blender.

Someone wiser in the ways of coolin systems will prolly be able to help ya out more.

Good luck to ya in the fix.

Allan

 

[Can Can]

I would hazard to guess that your overheating episode caused a cracked head or a blown head gasket. Lots of foam in the rad generally means that air is getting pumped into the water jacket through either a cracked head or a blown head gasket. Is there any indication of oil in the coolant?

 

[B_to_C]

hmmm, like coolant looking greyish? /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif

 

[Can Can]

Sorry, I meant to ask if there's any indication of coolant in the oil. That will result in a creamy kind of goo that looks like chocolate milk floating in your rad and collecting in your oil fill tube, which generally points to a blown head gasket. I'm not sure what greyish coolant means, but it doesn't sound too healthy.

BTW, you can rule out a cracked head by seeing if a local shop has a test kit to check for exhaust in the cooling system. The kits I've seen use a hand pump that draws vapor out of your rad into a test tube thingy filled with a special solution. If the solution changes color during the test it's bad news......

Sorry I wasn't able to help more. I know what it's like to deal with cooling issues- I've been trying to solve a wierd one with 83 pickup for the last month. /forums/images/graemlins/1zhelp.gif

 

[B_to_C]

More then enough help....THANK YOU