Hello everyone! I've been lurking on this site since December when my X Type had a bad air leak. Turns out, you guys guided me to replacing the intake gaskets, solving the issue. Here's my current situation.

I had a leak in the T piece of the upper radiator assembly, causing coolant to flow when the engine got to operating temperature. I got the whole upper assembly replaced, as well as the thermostat, and I overheated on the drive home from replacing both those parts. Yesterday, I replaced the water pump thinking that was surely it; It wasn't.

There are no coolant leaks, seemingly no clogs, and almost certain that there is no air in the system. Anyone have any pointers on where to go from here?

 

Did you do a pressure check on the cooling system? I'm also curious if you had an overheating issue before or did it just start? Does your fan turn on, when the system heats up?

 

I did have a pressure test done on the cooling system. They didn't find anything wrong with it. The overheating started one day when I started to notice a rise (past the normal operating temperature, just below the halfway mark) in the temperature, so I pulled over and popped the hood. I noticed that the coolant was low. I added more and went on my way. Fast forward 6 months from then, and we are here.

I found out that the upper assembly was cracked from smoke coming out of the front of the engine bay on a cold morning. (It gets cold in Texas? No way...) I opened it up and saw coolant had been blowing all over the front of the engine. I didn't drive it until I took it to the shop for them to install the new assembly. I got it back and it was still heating up. I replaced the thermostat and water pump (yesterday and the day before) and to no avail, it didn't solve the problem.

The fan does turn on when the system starts to heat up. It just confuses me since i have done everything that I can think of that may be causing this.

Note: I drained the coolant system through the lower radiator hose. When I replaced the water pump, there was still a good amount of coolant in the place where the fins spin, and down in the hole. Not sure if that was supposed to drain as well?

 

I have heard to get the coolant to drain you would have to fill and drain the system several times with the heater on high for aprox 10 minutes to get it to cycle through and eventually get that out...we have a large coolant system so it takes several flushes..again from what I am reading...I am gearing up for a coolant flush and complete replacement since my thermostat is leaking now

 

So from what you are saying, there may possibly be an air pocket somewhere in the cooling system? And from what you said, you mean let it heat up with the heater, drain a refill, and repeat that a number of times? Just trying to clarify

 

Ya according to the many articles for flushing and such that I have read, you just let the car cool, drain, refill with distilled water, start the car let it heat back up with the heater on for 10 minutes or less depending on engine temp to let the thermostat open and fill the heater core and such, then let it cool, drain, and repeat until its mostly out...

 

Is there any way you can give me a description on the location of the heater core? Not too sure on where that is located.

 

I am not sure where it is either to be honest, I just know quite a bit of it sits there and thats the reason to continue to flush until its all out...I plan on flushing the system about 3 times before I finally refill. Flushing the radiator you could just use your hose but the final fill you want to be distilled water.

 

To your point, its possible it could be air related but I have heard its not necessary to purge it with our cars...could be wrong though

 

Ok. I will try that tomorrow after my hectic day of classes. (senior year of college...hard to find time to work on these kinds of things)

Also, I read about the possibility of it being blown head gaskets, which would show bubbles in the coolant when you turn on the car without the coolant cap on. I haven't seen any bubbles, nor exhaust smoke. Likelihood of this being the issue? Or would this be pretty distinguishable

 

I have not had that problem thankfully so I may let someone else chime in

 

Anyone else have any input on this situation?

 

Colin3342

I seem to be having the exact same issue. Did you find a solution?