<VV> Reading the dang manual ...NO CORVAIR (unless yours has a radiator)

Thu Feb 8 17:38:24 EST 2007

My 1968 Camaro blew a water hose in freezing upstate New York, and after I noticed the odor of steam, it pinged and knocked as expected before I found a place to pull over (about a half a mile).

I had plenty of warning that there was a problem.  It was so dry that the water spit right back out of the radiator with a loud "chunk !" straight up out of the radiator, and came down as ice !  No kidding !  The weather was COLD.

I waited for her to cool down (about an hour), adding a little bit of water at a time until it didn't spit it back out.
Then I finally felt it was safe to start her back up, and let the water circulate.

The point of that story is that after getting so hot that it "spit" the water out and up about 50 feet, and took over an hour to cool off, I was able to drive the car without any related problems (after replacing the anti-freeze) for another year or so (before my wife wrecked it.) 

This Ford ZX-2 (ZTEC DOHC 2.0 engine) went from humming to dead in less than 10 seconds, no temp gauge change, no ping, no noise of any kind.
It felt like I ran out of gas.  Weird. 

Even the gas pedal gave me no feedback, which all of us know to "gauge by feel," right ?  Nothing.

I'm just venting, but maybe there is something to be learned here (besides by me !)

Thanks for listening.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lonny Clark 
  To: Charles Lee at Proper Pro Per 
  Cc: Virtual Vairs 
  Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2007 12:31 PM
  Subject: Re: <VV> Reading the dang manual ...NO CORVAIR (unless yours has a radiator)

  I used to have a Camaro with a leaky water pump. I used the temperature gauge to determine when it needed more water. If I had been driving long enough to warm the car up, and the temp gauge read under 200, I knew I needed to put more water in it. So yes, it didn't show that the car is overheating, it showed the opposite. If there were an idiot light instead of a temp gauge, I would never have known. A couple of years later, I had an Audi Fox that lost water to god-knows-where. I never did figure out where the water went, must have been a bad head gasket, but the exhaust smelled OK, and there were no visible leaks. With no temperature gauge, I knew that when the heater stopped blowing warm air, I needed more water in the radiator. 

  Good thing I got better-paying jobs as I grew older. Now I can afford to actually maintain my cars. As a bonus, I can buy cars that cost more than $1,000 (both of the cars above cost half of that).

  Lonny

  On 2/7/07, Charles Lee at Proper Pro Per <chaz at properproper.com> wrote:
    This is a good point, reading the manual and all ... Wish I had thought of
    that ...

    I think I may have fallen victim to a high ph level in my coolant causing
    the head gasket to blow.

    The ZX-2 that  I mentioned a few threads back (re eBay) went from 80+ mph, 
    running beautifully (like it had for 130,000 miles before that (with zero
    repairs, except timing belt) died in a bout 10 seconds, without a groan.
    Just coasted to a stop, dead.

    One diagnosis was the coolant, and apparently somewhere in the manual (I 
    haven't found it yet) it says to change the water ?
    What ?  Who in the world would change that ?  Oil OK, but water ?

    Apparently, the ph corrodes the gasket, which starts thing boiling (this
    confounded thing uses water to cool it !) 
    Can you believe that ? Water ? Why ?  Air is free, and you don't have to
    change it (do you ?)

    Here's another thing I heard about this : the water temp gauge actually
    measures the temperature of the water. 
    OK, that seems reasonable, until you think, "Hey, what if the water leaks
    out ?  Then what ?  There's no water to measure its temp, right ?"
    Well, what I have heard is that that is the reason my temp gauge did not 
    register "hot" - because when the water decides to be somewhere else, the
    temp sensor has nothing to measure and doesn't say "hot" - it just says
    "all's well."

    Is this true ? 

    Wouldn't it make more sense to measure the temp of the head ?
    Anyone know if this is true ?

    I need to get a shop manual for this thing to find out the truth.

    Later,
    Chaz

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: <AeroNed at aol.com>
    To: <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
    Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 9:01 PM
    Subject: Re: <VV> Electric Fuel Pump... 

    >
    > In a message dated 2/7/2007 10:34:43 P.M. Central Standard Time,
    > FrankCB at aol.com writes:
    >
    > This is  another good reason to at least skim  through the owner's manual 
    > when  you buy a new car.  I'm the only person I  know (besides son Jim)
    > who
    > does that.
    >
    >
    > Add me to your list, but I read it intently. Must be an engineer  thing...
    > 
    > BTW My electric fuel pump has the hot side wired through a relay that
    > closes
    > with ignition. The ground side goes through a Vega oil pressure switch.
    > The
    > reason for the Vega switch is that it has both open with pressure and 
    > closed
    > with pressure. The closed with pressure goes to the pump and open with
    > pressure  goes to the dash light. I want to also install a inertia switch
    > someday.
    >
    > Ned
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