N/A Strange car problem

Criitter7 said:
Is does it stall 1 time or can you repeat it by installing and removing cap?
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I'll have to ask him. It may not start again for a couple of hours after.
 
jsstevens said:
I'll have to ask him. It may not start again for a couple of hours after.
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That's consistent with something getting sprayed with coolant, if it's true. A little coolant dye will shed a lot of (black) light on the problem.

But, it should take a minute or so to build pressure.
 
MAKG1 said:
That's consistent with something getting sprayed with coolant, if it's true. A little coolant dye will shed a lot of (black) light on the problem.

But, it should take a minute or so to build pressure.
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Yeah. I had a 1973 Mercury Capri with the 2.0L 4 cylinder. It would start missing when it got warm. I finally opened the hood with it running and missing and there was a pinhole leak in a heater hose that gracefully arced halfway across the engine compartment and landed on a spark plug. Cut out 6" of hose, spliced and clamped (hey, I was a poor college student, I couldn't afford a new hose!) and voila! Problem solved.

John
 
I texted my brother. His long distance, sight unseen, third-hand info opinion is: "I'm gonna think a head along with the gasket. Weird things happen when heads get warped. Has he run a compression test?"
 
MAKG1 said:
That's consistent with something getting sprayed with coolant, if it's true. A little coolant dye will shed a lot of (black) light on the problem.

But, it should take a minute or so to build pressure.
Click to expand...

Yeah, there shouldn't be much pressure that quickly. Weird.
 
Criitter7 said:
Is does it stall 1 time or can you repeat it by installing and removing cap?
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Same thinking here. If the engine is running, does reinstalling the radiator cap kill it? How fast?
If you remove the cap, does the engine restart?

Let us know, this is a fun intriguing problem. (fun for us since it's not our car but I feel your pain)
 
OK, this is odd, but I have a theory.

You put on the cap, the system pressurizes, leak (gasket or crack) allows steam/pressure into intake plenum, offsets vacuum / disrupts flow from throttle body to cylinders. Also/alternately, pressure spike (loss of vacuum) causes erroneous / unusable readings to MAP sensor.

This one's weird and, while the car may be at the end of its economic life, I'd sure like to hear what is is that's causing this particular problem.
 
We have not run a compression check. I asked him if the car would restart after removing the cap and he hasn't tried it. And right then the car was cold, so it starts. Steam in the intake manifold sounds possible, maybe.

I will certainly post if/when we get to the bottom of it.

John
 
denverpilot said:
Yeah, there shouldn't be much pressure that quickly. Weird.
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What DOES change instantly is the coolant flow path. I think it's not close to full. Some systems require specific procedures to fill correctly. Like, my BMW has an actual bleed screw in the cooling system, on the upper rad hose. Some systems can be topped off through the overflow (but not usually if it's as low as I think it is), some can't.

Sometimes you can make it easier to fill by installing a tee at the highest point to bleed and/or fill it. Some other times, you just make another place for it to leak (I don't suggest this on old hoses).
 
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