Hello,

Have a 2011 XFR 5.0 S/C V8. Having overheating problems. Have replaced water pump, thermostat housing, cooling fan, radiator, and coolant reservoir. Just got done pulling both radiators to flush individually due to a lot of tiny sparkly metal flakes. Headgaskets tested and confirmed to be good at local Indy shop specializing in Jag. Took for very slow cruise last night, all was perfectly fine until after getting home. Parked, immediately got overheating message. Turned car off and grabbed an A/C fan and a hand fan to cool the car off as fast as possible. Got this video before doing so: https://pixeldrain.com/u/jzLHeTMj

Clearly the reservoir is failing. Also the “coolant” is currently distilled water with a flush/degrease product (NOT sealant) in it. The water is boiling to a point a breaking the seams on this brand new reservoir. Faulty reservoir and pressure loss caused overheating? Water has a lower boiling point which could be solved by flushing, replacing reservoir, filling with needed coolant? Any thoughts or advice welcome, just trying to save the girl before it’s too late😞

 

Where did you get the thermostat from

 

Thermostat housing from PartsGeek.com. Brand is called ‘Replacement’
https://www.partsgeek.com/ss/?ssq=20...using+Assembly

 

Are the engine fans working properly?
Start the car when cold. Switch the AC on. Get out open the hood and the fan should be running on low speed.
Easy to tell with your hand to see if you have any air flow across the radiator.

Very odd to have metal in the coolant and I don't know how that's even possible? Any idea where the metal came from?
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The fan was replaced recently and runs fine when needed. Almost wondering if the aftermarket fan that I got isn’t producing enough airflow to cool the engine off when at a stop.

The metal in the coolant is very odd. I took a great slow motion video while I was draining the main and aux rad, looks like glitter paste😢

My new reservoir got here today. Looking forward to getting that in and system bled, just worried that one more boiling coolant mishap and the whole car is toast.

With the new reservoir in and no other leaks, given the system is bled properly and as long as the pressure holds, that will keep my temps down to normal right?

 

Pouring glitter from radiator
https://pixeldrain.com/u/RBTA5WRV

 

I think you may have just purchased the the housing without the thermostat, I would double check

 

WOW! Thanks for the video as I would never have imagined that much metal floating around in the cooling system!
I still am trying to figure out where it came from? Is something else ground up somewhere in the cooling system? The only thing that turns is the WP impeller?
Maybe the WP chewed up all that metal?

Is it Aluminum? I think it must be as not much iron left in modern engines.
Watching to see what you find.
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Mind blown as well. Massive glitter.

That coolant system needs flushing imo. My first thought is get 10 gallons of distilled water, replace coolant and run for a bit then drain, lather rinse repeat til it comes clear.

But I am a noob with these engines so get confirmation first.

When in the sequence of events was the water pump replaced?

 

This will be the 3rd water pump I’ve tried.. Shortly after I bought the car, it spent a little over a month at the Jag dealership, not to mention screwing the living hell out of my bank account and I was too dumb to think twice, when I got it back all was fine except for noticing the metal flakes in coolant. Call and asked if they knew anything and couldn’t get an answer. Took it upon myself to figure out and that’s how I ended up here. I listed all the work I’ve done to the car in original post.

With all of these new parts, even the water pump and coolant reservoir being the 3rd replacement, Ive drained/flushed this system around a dozen times. Each time I flush it out there has always been glitter, obviously the longer intervals in between, the thicker the glitter. I’ve used rad flush products, even driven for the max of 2 hours before flushing to get best results and it will not stop.

I’ve inspected nearly everything possible without getting in the block or removing S/C. Cleaned all hoses/pipes/connections by hand. WP prop has no sign of damage and still spins freely. When I pulled the S/C radiator, that metal seemed to match the glitter and had a lot more of it inside. Figured it just naturally builds up in there and collects until removed and shaken out.

I suspect the glittery metal is coming from either the corroded internals of the S/C radiator, or directly from S/C and then building up in the rad. There’s no way this much metal doesn’t harm the cooling system somehow and its ability to keep temps down. And at this point with how much glitter I’ve flushed out, it has to be literally eating a chunk out of some part of the system that I can’t see.

I’ve got everything put back together, filled, ran, flushed thru 5 gallons of distilled water and still seeing metal floating around and gathering in the reservoir.

 

Thanks for the feedback and sorry but I am of no help?
I will watch this thread and hope to see you fix it.
Truly an odd problem? If it is caused by corrosion then why? You run coolant which has corrosion inhibitors in it so why all the corrosion?

One idea? I have seen this on over the road trucks and several hot rods? They run an in-line coolant filter.
Something like this and a simple search will show you dozens of kits so they are somewhat common too.




This one is mounted in-line so any rubber hose that has room would work. These are in the $60-$130 range depending on how fancy they are. With the clear body you would have an indication of how full the filter is too.
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Interesting I’ll have to check it out, thank you! There’s definitely some bigger flakes but seems to be mostly really really tiny sparkles

 

Hi TylerTMan,

My strong suspicion is that the metal flakes are an ingredient in a "leak stop" product like Bar's Leaks:



It is very common for ignorant owners to attempt to "fix" a coolant leak with this type of product.

Regarding your overheating issue, one common problem is air pockets in the cooling system that can only be removed by vacuum-bleeding the system with a special apparatus. Coolant can only reach 250 degrees F or so under pressure, but an air pocket fills with steam that can easily exceed 1,000 degrees. When a steam pocket forms around the coolant temperature sensor, your Instrument Cluster gauge will go full hot.

Another possibility is an obstruction in the system due to deterioration of the thermostat housing and internal pieces breaking off and clogging passages in the engine. It would be worth backflushing the engine, heater core, radiator and every hose you can disconnect to confirm the free flow of water.

Have you checked the area between your radiator and A/C condenser for accumulated leaves, seeds, grass and other gunk that can obstruct air flow?

The 5.0L S/C engines have two Engine Coolant Temperature Sensors (ECTS). Do you have a scan tool that can read Live Data? If so, you can view the signals from both sensors and compare their readings, which may give you clues as to what may be going on in your system.

Cheers,

Don

 

Don I think you got it!
I had forget all about the magic Bar's stop leak too. Terrible thing to do to an engine if that's what they did.
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