Tyson Sherman wrote:
>
> Hi List!
> I hope you're enjoying your MGs right now as much as I am!! My radiator
> has been acting crazy lately, though. Sometimes it will leak out of the
> lower hose...where it joins the radiator, but it only leaks after I've
> turned the car off. It happens every few days. The other day, I parked
> on a slope w/the overflow tube (I have a 76 which wasn't equipped with
> an overflow bottle) was pointing down, and it leaked from there. Today
> I drove it and when I got home, the overflow (or else the rad. cap) was
> hissing loud. Any suggestions? The temp gauge stays centered at the N
> and I have a 195 T'stat.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Tyson Sherman
> http://www.tecinfo.com/~tsherman
Hi Tyson,
It is not uncommon for water leaks to be apparent just after the engine (when
fully up
to temp) is turned off. I think it is because the water is no longer
circulating so hot
spots can raise the temperature of adjacent water to a point higher than when
running,
and can be the first indication of a problem. The hissing can either be excess
pressure
venting off, apparent *immediately* on turning off a hot engine, or it only
starts after
the engine has been off for a few minutes. The former can simply be a bad cap
or more
serious engine problems. The latter is normal and is air been drawn back into
the
system as it cools.
I suspected the exact same thing on my V8 for a couple of weeks. I changed the
oil
cooler yesterday to got the engine fully up to temp preparatory to changing the
oil and
filter as well, switched off, started spannering, and water started dripping
from the
bottom of the rad. I was lucky, it turned out to be insufficient solder at one
point
where the bottom tank was soldered to the core, quite easily cured.
The oil cooler was a bit of a bugger though, I just could not undo the long
hose from
the cooler. I went back to the oil filter housing and tried to remove the hose
from
that, only to find that the union came out of the housing instead (the
well-known
instruction "left car by radiator cap, remove everything beneath it and
discard"
started to come to mind). So that meant I had to remove the housing from the
car to
unscrew it before I could get the cooler and its hose from the car (and yes,
you *can*
get the long hose with its length of pipe with three bends out that way). In
the end I
had to take it to my local garage and get them to shift the two nuts, my bench
vice just
wasn't man enough. Seems to have all gone back OK, although I shall keep a
close eye on
the rad for a bit.
Cheers,
PaulH.
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