Heater core or vacuum hose?

Topic: Heater core or vacuum hose? (Read 7330 times) previous topic - next topic

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #60 – February 21, 2008, 12:55:18 AM

Are those big enough? Either way, I'll figure something out. After all, the hoses ARE flexible. Right now the plan is to do the tranny Saturday morning, giving me time through the weekend in case I run into any issues, then start pulling the motor apart either afterwards on Sunday to 1) Retorque in lower intake 2) replace a heater hose with one from ford with the restrictor 3) rtv the water pump - I have 2 other sets of gaskets already anyways 4) Put on a new overflow hose (may do this tomorrow) and 5) test the radiator and heater core separately from the motor so I can know exactly how each one stands.

Would pulling vacuum in the motor help any with the cooling system? If It'd be easier to hear something this way, I'll do it as I already have a pump that can build to 28.5 inches of vacuum and of course, it has fittings that I can adapt to fit into one of the coolant sensor threads. Bought this for vacuum forming but it also comes in handy for other things (one being a/c systems).

Prior to Saturday I'll scour this thread again and look for any lost comments to give me ideas on things to check over the weekend. If anyone has any other suggestions, they'll be heard and addressed. Whatever it takes, I AM going to find the source. I'm just hoping it isn't an issue with either the block or the heads but heads I can manage if need be (will put gt40p-compatible headers on and find some p's to install). Block would mean the car will be going to the side for awhile so it can get a new aftermarket block and fresh buildup.

I thank you guys for all the feedback on this. It has just been troublesome dealing with so many things on the car right now but this and the transmission slipping are the last of them (for now).

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #61 – February 21, 2008, 07:19:45 AM

I think home depot has various sizes of those wing nut rubber plugs.
Just a thought.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #62 – February 22, 2008, 01:58:43 AM

why not just put hose clamps on over the golf balls? Get a threaded pipe with a end cap on it and stick it in the hole...

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #63 – March 10, 2008, 12:38:12 PM

Water pump was sucking up air through the weep hole...a very faint line of water out the weep hole was visible upon very close inspection. Replaced the pump and on one heat cycle, everything worked great and bled itself out. Didn't have time to run it anymore but things look good now. Still need to repressurize the system to verify.

Ford "genuine parts"

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #64 – March 20, 2008, 11:49:33 AM

After seemingly being fine for 2 weeks and the radiator being full when cold (unlike before), the system is showing signs of air still getting in. I think the next test is just putting dye the cooling system, letting it pressurize, and looking for leaks. Pull the plugs when warm and crank over, looking for dye coming out the cylinders. I honestly don't know where to look next.

On another note, heat was there when driving but in stop and go, it went away and the temperature began to rise. Relieving the pressure shoved a lot of air through the overflow. Verified that the radiator was cold and upper hose was barely warm until this pressure was relieved, where it then got very hot. This after the system ran fine for 20 minutes until I hit the traffic. I pulled over when the thermostat was supposed to be opening and relieving the pressure only squirt a little cool stream out the side so there wasn't an air pocket at that point.

Doing dye, its time to double check EVERYTHING once more from the beginning.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #65 – March 22, 2008, 12:42:05 AM

Dye isn't showing any leaks...and oil glows faint green/yellow straight out of the bottle so its hard to see if any is escaping into the oil. I also ran the car but without any luck. Would the UV dye stain the spark plugs if I pull them tomorrow or does it stop working under those temperatures? Either way, pulling them and repressurizing the system will tell me some about the cylinders from the heads down to the cylinder walls if I see anything bright yellow come out of the cylinders when cranking. At the rate I'm losing pressure now, this thing has to show up somewhere soon. Lose 6psi in like 2 minutes and since I don't see any leaks, other than where I get water out of the fill hole at the radiator when swapping the radiator cap and pressure tester, the engine bay stays perfect. It has to be internal.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #66 – March 22, 2008, 04:29:56 PM

Quote from: Seek;204958

Edit:
I almost forgot, does anyone know where to get the vacuum "tee"(its more than that) that the hvac controls hook up to on the passenger side engine bay? Mine was brittle and busted off so I have a screw in it to prevent a vacuum leak. Vents are stuck on defrost. The one from Ford is $93.

I think what you are describing is a "check valve". It only allows air to move in one direction. Toward the main vacuum tee.
On the HVAC side of the valve you also have a hose to the vacuum reservoir tank. When you have no manifold vacuum you still have vacuum on the HVAC side.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #67 – March 22, 2008, 04:55:12 PM

Have you tried back flushing the engine? Take the T-Stat out and run water into the top radiator hose and out the bottom. You may have crud blocking some of the passages in the block. The flow can be so slow in these areas that the water boils and vaporizes.

On your leak down test. Try doing it with the pistons at bottom dead center instead of TDC. This may better show a crack in the cylinder wall.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #68 – March 22, 2008, 08:43:49 PM

BDC isn't possible as either the intake or exhaust valve is then hanging open? If it isn't perfectly TDC, the air pushes the crank one way or the other down to the bottom of the cylinder and air starts shooting out one of the two valves...

