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In Reply to: Radiator leak............ posted by Ritter on April 15, 2001 at 21:54:27:
TIA
Sorry to hear about your bad luck. Although other members on this board have admonished you, I will attempt to give you some advice.
Never, never, never ever drive a car that has suffered a coolant leak. If you have to drive it for only a short distance, wait until it cools down completely. Fill it up with water or coolant and get it repaired. The safest thing is to have it towed to the nearest repair facility.
Hopefully, your radiator replacement has gone well. Please pressure test your cooling system to ensure there are no leaks before starting it, assuming you have pressure tester available.
As for possible damage to your engine, there are many possiblities. Warp head, stuck valves, seized engine, engine leaks such as oil leaking into the cooling system or coolant leaking into the engine lubrication system. Either case indicates the engine may/will need to be torn apart and gaskets, heads, valve trains repaired.
The simplest thing you can do is at least run a compression check to make sure your valve are not stuck. Other wise I have no advice.
Finally, do not rely upon a temperature gauge after you have a leak in the cooling system. The temperature sensor will only read heat, whether from hot coolant passing by it or hot air. If you spring a leak chances are there is no coolant passing by the sensor, so it it is giving you the temperature of the hot air. Always shut off your engine and wait until it cools down completely before attempting to do ANYTHING with it.
Please change your thermostat and pressure cap as they may have been compromised by this recent mishap.
Good luck to you.
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