David Hu$tlerhoff

boys and girls,
today my dad checked how much coolant was in the car. it seems (no, i'm prety sure) that he didn't tighten the the cap in the middle (on the thermostat) properly.
i drove her normal just for a bit cruise, no hard beating. since i always keep an eye on the temp gauge, i know that the coolant temps alway showed normal numbers, as usual.
then i saw a bit steem coming up, plus she lost a bit coolant, water spots on the road, not too much though.
popped the hood, waited till the temps lowered and tightend the cap, started her up again, let her idle,evrything was ok, dry.
but after approx. 1 minute the temps started to raise a bit (way away from red, but were raised, clearly visible on the temp gauge) so i shut her off. i guess too low coolant or the typical idle cooling problem.
suggestions, experiences..... that was a shock, never had problems before with my car

Railgun

Fill the coolant back up...run it for a min or so w/ the cap off...fill again...

es

Try checking the coolant level!

David Hu$tlerhoff

of course, i know, dont get me wrong, of course she gets coolant.
basicly i just wanted to know how much overheat the seals can handle and for how long. always reading about coolant failures due to overheat

Railgun

Do you know how hot it got, or do you just have the stock temp gauge?

David Hu$tlerhoff

i just got the stock gauge

rpm_pwr

If it moves a little on the stock gauge you're fine. Dont forget too that it's pretty easy to spill coolant (ever noticed how ******* hard it is to get a bottle to pour smoothly?) so if some gets near the turbos or heat shield it's gonna boil off later as the car heats up.

I remember after I changed my dump pipe I was burning WD-40 off my exhaust - just rolling down the highway with smoke pouring off

-pete

es

If it doesn't start drinking coolant then you'll be fine...

Seriously though, you'd be surprized to see what the engine temp does after you shut the car down & shop for your CD's. I remember seeing about 104 C. Once the WP started moving coolant it came right down to the lower 80's.

Railgun

Gotta love heat soak!!!! I've still got the stock gauge. It pretty much sits in the middle of the sweep (right at a 90 degree angle). I've NEVER seen that thing budge higher, even after running it hard. Keep in mind that id you're just sitting around idling(sp?) that your temp might go up a bit (unless you're in Alaska).

David Hu$tlerhoff

thanks for the responses !
well i couldnt slep really well, damn it, gotto go to work now, she won ge out of my head till i tested her.
well, to summarize: during driving the temp gauge didnt move. the coolant was spilled out a bit, the last 20 meters the car moved. bigger drops, not like the whole coolant. on idle temp went up, but shut her off way before redline. damn ! if something happened, my dad (mechanic for 38 years now) has some serious works to do! but i dont think/hope so.

blackscorpio

You might wanna consider a fan mod, I keep my fand on all the time when driving round town and I never see temps above 200F ~93C.

David Hu$tlerhoff

i definetly want to go with some extra cooling, just dindt have the time to do it.
well, i open the cap, i hear a "plop"-sound, when somewhere is vacuum. good sign? normal? bad? i refilled her, started her up, everything as usual.