Vinscully50

So I have a 1986 Camaro IROC Z. I changed oil 3 days ago and have driven every day since with no problems. Today I went for a short drive, barely reached 60 and when I got to my parents house I noticed a smell. I parked in the street and popped the hood. Sure enough coolant was all over the top of my engine. It was all over the TPI and running down the firewall and rear of the engine. My car was maybe at 140F.

I waited a couple of hours went out and checked the car. Checked the dipstick and it was full. Fired the car up and in idle it's fine. However in reverse and overdrive it makes a weird noise, which you can hear in the post video. RPMs are normal and Oil pressure is normal. It leaked coolant not transmission fluid.

However, in the coolant puddle I did notice a rainbow as if there was some oil present. I'm not sure if that's from my car or just old oil in the wet street. But what could cause these problems? Upper rad hose is fine, lower rad hose is fine, thermostat housing looks good, water pump seems normal. Thermostat and gasket and lower radiator hose are almost a year old. While water pump is 3 years old. What is this noise?





Update: It looks like that coolant hose in front of the throttle body above the water pump broke. The on right above the thermostat.

GeneralDisorder

iTrader: (1)

Yep. Likely a hose failure. On anything this old you should really just replace ALL the hoses. Also looks like the coolant is a nasty brown color and probably needs flushing.

No idea on the trans noise. Check the fluid I guess. Hard to think of a relationship between that and the coolant leak.

GD

Vinscully50

I actually just flushed the coolant back in March. It looks clean in the radiator and the overflow tank. It might just be the dirt on the manifold. Do you happen to know what size that hose on the throttle body is? I tried 1/2 and it's too small but 3/4 is too big. I'm leaning towards 5/8. I'll admit I forgot about that hose. It's so small I didn't think of it like the radiator hoses.

As for the transmission. I might have to take it back to the shop and have it warrantied again. I'll post the video in the transmission forum.

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

When I saw the color of it I was kinda hoping for him that it's actually the orange "Dex Cool" stuff VS actually having been green and now looking like badly brewed tea ....

Vinscully50

It's Dex Cool. For whatever reason or another, the car had dex cool in it when I purchased it 7 years ago. I think the last owner had the coolant flushed at a Chevy Dealership and that's what was in it. So I've used dex cool since.

GeneralDisorder

iTrader: (1)

The car wasn't designed for OAT coolants, and the dealer really shouldn't have put Dexcool in it. OAT coolants eat plastics and there's really no reason to run them on a third gen. The plastic radiators from this vintage were not created with OAT coolants in mind. One only has to look at the early Vortec intake gasket / OAT coolant debacle to understand what it does to plastics.

GD

Vinscully50

So far in 7 years I haven't had any problems. I'm not sure if I have the stock radiator though. It looks silver and metal. I'm 99% sure the last owner replaced the radiator right before he sold it to me.

GeneralDisorder

iTrader: (1)

OAT coolant eats plastic. Takes about 8-10 years then it goes POP.

3rd gen radiators are aluminium and plastic. Unlikely that he installed a high performance welded aluminium unit right before selling it.

GD

DaveyDug

iTrader: (3)

If you're talking about the hose that runs from the intake to the throttle body, I just learned the same lesson. I had replaced every hose last year except that one and it ruptured on me a month or so ago.

Anyway, you don't want to just cut a length of hose to replace it. The sharp bend will cause standard hose to kink. Molded hoses in the correct shape are available.

Part numbers:
GM 10108509
Gates 18777
Dayco 87653
Delco 14097S

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Don't use Dexcool in a traditional SBC. The molecules are too small, it will escape through EVERY paper gasket. Water pump to block, intake to heads, water pump cover to body, etc. etc. etc. That stuff goes RIGHT THROUGH paper.

Meanwhile, your problem is, a hose popped. Probably the upper rad hose. They're notorious for getting pinholes right past where the hose clamp is, ESPECIALLY if you use worm gear clamps on em. How barbaric.

Change the hose, get the spring type hose clamps like the factory used (for good reason), flush ALL the Dex out of your system and put back in about 60/40 to 70/30 DISTILLED water to GREEN antifreeze. May I please emphasize, get ALL the Dex out of your system: the mixture of that with the green stuff produces MUD, which will CLOG every smaller passage (radiator, heater core) in the system. May I also please emphasize, DISTLLED water; NOT garden hose, NOT RO filtered, NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT. you need DISTILLED water ONLY.

This is 2020, not a 60s cruise-in. Do WHAT WORKS, not what "they've always done". It's not "always" anymore.

GeneralDisorder

iTrader: (1)

Read the wikipedia on OAT coolants - specifically Dexcool . It contains chemicals that are KNOWN plasticizing agents. Do you understand what the means?

GD

Vinscully50

The upper radiator hose is fine, it was replaced not too long ago. It was the hose on the throttle body. It's already been fixed.

Does Dexcool affect Fel Pro gaskets? 90% of my gaskets are Fel Pro. Including the thermostat and water pump gaskets. When I swapped my thermostat back in march the old thermostat was completely clean. It had been in the car for 7 years (it was 195 I swapped it for 180). My intake manifold water outlet was clean too and so was the upper radiator water outlet. Even when I last flushed the coolant back in March no gel no gunk nothing. It was all clean. I refilled it with Dexcool and yes I used distilled water, I've never used tap water in my car. Inside of the radiator looks spotless. I'm running 50/50.

Vinscully50

I did some Googling and found old threads on this forum. People gave the number for a Goodyear molded hose which is now made by Continental. I ordered the part from Summit. I put a temp 5/8 hose.

I also ordered a few cheap barbs. I'm going to do the coolant throttle body bypass.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Yeah the Fel-Pro gaskets aren't any different from any others in that regard. The Dex will find its way through them. Look closely at the back of your WP, the WP -> block gaskets, thermostat, intake, etc.; you'll probably be able to see pink/orange crusties beginning to form on them. It's just simply not suitable for use in an older motor that isn't sealed with rubber gaskets and O-rings like modern ones all are.

Vinscully50

I took a look with a flashlight and nothing. No pink/orange or red spots anywhere. When I pulled the water outlet to switch to a lower temp thermostat 4 months ago it was as clean as could be as was the old 195 thermostat. So was the upper radiator hose. All my hoses are Gates too.

Aren't all the fel-pro gaskets rubber? At least they felt rubber. Especially the thermostat and waterpump gaskets. All of them felt rubber and have that rib that helps it seal better. Same for all my TPI gaskets when I replaced the EGR. I'm sure my valve cover gaskets that are coming are rubber too.

Vader

I switched my '86 to DexCool in 1996. Almost 25 years later, I have no cooling system problems. Prior to that, I replaced the heater core. Twice. It's on the original radiator, mostly original hoses, gaskets, everything.stock. I check pH and change/flush whenever it starts climing about 7.2 (normal routine for everything I have). TDS and TSS were less than 10mg/l at last check. The only things I didn't check (and saw no need) were the D.O. and FOGs.

As one person here famously remarked once, the original gaskets by then were not brewed and glued tree bark.