Always brimming radiator fluid?

[Safety Guy]

My "new" '91L ran pretty well on the half-hour drive home and on several occasions in my yard for a few minutes to maybe fifteen minutes testing. However, whenever I take off the radiator cap to check the fluid, well after cooling down, a little fluid dribbles out like it's overflowing.

My fear is that I may have a head gasket problem; ie., the coolant is being pressurized by a small head gasket leak.

My other thought is that I may have a slight leak in the radiator. I saw some steam one time, but it disappeared after awhile and may have been sap or grease getting hot.

My fan/thermoswitch works well and the temp gage never goes much more than about 1/3 up from cold.

I'll be pulling the engine and transaxle to clean the engine bay and put in new brake and fuel lines. I could take the head off and check, or I could see if my spare B6 would make a good transplant (it's been sitting in my garage for a couple years now).

I'd really like to use this B3 for awhile since it seemed so peppy, but I don't want to have to put in a new engine before next year.

Ideas on what I should do? I need to finish up "AquaMutt" in time for OSX.

Karl

[tb8983]

Go to your local auto parts store and rent a coolant pressure testing system and use it if there is even a pin hole leak it will find it. Done this on countless cars so the method has worked for me very well

[Roboskittle]

My old festiva did this I never did fix it and the car never quit running. The radiator was cracked when i bought it from excessive pressure. I am imagining that it was a blown headgasket it would fill the overflow tank up all the way and overflow it and it would gurgle when it was warm.

[Safety Guy]

Thanks guys!

I'll check into the coolant pressure test device from a store.

My old K car lost its head gasket and it was much worse than this is, so maybe I won't have to install a new HG.

Karl

[Safety Guy]

I got a test kit from Advance and just tried it.

None of the direct fit caps fit. One seemed just a bit too small and the other fit, but didn't seal. I tested it on a good car to make sure I was doing it right (one benefit from having more of the same car!). As far as I can tell, I am doing it right.

I then tried the universal adaptors and the story was similar: one was a might too small and the other fit into the hole but wouldn't seal.

I'll take it back and try another brand of test kit from another store (if there is another brand).

Any suggestions welcome!

Karl

[kartracer46]

Dumb question, have you replaced the cap?

I am curious because when I first started driving mine it did the same thing. I just found that the seal and spring on my old cap were badly worn and weak.

[Safety Guy]

The funny thing is, even when I haven't run it but it sits for awhile, when I take the cap off it overflows a bit again! I figure the sun heats up the plumbing and something is expanding. Maybe there is a really soft spot of hose that is sensitive to warmth?

Karl

[kartracer46]

The funny thing is, even when I haven't run it but it sits for awhile, when I take the cap off it overflows a bit again! I figure the sun heats up the plumbing and something is expanding. Maybe there is a really soft spot of hose that is sensitive to warmth?

Karl

It wouldn't surprise me, the hoses are like rubber band material and paper thin if it still has the originals. At first I thought somebody had cobbed a hose on mine till I saw one at the PnP with the same hose. Talk about China cheap, geesh.