Coolant puddle

stumpie

stumpie

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Radiator and Thermostat/Housing Replacement

Other day I moved my car so my wife could get out of the driveway. Later that evening I noticed a coolant stain on the ground behind my passenger headlight. (about 6" diameter). Didn't think much of it. Actually thought it might have just been a puddle that fell out of the bumper from a rain storm we had the night before. Drove the car to work today, and when I went to my car on my lunch break, I noticed a slightly larger puddle (maybe a half a cup).

Haven't cracked into it yet. :( Workshop manuals look like it could be Heater Control Valve, Auxiliary Pump, or Upper Radiator Hose/Clamp. Fun stuff.

I'll follow up with my findings.
 
Come to think of it, when I got my A/C fixed about a month ago (replaced compressor manifold hose assembly), I smelled a faint coolant odor through the vents, but it went away after the first few days of having a working A/C.
 
Add the radiator drain and the radiator itself to your list of suspects.
 
Be the $1 dollar worm clamp.. BE THE $1 DOLLAR WORM CLAMP!
 
Took the mech about 45 seconds to locate a crack in the front of the radiator opposite the upper radiator hose entry point. How bad is radiator replacement?
 
stumpie said:
Took the mech about 45 seconds to locate a crack in the front of the radiator opposite the upper radiator hose entry point. How bad is radiator replacement?
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Not too difficult, but it looks like Ford has stopped making/selling them.
 
Rock auto has a couple variants. Advance auto has one in their catalog. Any reason these would not work? Mech suggested the advance auto house brand.
 
stumpie said:
Rock auto has a couple variants. Advance auto has one in their catalog. Any reason these would not work? Mech suggested the advance auto house brand.
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AFAIK, those are okay.
 
REDBED said:
Tasca has the OEM for $229
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They may or may not. Sometimes they won't tell you they don't have one until you order it, it says back ordered, you wait a while, when you ask them they admit they don't know if they will ever get one...
 
Ok. In addition to the radiator, let me get your guys' opinion on a few other parts. Back about two years ago I had radiator hoses done and a lot of other plastic coolant parts so I'm just going over the "I know better now" parts.

- Jag aluminized tower and housing (my stock parts were replaced with plastic about 2 years ago. Should I leave things be that arent an issue currently or be extra preventative?)

- Thermostat: has anyone here used a Motorad Fail-Safe thermostat? They supposedly flow 60% more coolant through than the motorcraft

- Coolant: What's the best coolant for 100+*F summer driving in city traffic?

- Degas: What do I need to buy with the Dorman part # to do this replacement? Cap?
 
Stay away from the Dorman degas bottle, nothing but trouble from what I've read.
 
Jag: I wouldn't swap just for the fun of it, but might be worthwhile getting one and keeping it on the shelf for when this one fails. I'm 2.5 years into my current Motorcraft replacement. EDIT The Jag aluminum replacement part is for Gen 1 V8 only. No dice for Gen II.

Thermo: No need for a fancy thermostat. If the system is working properly then it's fine.

Coolant: Nothing special. No more than 50% antifreeze. Being in Texas, we can go down to 25%.

Degas: Dorman bottles have issues with the cap sealing and are a much thinner/softer material than Motorcraft. I held both in my hands, so I could do a direct comparison.
 
stumpie said:
I thought the Jag housing fit Gen II, no?
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Sadly no. The Jaguar and Lincoln versions of the engine diverged more on gen II. Lincoln moved the throttle body to the front of the engine, and that prevents the Jag parts from fitting.
 
Oh I see. Scratch that one then!

Degas is fine for now. Holds coolant and keeps out outside air as intended.

Ok well I guess I'll just change the faulty part (radiator) and do a coolant flush with Prestone green.

At least this way I don't have to change my sig. yet.
 
stumpie said:
Oh I see. Scratch that one then!

Degas is fine for now. Holds coolant and keeps out outside air as intended.

Ok well I guess I'll just change the faulty part (radiator) and do a coolant flush with Prestone green.

At least this way I don't have to change my sig. yet.
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I'm sure it's failing. Just not enough to notice yet.
 
Since you will have the system open anyway, might as well get a new degas bottle in before the swap and inspect it while the system is empty. It would save bleeding it twice.

So Joe, what you are saying is that if you wanted to run the Jag metal housing on a Gen 2, you would need a Jag intake, perhaps a few other parts then? Not that I plan to do this, but someone else might.
 
Telco said:
...So Joe, what you are saying is that if you wanted to run the Jag metal housing on a Gen 2, you would need a Jag intake, perhaps a few other parts then? Not that I plan to do this, but someone else might.
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I'm not sure if it is even possible. The Lincoln engine has variable valve timing on the intake cams. The Jag engine has stepped valve timing on the intake and the exhaust cams, so I don't know if you can swap intake manifolds. The Lincoln engine has the throttle body at the front, the Jag has it at the back (I think this is to make the supercharger option possible). There are several other differences too. Example: Degas bottle at the front, between the radiator and the engine.
 
Hmm, what about converting a Gen 1 LS intake to a Gen 2 engine? No idea if that would be desirable or not though, since that may mean reduced engine power since an intake's design affects the RPM band.
 
Telco said:
Hmm, what about converting a Gen 1 LS intake to a Gen 2 engine? No idea if that would be desirable or not though, since that may mean reduced engine power since an intake's design affects the RPM band.
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I don't know. Would it be possible to fit the gen II electronic throttle body to the gen I intake manifold? I don't see any way that you could use the gen I mechanical throttle body.
 
Pulled up pictures, for what that's worth. The mount points look the same aside from the Gen 1 has a stud, most likely to stabilize it against the cable pull. The Gen 2 does have the body to the side that might interfere. Really, the only way to tell would be if someone who has one of each were to volunteer to try it. Or, if someone who visits the u-pull-em yards that has access to one of each. Worse comes to worse, an adapter probably wouldn't be hard to whip up.
 
stugots said:
I'm sure it's failing. Just not enough to notice yet.
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You're probably right. But the fact of the matter is I don't want to pay my mech to do a job I can handle. The degas is one of those jobs, but the radiator isn't. :(
 
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