Overheated today 2.8 Miles from Talkeetna

[George Roberts]

We were flat landing it into Talkeetna today. A buzzer started buzzing and the stop engine check engine lights came on. I looked up and my oil temp was about 230 and my water temp was about 230. I slowed down and they went out. I was 2.8 miles out so I thought just maybe and then the lights and the buzzer immediately came back on. There was little to no shoulder and I pulled her over as far as I could but still took up about a half a lane and was still 2.8 miles from the campground in Talkeetna.

I had no clue what to do so I called Randy who I figured was driving and when he didn't answer called Rick Shawver. I wasn't sure if I was toast or if I needed to call for a tow truck or what. Rick was kind enough to assist me on the phone "AGAIN". He instructed me to see if I could figure out where it was leaking and let it cool down and remove the radiator cap. Then I put in about 2 gallons of water. cranked it for a minute and turned it back off and topped off the water again. The way my access lifts up it makes it difficult especially in the middle of the road to pour water in while the engine is running and check for leaks.

I even thought I might crank from behind and watch for leaks and that only caused my to momentarily loose my ability to crank it from the front or rear. I worked the switch back and forth thirty or so times and cranked it from the front. I don't have any gauges in the rear anyway.

I guy who has rebuilt 100 or so 6V92's stopped and looked at the oil with me and he agreed no water in the oil. He gave me several things to check as to why it would overheat in the first place.
1) Hydrolic fan
2) Radiator stopped up with cotton wood fuzz shctuff

I got it cranked and it stayed cool and oil stayed cool while I made it the final 2.8 miles to the campground. I raised the hood/access panel and can see no evidence of leaks anywhere except up by the cap.

Rick's theory is if I am really lucky the cap just need to be replaced and leaked under pressure and allowed a little at a time to leak out until it finally caused an issue today.

Tomorrow my plan is to
1) find a new cap
2) see if I local mechanic may can put it under pressure and see if there is another leak somewhere.
3) figure out if I need coolant and what type. If it isn't regular coolant please let me know what to get. Also is there some type of concentrated coolant to put in it so I don't have to drain any out and replace it with the proper stuff whatever that is. I have regular auto coolant on board but I am not sure if that is the right stuff???

I also want to thank Rick Shawver again profusely. I owe Rick big now twice. I will have to find a way to repay him.

If anyone has any other suggestions I would love to hear them. Right now I plan to hope and pray it is only a bad cap.

[susanmarycamilleri]

There was a thread not too long ago about rad caps and when they get weak they can allow water in the rad to boil off, so over time you end up low on coolant. The thread was by David Brady I believe and it was about series 60's in SOB.

I checked my rad cap and it was the original from 96. I replaced it on spec. If you cap looks old I would suspect the cap.

[Rick]

George, You owe me nothing and that is payable within 30 days. Sure hope its just a cap. The pressure test would be a good thing George. That will test the complete system. Keeping my digits crossed.

[George Roberts]

Thanks Rick, that is the best part. You never know how I will repay you or when.

Any special antifreeze? Is there any concentrated stuff? If I can find no leak I am not sure how much of what I will need to put in. The old stuff was reddish from what little leaked down the back of the access door. That is about the only evidence of a leak.

I do want to run it a little tomorrow and look up under and make sure I see nothing dripping/running down below.

[warbucks13477]

Couple of comments George.
1. I would have immediately shut off your engine since it was already overheated according to your gauges. 230 degrees F is already 20 degrees over the maximum temp your DD will tolerate which is 210 degrees F.
2. If you do not know what kind of coolant is in your radiator Your owners manual should include a Bluebird factory alert on this (SUO22), signed by Ken Shaeffer. And please don't go just by the color since there are a lot of different antifreeze formulas available. I would not add anything to it at this time but find a shop that either has a testor for anti-freeze to find out what kind is in your cooling system or drain the complete cooling system including the heating system for the coach and get enough fleetcharge http://www.fleetchargeantifreeze.com/fleetchrg_spec.htm at NAPA (you can add a gallon of distilled water to each gallon of it), your cooling system holds 25 gallons of a 50%/50% mixture. Fleetcharge already has the supplemental coolant additives that your cooling system needs you therefor do not have to add anything once you initially install it.
And lastly. Just because at first you did not find water in the oil does not mean that you have missed the bullet. I would not drive it very far without a mechanic looking at it first to ensure you can do it safely. Engines are expensive

good luck

[George Roberts]

Thanks Tom. I got it shut down pretty quickly. I didn't go very far at all. I am hoping for the best. Good to know it holds 25 gallons I wasn't down much at all then, so my ratio can't be too bad. It doesn't beg the question what caused it to overheat. I do scan my gauges a lot, it couldn't have been long. I just wasn't scanning them as often as in the mountains.

[George Roberts]

I went back and looked at my gauges. It was more like 210 than 230. It was just shy of 220. I thought both oil and water was marked on the gauge at 230. Water is marked at 220.

[George Roberts]

So I am still hopeful and positive. It was just rebuilt 30K ago.

[White Hat Guy]

George:

Sorry to hear about your temp issues - kinda scarey situation to be in especially far from home.

FWIW - the plate inside the coolant refill door has the following information:

"COOLANT: Formulation Standard - GM 6038-M, 50/50 low silicate ethylene glycol base, Coolant additive: NALCOOL 2000"

Also FWIW, I had a similar situation a couple of years back with my generator engine - I saw a gradual increase in coolant temp - the rad cap seemed to be going south so I replaced both the genny rad cap and the DD rad cap.

I think your owners manual will advise as to the pressure rating on the caps.

All this comes from a techno-challenged lawyer so, it may not be worth anything - just throwing it out for you to consider.

[mynavion]

Originally Posted by warbucks13477

or drain the complete cooling system including the heating system for the coach and get enough fleetcharge http://www.fleetchargeantifreeze.com/fleetchrg_spec.htm at NAPA (you can add a gallon of distilled water to each gallon of it), your cooling system holds 25 gallons of a 50%/50% mixture. Fleetcharge already has the supplemental coolant additives that your cooling system needs you therefor do not have to add anything once you initially install it.


good luck

I'll second that on Fleetcharge. Supposedly Fleetcharge can be mixed with other antifreezes without causing problems in case you can't get all of the old out. As Tom mentioned, Fleetcharge already has the SCA's. I run it in my Bird and in my Dodge 3500.....