Radiator and maybe head-gasket

16 March 2012 – So the radiator had a leak. I noticed the temperature go up as I entered the Nullarbor Plains, just 70k before the last mechanic (for the next 1000k).

We flushed the cooling system, replaced with fresh water and added bronze powder, which would sit in every crack it may find, then expand with the temperature until it seals each crack and whole.
That seemed to have done the trick as the temperature kept steady if I stayed under 2200rpm.

The causes are still unknown, it’s an aluminum radiator, and sometime with “cheaper” coolant, they don’t mix very well with one and another, creating a chemical reaction, then electrolysis, therefore acid in the cooling system, and what’s the first metal to go with acid ? Aluminum !
Or I may have picked up a rock, but the leak was on the in-side of the radiator, facing the engine if you like.

Anyways. Radiator leak means excess of temperature, excess of temperature means damaged head gasket. This seemed to be the case at first when a constant flow of air bubbles was running in the radiator. So at the other side of the desert, at Norseman, the second mechanic worked on that with yet another flush of the cooling system, and a bottle of Chem Weld. This pretty much does the same as the bronze except it works on the head gasket instead.

Either this is fixed, or the chem-weld sealed other parts of the radiator but since then, I haven’t noticed any loss of water when checking the level every morning.

So on Monday, I’ll go to wherever Jeff has sent me (a franchise of some sort, he knows the guy anyways) and change the radiator, then we’ll assess the situation with the head gasket.

So there it is, either the radiator is the only part that needs replacing, which means 1000AUD; either both radiator and head gasket have to be changed which means roughly five to six grand.

I hadn’t planned that in my budget of course so this is where it gets complicated. We’ll see on Monday.
Today I’m in Perth, with friends, and I can think of something else for two days.