Quote:
Originally Posted by Nevadan
Good observation. I never thought about that!
On a trip a few days ago I drove over Donner Summit (Labor Day trip with temps at 95F in Sacramento and about 75F at the 7,200 ft summit) in 5th gear (4th plus overdrive) pretty much running as hard as possible. I wasn't towing anything and I'm using an 80C thermostat and a new radiator. ...
I'm beginning to think overheating and warping of the head is only caused by coolant loss.
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I had a very unpleasant `overheating experience` due to coolant loss.
(I still haven`t forgotten the great thread about adding a sensor to the expansion tank with an audible alarm... that should be a must for all of us...)
So...,... I was at Togwotee Pass, Wyoming (over 2900m elevation) when I decided not to risk unknown condition (to me) hoses with extreme pressures, so I twisted the exp tank`s cap a tiny bit to not have it so tight; so rather than exploding a hose up there in nowhere, I would lose some coolant instead... What a stupid theory it was (!) because it was Winter-time, a very strange snowstorm with shiny ice under the snow. The car was also loaded heavily (crosscountry drive).
I started climbing but tires were spinning, car was sliding all over the place (worn Summer tires
) so unfortunately I had no choice but to drive in higher gear like 3rd, 4th and occassionally 5th. At every slide I lost the speed I gained before, so there was again new struggle to cope with. 1st was impossible to use, 2nd was almost useless. This way RPMs were too low, consequently the coolant-circulation was not effective enough, so water temp went higher, at the same time OR before that, I lost a Gallon of coolant that I did not know about until this lazy-@SS temp gauge suddenly* jumped all the way up. What a feeling! There was a pilot car escorting every single vehicle up because of the crazy weather... I had to stop right there to wait, fill up 50-50 with G-05 coolant and distilled water &wait&wait. Grille was full of snow&ice, almost completely blocked. The usa-type small front lights fully covered too. Luckily it was subzero temperatures, -10-12`Celsius that time... My upper hose was very hot but my lower hose was somewhat much `cooler`....a good radiator should be able to handle it, I agree with you.
Hood left open, I added fluids, kept idling, lots of air was burping up coming out of the system, bringing out coolant again as I was adding more and more to the correct level and started driving carefully to have all the air out. 2Gallons used up. Later, temperatures stabilized and I learned to rev it higher in order to get better flow with less heat; although that was not possible to do up there so my Volvo got angry
Freaking coolant loss should be signaled
immediately!