Ok, here's the story, 87 Fiero L4, took it out for a nice local ride, not much highway, mile from the house the left front caliper locked up. Replaced with a rebuilt, power bled the brakes, all fine.
Now the fun starts. Out of nowhere, no problem before, the radiator draincock starts leaking. Glued it in with Permatex Weld Seal, solved problem. Bled the system. Couple of days later big time leak from the back of the motor, water pump area. Hose seemed to have a little break, replaced it but the groove didn't penetrate the hose so wasn't the issue. With the system pressurized water pours out, much more then would come out of the weep hole. Turned an old radiator cap into 0 psi, filled everything, bubbles at the engine fill, no thermostat, all looked pretty good, minimal drips. Car didn't seem to overheat but at this point I was using plain water so i kept the radiator fan running. The weird thing is the car leaks more when not running. maybe as much as a gallon a night which is about what I was adding. Wondering if the system can be overfilled??. Leak seems to be coming from water pump area bur why more when not running?
I know all the ramifications of running the engine too cool (as is basically happening in my experiment) so lets skip that issue and just deal with the leak.
Welcome to the Forum! Pressure can increase after you turn the car off, because the engine continues to warm the water for a short time. What is a zero PSI radiator cap? Sounds like trouble....
Ditto, they have a weep hole under them that you can't see from the top, an inspection mirror might let you see it. or a blown gasket on the water pump.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.
[This message has been edited by 84fiero123 (edited 10-06-2013).]
A 0 psi cap is an old time trick. It's just a cap, no guts thus 0 psi, one way to check for leaks.
You put that on the radiator? It's not going to work on a Fiero. You will dump water into the overflow tank because the engine is higher than the radiator.
As you get older you're not as smart as you think, I'll check tomorrow but I think that was correct.
With a regular radiator cap water was really being forced out of somewhere in the vicinity of the water pump, more then I've seen in many years of playing with cars.
I'm just wondering if any one has an opinion on a possible cracked block in the water pump area - or - is there a freeze plug in that area? There's a lot of water coming out.
Any idea if there is a freeze plug in that area, I've seen some nasty pictures on the web. So far, in my "experiments", I've probably spent $50.00 on (wasted) anti-freeze.
Take the belt off the water pump and wiggle the shaft. If that seal has failed it can dump a lot of water at times.
Ditto,
by the way,
"Old school rules."
I fall back on things like that 0 pressure cap many times on other cars to find a problem, as said though on a Fiero it may not work because of the height of the motor, now if you had put it on the thermostat housing it might have.
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
