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Testing coolant for hydrocarbons...

Used to be, all the local radiator shops had testers and would do the test for free. Heck, its hard to even find radiator shops these days.

The trick is, you do not test the coolant, you test the air above it. I have watched it done many times over the years. You had a clear tube with the detecting fluid inside it. You clamp the unit over the radiator hole in place of the cap, and use a plunger to suck some air from the rad and it bubbles up through the fluid which changes color if there are combustion products in there.
 
Some mechanics that had exhaust gas emissions testers (tailpipe sniffers) used to use them to diagnose bad head gaskets by holding the probe over the coolant in the radiator with the engine running..
 
For the inexperienced, why can't you just run a coolant system pressure test?
 
The blue liquid tests don't usually ever show positive on a diesel, idling they pump mostly air into the cooling system.

do you have bubbles in the coolant reservoir?
 
Truckman4life said:
I have used the napa block tester many times on diesels for work with lots of success.
Click to expand...
Which engines did it work on? I have tried it on lots of older idi engines that had obvious compression to cooling system leaks with out results.
 
Powerstrokes and International medium duty engines. Some heavy duty semi engines in the past. Usually go drive it hard and at full temp then carefully open the cap and do the test was my best results.
 
Truckman4life said:
Powerstrokes and International medium duty engines. Some heavy duty semi engines in the past. Usually go drive it hard and at full temp then carefully open the cap and do the test was my best results.
Click to expand...
makes sense, I never bothered to drive these, as it was pretty obvious. Mostly 6.2s and 6.5s
 
We've called a few leaking head gaskets on Duramax diesels at work with the Napa combustion gas detection kit. You need it at operating temp for sure. One big difference is the fact that the Dirtymax's don't have a cap on the radiator. They have the pressurized surge tank on the inner fender with the cap on it. You get a better idea where the coolant is with the surge tank since you can see through it. The other tip off due to the clear surge tank is when you have combustion gases getting into the cooling system it loads the tank with a black film that is painfully obvious.
 
I've seen the signs you guys are talking about, but this rig doesn't have any of them at this time. No bubbling, no water in the oil, no black film in the water. No failure to hold temperature. No sweetness or steam in the exhaust.

I think I will try racking up some more hours before I get too worried about the head gasket. It's really just paranoia because it overheated one time (and these heads are known to crack at high temperatures). I have 2.5 hours of running it since the great meltdown, and a couple people have told me I would have known by now if there were any leaks.

Thanks for the input, all.
 
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