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Old 05-27-2019, 01:36 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Booyah45828 View Post
I was replying to firebuild in post #5, where she asked how to use them and what the levels are supposed to be. Nobody answered that question in a way that I thought was sufficient.

My test strip reply wasn't for you, it just happened to follow your post. In no way was I insinuating that you didn't know how to use test strips.
Sorry about that. Your post appeared right below mine, I thought you were talking to me.......

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Old 05-27-2019, 01:39 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by EastCoastCB View Post
REmember to ONLY use distilled water in your cooling system. Tap water is bad, its got minerals and stuff.
Absolutely!!

Our city water runs around 250 ppm TDS. No way you would want that in any cooling system.
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Old 05-27-2019, 01:45 PM   #23
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Absolutely!!

Our city water runs around 250 ppm TDS. No way you would want that in any cooling system.
I cringe when I see tap water going in except emergencies.
My friend stopped by the other day and his car was overheating. We smoked a joint and when the car had cooled down I opened up the rad cap. Straight rusty water. He's been running just tap water with no coolant "since it leaks a bit". Damn it.
He's still driving it like that after I'd tried to explain it all to him.
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Old 05-27-2019, 01:50 PM   #24
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Wonder what the manufacturers use in their 50/50 mixes???
I've never ran into problems using tap H20 instead of distilled, to mix up a homebrew of 50/50 antifreeze from concentrate.
What harm can it possibly do?

Sorry for "hijacking" your thread, Mary!
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Old 05-27-2019, 01:54 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by firebuild View Post
What's in there now looks green but it has a lot of rust in it. I'm thinking I need a radiator.

2002 7.3L would be Powerstroke, wouldn't it? Mine is IDI.
Flush that rust out ASAP! It can wear on your waterpump bearings. Take the radiator out of the vehicle at that time, flush it internally with clean tap water from the top down, flip it upside down, and flush it till it is clear. If it hesitates to flow in any way, get a new radiator. Also if it leaks, of course, but then don't bother flushing it. Drain ALL the tap water out before filling the whole system (following the specs) with distilled water / antifreeze mix at 50%/50%. If you can, do that with all the heaters in the bus, if you kept them. If you just have the dash heater, remove the heater hoses from the motor and flush one side with tap, allowing it to drain from the other hose until clear. Then flush with 2 gallons of distilled water, or push out the tap water with compressed air (warning - potential mess maker!). You can flush your motor block with the lower radiator hose removed by flushing tap water through the heater-hose connection at the motor-head, again waiting for clear(er) water coming out of the lower radiator hose connection; follow that with a gallon of distilled water. If you think some water remains in the motor or heater core behind the dash, just add a bit more coolant when refilling. If it ups to a 60%/40% mixture, the extra coolant won't hurt.
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Old 05-27-2019, 01:54 PM   #26
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Tap water is a generic term. Each municipality has different standards for water quality.

We use tap water in the shop, because the town filters and softens our water pretty well. Some places don't and you should avoid it.

Water can have minerals like lime, calcium, and iron in it. These minerals will fall out of suspension in a cooling system and plug stuff up. They might also react negatively with modern coolants.
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Old 05-27-2019, 02:00 PM   #27
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And when refilling your system after draining and flushing, make certain you follow the proper procedures for removing air from the system.

Get the detailed procedure from a repair manual.


try reinstalling one heater hose, and filling the other one by holding it up high, through the heater core back to the motor head, doing so with the radiator installed and the cap removed.
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Old 05-27-2019, 02:13 PM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by peteg59 View Post
Wonder what the manufacturers use in their 50/50 mixes???
I've never ran into problems using tap H20 instead of distilled, to mix up a homebrew of 50/50 antifreeze from concentrate.
What harm can it possibly do?

Sorry for "hijacking" your thread, Mary!
Little if any. Antifreeze and coolant do more than those 2 jobs. It has lubricants in it that keep the block from rusting.
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Old 05-27-2019, 02:25 PM   #29
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For those of us that have wet sleeve engines there is on more function.

Preventing cavitation in order to keep our liners from pitting.
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Old 05-28-2019, 06:17 PM   #30
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How do you read SCA levels with a specific gravity tester?

I'll stick with the strips.......
Thanks for the response! Picked some up today!
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Old 05-28-2019, 06:19 PM   #31
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Originally Posted by PNW_Steve View Post
For those of us that have wet sleeve engines there is on more function.

Preventing cavitation in order to keep our liners from pitting.
Do I have a wet sleeve engine? (Spoken like the true newbie I am)
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Old 05-28-2019, 06:28 PM   #32
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If Max has a runny nose, and poor hygiene habits...
Probably.
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Old 05-28-2019, 06:29 PM   #33
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OK, let me ask you guys, and this might be another dumb question, though the dumber thing would probably be not to ask.

I'm having a new issue that would seem unrelated to coolant, but I know in some situations coolant can affect transmission function. I don't know if that's true for this engine or not.

For about the past week, Max (the bus's new name LOL) has been over revving, usually before shifting into third, but occasionally at other times as well. Not constantly, but enough that it's caused some concern. Normally, I would immediately start thinking transmission, and of course that could be it, but my rebuilt transmission is only about 6,000 miles old. It's under warranty, but of course it was done in Iowa so who knows if I can collect on that? Anyway, I'm wondering if anything else could cause this, and since the only other thing I KNOW is wrong is this coolant issue, could there be any relationship?

I know very little about things like cavitation though I'm familiar with the concept. What I'm not clear on is the consequence, that is, what you'd feel in terms of performance that might tip you off about it.

I have always been very sensitive to the sound and "feel" of my vehicles in the past but I'm finding this so much harder with this noisy diesel lawnmower-sounding engine.
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Old 05-28-2019, 06:45 PM   #34
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Quote:
Originally Posted by firebuild View Post
Do I have a wet sleeve engine? (Spoken like the true newbie I am)
no, you don't. But don't run tap water!
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Old 05-29-2019, 10:45 AM   #35
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Even though you don't have a wet sleeve engine, cavitation issues can still happen and are common in the idi engines due to neglect. Flushing the coolant and maintaining it are pretty important.

Consequences of cavitation is pitting and erosion of the cylinder walls. Eventually they get so thin that they crack and you start dumping coolant into the oil, or combustion gasses into the coolant. This means the engine is trashed and your onto either a rebuild or replacement.

I'm not sure what transmission you have, so I can't give you any more diagnostic pointers aside from making sure the fluid is clean and full, and the kickdown/modulator cable is adjusted right.

Most legit places will have some sort of nationwide warranty though, all your reman transmissions should, and most shops are involved in a network of other places to take care of you.
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Old 05-29-2019, 08:11 PM   #36
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Booyah45828 View Post

Most legit places will have some sort of nationwide warranty though, all your reman transmissions should, and most shops are involved in a network of other places to take care of you.
That's good to know. Still hoping, though, that the problem is less severe than that.
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Old 05-29-2019, 08:13 PM   #37
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Can you make a video of what its doing?

Your description sorta sounds like its slipping.
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Old 05-29-2019, 08:16 PM   #38
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Can you make a video of what its doing?

Your description sorta sounds like its slipping.
Yeah, I'll try to do that tomorrow. I actually have video already but I was shooting for the YouTube series so I'm talking over the sound.
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Old 06-01-2019, 08:54 PM   #39
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Transmission acting strange... coolant AWOL... make sure the coolant isn’t mixing with the trans fluid via the cooler in the radiator.
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Old 06-02-2019, 03:28 PM   #40
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Transmission acting strange... coolant AWOL... make sure the coolant isn’t mixing with the trans fluid via the cooler in the radiator.
OK here's what's going on right now. Please please please excuse my ignorance, which is plentiful. I haven't really been driving because I'm pretty nervous about this transmission thing; drove it a little bit last night to capture the sound that's going on, but came right home. Of course my laptop is simultaneously dying because my life is like that, and I can't edit the video to post it for you guys. Still working on that.

This morning, with the engine cool after not using it all night, I checked the coolant and it seemed quite low. So I filled it - but I accidentally overfilled it. I have never been able to see any markings to say where the "max" level is, and it kinda got away from me because of the angle I'm pouring it in at (I'm 5 feet tall and using a funnel so it's not super easy to see). The bus has not gone anywhere, it's sitting in the driveway with the engine off. It's been about 3 hours. I just went out there to see if I can see anything leaking.

There is a tiny leak spot with coolant below it, not directly under the radiator but near it on the passenger side, plus a little bit of coolant on the ground that's obviously from me pouring it in.

The radiator is not hot - the engine hasn't been started. But when I opened the radiator cap, it seemed to be under pressure and coolant came out in a small volcano. Just coolant, nothing mixed with it. I would see it if transmission fluid were getting in there, right?

So here comes the super dumb question: why would the coolant behave as if it's under pressure in the radiator if it isn't running? The level in the overflow bottle has gone down only a tiny bit, but the level in the radiator seems to have come way up. There is only an extremely minor leak, yet I seem to be losing coolant fairly rapidly. No sign of overheating, but then there's this transmission thing.

Any thoughts?

Oh, and how bad is it to drive it with the coolant overfilled? I wanted to take it to get the transmission fluid checked. I'm not comfortable doing that myself because in the past I overfilled it, and that was bad news.
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