Help me with cooling issue please

[Vital Velocity]

So a couple months ago I parked the viper after fairly normal driving and it pissed coolant everywhere. I had to get it home so filled it with water and tried the drive home in about 65-70 degree weather, mostly highway. The car stayed cool (cooler than it usually did) for the majority of the 60 mile drive until I was about a block from my house where it started to warm up. Got it home and it sat for a bit

Well finally getting time to get around to it the past week or so, put more coolant/water in it and started it, it stayed around 200 once warmed up at idle then started to heat up again, after shutting down it pissed coolant. It does have a DLM Paxton kit on it and the following cooling components changed in the past year and a half

-water pump
-thermostat
-coolant pressure cap
-larger radiator

When I pulled the upper radiator hose to install a roe bleeder it had absolutely no coolant in that hose ( it was bone dry). Thoughts?

 

[dave6666]

Get the coolant level topped off and the air out and your problem may be solved. What could be happening is that since your coolant is partially air, that when you shut the engine off and heat soak ensues, you heat and expand that air el rapido. That will push the coolant out.

 

[Vital Velocity]

got the roe bleeder installed....going to try burping it. Ive read online that you want to keep the temps below the point that the thermostat opens.....wouldnt i want it open to circulate the coolant/water and push the air out?

 

[ndvipergtsr]

Make sure the timing cover gasket isn't leaking/seeping 96-98 very problematic original gasket wasn't waterproof(also check your oil just to make sure for contamination). just a thought. Jerry

 

[MADMAX]

Where is it leaking from?

 

[darkostoj]

check your fan relays

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Bleed the system. Check all your coolant reservoir containers and top off or adjust levels as necesary. The one under the hood above the passenger wheel should be full. The one in the front fascia in front of the passenger tire should be between the marks. I find that if my car is running hotter than usual the one under the hood above the passenger wheel is not completely full. If your car is puking out the coolant it will take a few attemps and top offs to get the system back full and operating properly.

 

[Vital Velocity]

I bought the roe bleeder and am trying to work with that but i just cant seem to get all the air out of the system. I dont know if it has anything to do with the upper radiator hose i have being a metal flexpipe the goes down the front of the radiator, then makes a "u" turn back up and towards the thermostat (so that it can work around the supercharger).

I did fill the tank behind the front bumper but may have overfilled it? I used the hose comming off the coolant tank above the wheel and a funnel......it kept taking water (im assuming it was empty because it didnt leak at first) but as more water was put in as i was trying to get the trapped air it started to leak out.... If its overfilled should it leak out with just the pressure of the water comming through that hose from the funnel?

The tempatures seem to hold fine....ill let it idle for 15 minutes at it stays around 190-200.....but i know if i have air in the system its just a matter of when its going to overheat.

Ideas?

 

[dave6666]

The fascia tank is vented. Overfilling will result in overflow out of it.

Why not fill it per the prescribed method of checking the level in the wheel well?

Your oddly routed upper hose could be a problem but it should eventually purge the air.

Speaking of purging the air, the Gen 2 system is somewhat self purging as compared to the Gen 1.

Soooooooooooooo, my advice, which really hasn't changed...

With the facia tank filled, drive the car for several complete heat cool cycles. Let the system do it's work. Around the block is fine as long as the coolant gets hot and the thermostat opens. Then let the car completely cool and repeat a few times. Keep an eye on the fascia bottle BEFORE each run. Make sure you have a hose clamp on that little line you use to fill the fascia bottle. If it leaks you will **** air in when the car cools, not water from the fascia bottle.

 

[Vital Velocity]

I don't know if the bottle behind the bumper gets moved due to the supercharger kit or if it's just meant to be impossible to read but it's extremly difficult to see through the peep hole.

Hopefully it is the small things the little things... From your advice (and I don't know why I didn't think about this before I checked the small hose running from the pressure bottle to the overflow bottle...the rubber hose that went from the pressure bottle to the hard line had no clamps on it....maybe I've just been sucking in small amounts of air and the system has been pushing it or coolant out until I was just getting low?

 

[Steve-Indy]

Next time that you get a chance to fool with this issue...call me. ... ... ....

 

[Vital Velocity]

Steve,

Ill give you a shout next time im out there messing with it...thank you. For reference this is what i see when i look through the peep hole. Excuse the mess it needs to be cleaned

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Steve-Indy]

Call now...you have the wrong hole.

 

[Vital Velocity]

Thanks for taking the time to talk, hopefully itll be good now

 

[Steve-Indy]

Hopefully, you can put this behind you soon !!

From an old post by Dave6666:

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

 

[dave6666]

Wrong hole. LMAO.

That's what the fascia bottle looks like after cleaning it. Mine was 6 shades of green inside, and full or empty all you saw was 6 shades of green. Great time to clean leaves and drink cup bits from the radiator when you yank the fascia to get at this bottle.

