onespiritbrain

Check the heater bypass hose behind your engine. That thing just caused me a huge headache chasing down a phantom blown head gasket. It’s the black hose in the center of the picture there. Mine looked a little decrepit from the top but the underside was leaking coolant. When you say popped the radiator, what exactly do you mean? Like blew the seal between the core and top/bottom pieces?? Or like a hose or something? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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My endoscope was waiting on me when I got home today so I got it going and started poking around with it... Looked at that little bypass hose and this is what I found! Now this is after I already trimmed the hose back and put a new clamp on I know it’s not loose so I’m thinking maybe the hose is just deteriorated. Also the thing looks strange by how swollen it is just after the clamp. The upper radiator hose, heater core hoses, and that bypass hose are all swollen. These are all old hoses. They looked old when I bought this vehicle so I’m guessing they’re at least 100-120k miles old. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Animation (Not dead, only in suspended animation) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You could buy all the tools and parts you need for way less than $1400. I don’t know if that’s too much for a shop to quote or not, it’s probably not, but it’s too much for me to pay.. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am wondering if that very small bypass hose leak slowly allowed the system to draw more and more coolant out of the reservoir bottle until it emptied the bottle and filled up with air. Then I panicked and filled the reservoir and radiator back up without burping all that air out and that’s why I saw it take a 1/2 gallon of water in 100 miles. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I rented the block tester(prt# 27145) from autozone and ran the test for over 10min at 185degF and it was just as crystal blue at the end as it was at the beginning... at one point there was even bubbles coming up through the tester from the coolant system without my assistance from the suction bulb; zero color change whatsoever.. *after 10mins* I did the foil test and I found that both new 5w30 and my engine oil bubble and sizzle right before burning up. I think I would need a hot plate that I could control the temperature on to tell if my engine oil bubbled any differently than the new oil. However, by eye it seemed like the new oil resisted burning up about twice as well as my engine oil. The new oil would “run away” from the flame and become quite thin before turning darker, bubbling, and burning up while my engine oil would quickly stick where it was, turn dark black, bubble, and burn up. I don’t think I am able to determine anything without better control over the test. It is quite strange.. I was so sure it was a head gasket. I must be a more subjective thinker than I realized, of course that would be natural for a subjective thinker haha.. Anyways, I have an endoscope on order from Amazon that’ll be here on the 17th. I plan to check the inside of my cylinders in all sorts of situations. It’ll also help me to look for external coolant leaks. Speaking of.. I did find and fix this yesterday after the leak down test: That is the small coolant bypass hose behind the engine and between the two heater core hoses! I can’t wait till this is over.. before I killed my previous engine I could start it and leave it running forever without worrying about it overheating.. every car I’ve ever owned I had to worry about it overheating, until this QX4. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That’s awesome I’m going to try the foil thing. Thanks dude Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

deposit

Is it even possible for coolant to leak into the cylinder but combustion not leak into the coolant?? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well I just performed a leak down test which it passed.... bittersweet because I was honestly relieved by my previous confidence in a blown head gasket. I’m ready to get this behind me. This car is going to stay with me forever. I don’t care how big a pain any of it is, it’s staying. I bought it with the small inheritance my dad left me, and I also fixed the transmission and engine with that same money, so it’s like a piece of him here with me.. I want to get this disappearing coolant and the following overheating condition taken care of now. I am going to do the Taurus electric fan conversion but this missing coolant thing has got to stop first. I am wondering about the intake plenum now.. I looked inside the throttle body and it was just black and sooty. My oil level does not rise, however, it was previously using more oil than it does now and I’m wondering if the missing oil is being offset by the introduction of coolant. And also since the water intrusion is so slow maybe it is falling out of oil suspension, evaporating, and being burned by the PCV function. I do have snot on the oil cap.. I don’t know anymore.... I already sold my bow, which I also bought with my inheritance, so shame on me for not doing this test first... Here are the spark plugs in order of; 1, 3, 5, 6, 2, and 4. I accidentally skipped 4 and did 2 first. Also I cleaned the number 2 plug before I took the picture. It looked just like 4 except the threads were wet with what looked like oil.. Here is this leak down test that I made: I set the pressure on a high precision regulator here at work and measured the leak rate. More than anything I wanted to put 200psi on the cylinders and watch for bubbles at the filler neck on the radiator. No dice... I did find that cylinder number 2’s exhaust valve didn’t seat right with the gentle opening and closing of rotating the crank shaft.. I guess the next step is to pressurize the cooling system and look for external leaks... I guess it might be good to send an oil sample to Blackstone to see if they detect coolant in the oil. I guess I will also add a dye to the coolant and all that as well.. Any advice is much appreciated. I will try whatever y’all tell me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thought I’d see if my NPORA family was interested in my bow that I’m selling. I’ve got it posted everywhere for $450 but I will go down to $400 here. The money is going to go towards a head gasket for my QX4.. ***PSE Drive LT ABB Strings Bow with HHA Optimizer Sight and QAD HDX Rest $450 PSE Drive LT Bow with ABB Strings $300 HHA Optimizer Lite Ultra $125 QAD Ultrarest HDX $60 Bee Stinger 8" $40 Scott Mongoose XT Release $40 I will consider separating items. Michael 770 330 2173 text or call*** https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/spo/d/pse-drive-lt-abb-strings-bow/6640186088.html?lang=en&cc=us Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here man! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk