I fear that I may have, heres what happened:

I had the rear end on jack stands running the engine at a high idle with the car in gear so the rear wheels would turn, I didn't realize that the e-fan did not come on. Since I was not in the car I was unaware of the temp climbing and after about twenty miniutes of idling the pressure cap on the radiator let go and blew the top off the overflow tank so I jumped in the car and turned it off. I noticed the temp guage was pegged! Scared to death I grabbed my infrared themometer to see just how hot everything got. Most locations on the engine were in the high 250 range but the top of the middle iron was a heart stopping 279 f. It makes me sick just to type it.

This is a two year old old school 13b built with all new parts and oem coolant seals.

The motor gave no sign of getting hot right up until I turned it off. I checked the tailpipe right after I turned it off and saw no visible steam.

So my question is what are the chances that I cooked the coolant seals and what advice do you guys have for me.

I guess my next step is to pressure check the coolant system to see if it will hold pressure

 

Hopefully your ok Robert. You probably only ran it at a dangerous temp for the last 5 or 10
minutes. Keep us posted.

 

if there were young coolant seals in there and it was full of water, i think you have a better than 50/50 shot of it being ok.

it seems like engines will tolerate a high coolant temp better than loosing water.

good luck!

 

Will a pressure test reveal any possible problems?

Or should I just refill it with coolant and see what happens?

Thanks for the advice...

 

Top it back and then watch it for awhile. Grab a cigar and do the old school observations.
Look for milky oil, bubbles in the radiator or oil in the coolant. Over pressurized coolant system.
etc.

Hopefully, this will just be another story to tell around the fire at the next meet we're at.

 

Thanks,

When we get around the fire I will tell you the really embarrassing part about why the E-fan wasn't running.

Any way I put a pressure tester on it at a modest ten psi and am patiently waiting to see if it holds. Then a refill and test run.

 

lol! not plugged in? been there done that!

 

I think I know why, I have the same mod, remember

 

Actually, the problem was that I was smart enough to wire the fan to shut off while the trans was in 4th or 5th, (to save amps when the fan was not needed) but too stupid to remember that when I was running the engine in gear, 5th gear unfortunately, with the car on jacks.


Edit: You figured it out!!!!!

 

D'OH, hopefully you can salvage it!

Curious, what were you working on/testing at the time?

 

I am upgrading my rear brakes and had bought some KC Raceware rear hats that use rotors from Coleman racing. Turns out the installation of the hats require the outside diameter of the SE axle flanges to be 5.9 inches rather than the stock 6.06 inches. I did'nt find out about this untill I they had been been delivered. My plan was to avoid the machine shop by running the car in gear and taking it down a few thousandths at a time with an angle grinder. Turns out it worked great, if the fans comes on that is. I can be such an idiot....

I pressure tested the engine and it held perfectly for eight hours. I refilled it and it seems fine.
I did find a little moisture in the oil fill tube that seems clear so it may not be coolant. Anyway I checked my crankcase ventilation system and it does not seem to be working, so I am not sure if it coolant or normal condensation. Time will tell I guess.....

 

its nearly impossible for the rotary to mix coolant into the oil. except for a freeze plug under the front cover, the coolant would have to leak out of the engine, and then back in

 

Well thats encouraging, I'm beginning to think I dodged a bullet.
But wait, couldnt you have a leak on the outside coolant seal on the bottom of the keg where it could leak into the pan?