I already got a replacement vacuum tee. I'll try the backflow thing but I don't think that'd be the issue as the block was checked all around for these things, cracks, etc last fall. I doubt something got lodged in a water jacket between then and now but its just one more thing to test to verify for.

When the water pump was replaced, I started to have heat pretty rapidly after starting the car. Water flows great up until around the point that the thermostat opens where I lose heat all of a sudden and temperatures begin to spike - yet the upper hose is hardly warm.

Later today I'll be cranking the motor, then pulling the spark plugs, then cranking some more to see if I get anything coming out the holes.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #69 – March 22, 2008, 09:07:42 PM

Try running it without a thermostat. Start it with the cap off to see if you have good flow through the radiator.
Put the cap on and put some cardboard in front of the radiator to warm it up.
Drive without the thermostat and see how it behaves.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #70 – March 23, 2008, 12:04:10 AM

Doing so just causes the overflow level to drop slowly. This is the 3rd thermostat thats in it - a 180 degree this last time to help prevent overheating (open sooner) until this is figured out.Letting the thermostat open, turning the car off, and restarting the car shows tons of water flow although at this point, some coolant has to be added to it.

On another note, I did the tests that I could on the cylinders...my compression tester is apparently left in Seattle again. I ran the car until hot, turned off fuel and spark and cranked the motor over. I cranked it over twice more in the next 2 hours to make sure anything in the cylinders didn't bake away. The 2nd and third times, the radiator cap was pulled and 20psi applied to the system. It got dark and I cranked it once more, then pulled the spark plugs. Spinning it some more, nothing is coming out of the cylinders. All spark plugs look great and identical. I did find one small leak coming from the hose going away from the heater core and I'm not sure what thats about as it should have very little pressure as it goes back to the water pump.

I would do more but it seems someone put some of my tools away in their tool cabinet and I didn't grab them when I left last time.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #71 – March 23, 2008, 03:57:04 PM

If you start it up with the radiator pressure tester on it, do you see any pressure change or pulsing?

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #72 – March 24, 2008, 01:51:33 AM

I think if you start off wth a fresh cup of coffee,, read your own topic and each post,
you will see where you have ignored most of the posts (and possible sollutions) and made this more difficult on yourself.

Vancouver folks like to do all the talking anyway cause the rest of the world doesnt exist:D . I know first hand.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #73 – April 01, 2008, 09:58:21 PM

I'm going over it all again this weekend. I'm changing the oil tonight as it is showing signs of water contamination and I don't want that on my bearings. I ran a compression test on a cold motor with this old oil which quickly became watery the last day or so (and the car has taken 1.5 gallons of coolant since yesterday morning! Big increase over the little it was for the last 2 weeks). I have one potential worry which I found but if I remember right from the old motor, this was common. Cylinder #4 got a light coat of oil/coolant on the compression tester's fitting's threads. I know my old motor used to suck up from the pcv pretty bad on this and somewhat on cylinder #8 so I am "hoping" thats all I'm seeing. I have a Cobra intake with the smaller galley cover which are known to suck up oil.

Compression with the above oil on a motor that has been cooling for roughly 3 hours (will change the oil after writing this - it should be cool enough), from cylinders 1 to 8:
149
149
150
153 (little oil/coolant on fitting threads here)
151
154
155 (cylinder 7 that had a stuck fuel injector months ago that blew a headgasket)
152

Compression looks good for how it sits at the moment and all pump up ~90, 125, 145, and finally ~150. I will get a new reading with fresh oil (going straight 30 weight while it sits and until I yank the upper intake off this weekend and install better lifters at the same time) just for the hell of it if weather permits tomorrow. It has been snowing, hailing, sunny, raining, everything the last week until today...April 1st. At least it hasn't played an April fools joke on me yet while out there messing with the car.

What do you guys think about this one cylinder? I know for a fact that I had the pcv sucking up coolant before when the headgasket was blown and wouldn't be surprised if the upper intake has a pool in it again. I really need to install a little catch bottle on that hose...

*edit*
Oh, and all spark plugs show varying degrees of light white coating that wipes off fairly easily. Either its running lean or all cylinders are burning coolant.

Heater core or vacuum hose?

Reply #74 – April 02, 2008, 01:14:57 AM

you need to snug down / re-torque your head bolts with a warm motor.
also check your intake upper and lower.

see, thats the thing about putting hardware on in the cold. bolts and parts shrink in the cold. There are various thoughts on this but in the winter or cold seasons especially, re-torque after the motor is a little warm.

that will even out your comp numbers i think. Looks like one bank yields some better numbers than the other.

Im getting to the point i forgot what the original problem was,,,, does the motor start and run? last i remember it was not running then suddenly it was then it wasnt,, then its getting hot.

Didnt you say you had a shop put this engine back together? id be calling them. I thought you had this thing rebuilt by a shop or something. with numbers like that , id pe kinda pissed.