Skip to main content

New Radiator cures the drip

Seeing as though it was a bit cooler today I decided to fit the new radiator that's been sitting in my conservatory annoying my wife.

My old radiator had developed a slow leak from the left side and with it being summer I was seeing a larger and larger pool of coolant under the car after each drive. When I fitted the new radiator fan recently I had tried to see if I could spot the leak but the only recourse was to fit another.

It's a fairly straight forward job and took a little over an hour to do. I find the best way to drain the radiator is by removing the lower hose from the water pump side. The drain plug is in a fiddly position - pull that hose and it's a matter of moments and the engine is empty of coolant. Then it's just a matter of removing the other hoses and fan switch connector, loosening the two top bolts (watch out for the rubber grommits when you pull the rad out) and sliding the radiator out from under the car. Simples.

I have found in the past that refilling the coolant and dispersing air in the system can be a bother - this time I filled the expansion tank, obviously after connecting all the hoses, tightened the cap and pinched the overflow pipe. With the small bleed bolt on top of the engine loosened I ran the engine until just coolant flowed out of the bleed hole, then I tightened the bolt up while the system was pressurised. Seems to have worked a treat too.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Paul Jenkins13 July 2010 at 18:30

    Hello Nice Blog!!! I had a nightmare recently trying to rid my old girl (83 mark 1) of trapped air! after a recent rad replacement must have took me 2 days to get it sorted, your tip about the bleed is a good idea. Even now I'm still not happy, I still think my fan cuts in far to early and stays on too long!

    Paul

    ReplyDelete
  2. RetroSteve16 July 2010 at 14:44

    thanks for the feedback Paul. So far my cooling system seems to be working A-OK again, although after longer runs the temp gauge still does it's jumping jack performance, so I think a new temp sensor on the block is due.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bellhousing & Clutch fork removal

Removing the bellhousing from the Porsche 944 engine is not as complicated as it may seem - such as in this situation with my replacement engine. When I removed the original engine I detached it from the bellhousing in the car and removed the clutch pressure plate bolts through the starter motor hole - see my other post for details . In this case I decided to remove the clutch fork pivot shaft bolt. Begin by removing the four 17mm bellhousing bolts - you'll find that the bellhousing doesn't detach completely from the engine. It'll feel like its hooking on something. That something is the clutch fork pivot shaft inside the bellhousing. The bellhousing will be loose enough to rotate - turn it 180 degrees and peek through the access port which is now on top - this is what you'll see: If the engine is still in car you'll be looking at this from underneath. The pivot shaft needs to be extracted from the clutch fork. It's held in place by a small bolt on the...
5 comments
Read more

HT lead order effects idle

When I fired up TheHoff after fitting the exhaust it was very obvious that the engine was not running as it should. It was a relief that it was firing up but being so close and not having a smooth running engine after all the hard work is a little discouraging. I videod the engine running and sent the clip to Jon Mitchell at JM Garage to get his views. He suggested it was either spark related or at worst cam timing being off. I spent a lot of time trying to ensure that the timing pulleys were aligned correctly during the rebuild and I'm confident it isn't the issue - but then again... So I began problem solving with the HT leads and spark plugs. Each of the plugs were extracted, cleaned (they were dark from all the firing and refiring I guess) and then connected to an inline spark tester to check if they were in fact getting a spark from the distributor. Thankfully they all were. Next thing to check was the order of the HT leads on the distributor. The 944 has a firin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Engine out the top - Easy Peasy

After reading numerous posts, the Porsche workshop manual and Clarks Garage step-by-step engine removal guide - I felt confident enough to tackle the job. But I wanted to remove the engine from the top.  As I discovered, it was pretty straight forward even for a novice! Result. I wanted to avoid removing the cross member and disturb the front suspension to do something I was convinced could be done easier from the top. Posts such as this one convinced me to give it a go at least. And I'm glad I did. In summary I was able to remove the engine from the top without needing to remove the bonnet/hood; torque tube; transaxle; bellhousing; clutch; clutch slave cylinder; cross member; front suspension; and radiator. Contrary to many so called internet experts opinions and many confusing threads this was painless and without dread. All that was necessary to remove was the starter; power steering pump and alternator (I figured to make the bottom of the engine narrower); intak...
19 comments
Read more