68 Cadillac MM Combo (Restore thread)

John ED Renstrom said:
your going to have to stop taking that car to other people. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I agree, and that is certainly a goal. Right now though I lack a safe, flat surface to lift my car once i get a jack. So if it requires lifting at the moment I simply have to have someone else work on it. This is why I have not bought a lift yet, since I cant safely use it.

I am keeping this in mind next time we buy a new property. I dont care about a big house, just give me a big garage.
 
This last Saturday my coach was on display at the Tulsa "Oddities and Curiosities" expo. Got to meet a few other hearse owners for once so that was nice. And for the first time nobody made Ghostbusters references.

I'm not a huge fan of the bizarre/morbid art that they have there but it was still an interesting experience. I found myself admiring the workmanship of several of the items despite my disinterest in the subject matter.

The best part is I was able to get some good highway miles on the car
 
So on Saturday I did more driving than usual, but got home and pulled in the driveway, shut the car off and went in the house for a minute, came out and was unloading a mower from the coach (wife said "since your taking the hearse to Tulsa, can you get the mower from my moms storage"). While I was back there all of a sudden a massive cloud of steam began under the car, came over for a look and looked under, saw fluid pouring like a waterfall from under. Opened hood and fluid was splattered all over the engine and hood as well.

the trail of fluid behind the car, down the driveway was reflective like oil, so initially i thought my oil pan had busted or something (because of the hole where the plug goes.)

Waited till the next day to troubleshoot. Checked radiator and it was about empty. I put coolant in, monitored and nothing leaked out, i put some oil in the crankcase, again nothing leaked out. Checked oil level and it was full.

So next step was to fire it up and watch. Started up and everything seemed fine for about 5 minutes. Decided to work on my mower while keeping an eye on it as it idled. I started to see steam or smoke (wasnt sure until i got close), at first I suspected it was all the excess fluid on the engine surface burning off, but I kept an eye on the temp gauge and it seemed to be rising faster than it should but I waited till it got past halfway then I shut it off.

Watched as I shut it off and another fluid dump. Finally I managed to trace the source, the radiator hose had busted down right before it connects to the engine, so it was a little hard to spot. The only reason I saw is is because I caught a glimpse of the yellow fibers sticking out.

Looking back, the reason my mind jumped to oil is because that scalding coolant must have washed some of my giant oil stain down the driveway, so what I found on my driveway WAS in fact oil, but mixed with coolant, so it wasnt gree, but brown. I had to cut the hose away since the only thing that can get down there is a socket wrench, and my extension adapter broke off on my wife subaru last year.

I am very relieved that its just a hose. Going to NAPA today to get a replacement hose since this old one says NAPA 7457, also going to grab a small socket set to get that clamp off.

I will ease it back on the road to make sure it holds. Not sure if it busted because of something else, or it was just old. Probably just because it was old im guessing
 
You missed it Harbor Freight ended Sunday 51 piece socket set $9.99 bought two just for spares, Same set now $14.99 cheap crap but it works and you don't care if it breaks or you lose something. Its summer don't over do it on Anti Freeze/Coolant. Save $$$ till fall water actually cools better.
 
Peter Grave said:
You missed it Harbor Freight ended Sunday 51 piece socket set $9.99 bought two just for spares, Same set now $14.99 cheap crap but it works and you don't care if it breaks or you lose something. Its summer don't over do it on Anti Freeze/Coolant. Save $$$ till fall water actually cools better.
Click to expand...

Every time I think I finally have all the sockets I need. I have a full set, I just dont have a driver for it. Last year I was trying to get my wife's alternator off and I snapped the socket adapter in half. Thats when I decided to invest in some higher quality tools.
 
You guys down south might get way with running a light mix but up here you better do 50/50 year round. But it has always been my experience when you have one hose fail you change them all. Including heater hoses. Or 6 months from now you will be buying more antiefreez
 
John ED Renstrom said:
You guys down south might get way with running a light mix but up here you better do 50/50 year round. But it has always been my experience when you have one hose fail you change them all. Including heater hoses. Or 6 months from now you will be buying more antiefreez
Click to expand...

I actually do use 50/50, so im good there. I will check the lower hose. I got the broken hose changed last night. This evening I'm going to test it and make sure all is well.
 
you will need to run it with the cap loose till the thermostat opens up so you can fill it properly. when it does you loose a bunch so if you got a big pan catch what you can
 
John ED Renstrom said:
you will need to run it with the cap loose till the thermostat opens up so you can fill it properly. when it does you loose a bunch so if you got a big pan catch what you can
Click to expand...

I'm going to do that after work today. Didnt even think about the need to bleed it after replacing the hose. Would an air pocket in the coolant cause random stalls? I didnt think that it would, but I suppose we will see if that alleviates it.
 
once again if the car is ding something it did not do before you worked on it go over what you did and see were you went wrong. did you was off the antifreeze that got sprayed all over? a gummy sticky mess make sure it dry under the distributed cap.
 
John ED Renstrom said:
once again if the car is ding something it did not do before you worked on it go over what you did and see were you went wrong. did you was off the antifreeze that got sprayed all over? a gummy sticky mess make sure it dry under the distributed cap.
Click to expand...

There are still a few small puddles down in various areas. Alot of it Im not really sure how to get to and I didnt think it was safe to just hose it off with water. As long as its not raining later I will burp the coolant system and see about checking under things for coolant and so on. I'm also almost out of gas, so thats a minor problem with idling it to burp the air. I may have to make a few trips to the gas station with a can.
 
I have used this method over the years with success for air bound systems. 1 Start car with radiator cap OFF 2 Allow to warm up observe coolant level from start during warm up note it may come up and then suddenly drop (the system will have burped). 3 Then add water (not cold) continue to observe again watching for a repeat of #2 if no repeat you should be good if it over flows shut down and wait for all to calm down ( cool off). Repeat after cool down. Good luck
 
Peter Grave said:
I have used this method over the years with success for air bound systems. 1 Start car with radiator cap OFF 2 Allow to warm up observe coolant level from start during warm up note it may come up and then suddenly drop (the system will have burped). 3 Then add water (not cold) continue to observe again watching for a repeat of #2 if no repeat you should be good if it over flows shut down and wait for all to calm down ( cool off). Repeat after cool down. Good luck
Click to expand...

If I'm using 50/50, assuming I dont add water, just add more 50/50 correct?
 
John ED Renstrom said:
Yes add 50/50. One other trick is to set the heater at max that way the heater core is purged also.
Click to expand...

If only my heater worked. I was going to do this yesterday but it was expected to rain, and I didnt want to chance rainwater getting in there. Getting off work early today, so should be able to do this today
 
Got into a very spirited discussion with a Packard owner at national meet last year. His claim car runs cooler with high anti freeze-coolant content mine strait water runs cooler. Trick here is water provides better heat transfer (check your chemestry books) Coolant/antifreeze raises the boiling point water boils at 212 degrees the more Coolant/antifreeze you add the higher the boiling point the poorer the heat transfer. Thus a vehicle will run cooler on strait water but boil at a higher temp coolant. Another point buy strait anti freeze not coolant. Coolant is like light beer you are paying for them to add water to antifreeze. Better to buy antifreeze and add your own water. On my keeper good vehicles I use distilled water to add as there are no minerals to clog the system in distilled water. Here where we have well water its chuck a buck full of minerals which clog radiators and eat aluminum.
 
I don't dispute your statement on cooling effect at all. I never get the premix stuff either. down were he is 0 would be more then low enough to prevent any damage and still offer the the pump lub and rust protection needed.

heater not working or fan not working two different things. water should flow threw the heater core on that gm car at all times. except on max air.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top