 

[Vital Velocity]

Well took it out yesterday and with the ac it got to about 215-220 once or twice but for the most part stayed around 190-200

 

[Vital Velocity]

So I think my issue was the lines going from the pressure bottle to the overflow. The rubber hose comming out of the pressure bottle going to the hard line (that goes to the overflow) was allowing air to be sucked into the system causing air pockets and puking of coolant. I clamped the rubber hose at the pressure bottle, the rubber to hard line, and the hard line to rubber line ( if you follow the line you'll see what I'm talking about).... Purged the system of the air that was in it and all seems good now.

Big thanks to Dave, and to Steve for taking the time to talk on the phone. Steve, I did put some water wetter in and it did appear to lower temps 10-20 degrees under similar driving conditions and outside tempatures ( as per the factory temp gauge).

 

[dave6666]

I did water wetter once and it did squat. Waste of money. Would be curious if those that claim an improvement (like lower operating temp) did ONLY that... or did several changes at once. Meaning no way to claim it was one change versus another.

In any case, glad you got your car working right.

 

[AZTVR]

Wrong hole. LMAO.

An old joke; but , a good one !

 

[Vital Velocity]

Well I was able to drive it the other day with the ad on without a problem and it stayed cool the entire time. Went to take it out today, checked the overflow tank and the coolant was in between the two hash marks. Took it out tonight on a cooler night with ad running and the first 15 miles it ran at 190 with the ac on... In that time I made a stop at the gas station and the mall.

Decided to drive down to Galveston (30 miles away) and while driving down there it started to get warm. When I got down there and started to drive down the seawall it started to get hot and I had to turn the heater on to get it to cool down a little bit....turned heater off started to heat up again. The tempatures started fluctuating hot and semi hot. Got home popped the hood to verify the fan was working ( it was) and then shut it down.

Opened up the roe bleeder a little bit and the car definetly had some air in it as it was pushing it out the bleeder. I'm waiting for the car to completely cool so I can check the overflow tank and see where the coolant is.

So is it possible it took the drive a few days ago, and part of my drive today to move trapped air?

 

[dave6666]

The Gen 2 cooling system is semi self purging of air, as opposed to the Gen 1 system which doesn't seem to self purge at all. Back to the Gen 2 system, the description of semi self purging applies as it will get the air out, but it may take a few runs. The air has to make it to the surge tank on the fender well, then get pushed out during a heat cycle, and then replaced with fluid during a cool down. This assumes that everything is working properly in that system.

So, the first run all you do at best is move some air to the surge tank. THEN, after a complete cool down and another heat up, you push that air out. THEN, after a complete cool down again you **** in some fluid from the fascia bottle to replace that air.

Are you starting to see my point that it takes a few runs? And, for the record, a "run" is simply qualified by the fact the thermostat has opened. A 30 mile beach run is certainly well in excess of what I would have done to start the process above. I go to the beer store a few times to do that process.

 

[LifeIsGood]

I'm sure you've got a full understanding of this by now...but here is another picture of the overflow coolant bottle located in the right front fascia. Mine has also been cleaned thoroughly and I added a bit of color to clearly delineate where the fill marks are...

You must be registered for see images

 

[Vital Velocity]

I just checked the facia bottle and it's still at the half way mark? So it seems it didn't **** in coolant from there? The pressure bottle is still also full?

 

[dave6666]

When you got home and manually let the air out via the Roe vent, that relieved the pressure that would have created the vacuum upon cool down and sucked in any fluid from the fascia bottle.

Not that you did bad, but...

You are still TWO heat up and cool down cycles away from seeing an impact on the fascia bottle. Or therabouts.

If you start now, you can get a couple runs in today. Drive 5-10 minutes, cool down 4 hours. Repeat.

 

[Vital Velocity]

So I didn't do bad, but I did bad lol. I'll head out now to get a cycle in before going to breakfast with the gas parents. Thank you for helping so far

 

[Vital Velocity]

About how long should I let it sit to fully cool so that it gets a chance to move the air? Just want to make sure not to take it out to soon

 

[dave6666]

A typical engine cool down will be hours. I use 4 as a rule of thumb. Less in the winter when it's cold, like when temps are in the 70's.

Not letting it cool doesn't hurt anything, it just defeats the purpose of the exercise.

 

[Vital Velocity]

Cool thank you. If I have one of those infrared thermometer, what wouldi point it at to verify the gauge is also functioning correctly?

I've done 3 cycles of driving so far

 

[dave6666]

Either the water neck or the inlet neck of the radiator. Just keep of the hose; red dot on metal. I've done both locations before and not really thought the reading to be accurate or relevant but you get to play with your tools lol.