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caravan overheated leaking coolant


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rfrainman
User

Jan 15, 2009, 10:58 AM

Post #1 of 6 (1921 views)
caravan overheated leaking coolant Sign In

My 1996 caravan 3.0 had the coolant freeze and engine overheated. I heard a poof sound and lost coolant. The leak is a steady stream while the engine runs, from somewhere near the water pump. Is it likely that the pump seal blew?
Thanks for any help.


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
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Jan 15, 2009, 11:07 AM

Post #2 of 6 (1920 views)
Re: caravan overheated leaking coolant Sign In

Bummer! Catch some liquid for testing freeze protection level as that might help to figure how much might have been damaged. If straight water the book is open - low concentrations usually just make slush and don't flow, overheat, blow the weakest link which hopefully isn't a disaster. Plain water expands and can crack major components up to "game over" for that engine!

Get the whole thing into an above freezing place/shop and pressure test for where it's leaking or whatever you can do to pin point it,

T



zmame
Veteran / Moderator
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Jan 25, 2009, 1:15 PM

Post #3 of 6 (1908 views)
Re: caravan overheated leaking coolant Sign In

yes could be water pump might be alot of other issues too :s.

I seen a F-150 that was running water freeze actually pushed out the frost plugs from ice expanding


(This post was edited by zmame on Jan 25, 2009, 1:18 PM)


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
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Jan 25, 2009, 1:40 PM

Post #4 of 6 (1902 views)
Re: caravan overheated leaking coolant Sign In

Appreciate the input zmame:

Folks should know that "Freeze, Frost + other names" PLUGS - AKA "Core Plugs" are not really intended at all to save an engine but there for blasting out the "core" on the cast parts during manufacture and are no assurance in totall WATER freeze solid conditions.

Note: Plain water expands rathing nicely when it crossed the line from liquid to solid. From that point on it's contracting again!

When mixed with the most common Ethylene Glycol based antifreezes it won't become a solid at the listed concentrations.

The first thing when a weak mix freezes is slush which only prevents circulation or if weak enough will expand to break things.

Of interest and I won't nail any exact temp for the mix but somewhere around a mix of EG and Water set to +10F (total guess) will NOT expand when it does freeze!

That info is important as the radiator will be blocked and vehicle would overheat but may have only hurt water pump from being stuck in a solid or whatever damage overheating can cause.

When expansion does crack parts it usually pics the block first at an outer water jacket. That alone if minor can sometimes be welded/brazed over but it's not known what will really break especially if left a while since warm last and wind involved.

It's never a good thing and is totally preventable,

T



rfrainman
User

Jan 25, 2009, 7:33 PM

Post #5 of 6 (1891 views)
Re: caravan overheated leaking coolant Sign In

Thanks for all the help. The hose from the water pipe to the thermostat housing was blown. I think they called it a warm up loop hose. I didn't see it right away because it's a small diameter and is right beneath the water hose from the radiater to thermostat.


Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky / Moderator
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Jan 25, 2009, 8:27 PM

Post #6 of 6 (1884 views)
Re: caravan overheated leaking coolant Sign In


Cross your fingers - you may have lucked out!

T







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