Barfing Coolant...

ViperTony

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As the title says. I take out the Viper today and I'm getting on it pretty good, as always :D, when my temp gauge suddenly pegs at redline and the coolant/water temp light comes on. I thinking **** and I smell coolant. I let off on the throttle, RPM's come down and so does the temp. Odd. Get it on it again, temps go up and I smell coolant. I pulled over and the temp dropped down to 200. Fortunately, this was only a couple miles from home. I baby it home, temps stay around 220 or so, never hit redline so long as I stay under 3K rpm.

I get home and find coolant all over my passenger side side sill and on top of the expansion tank. Looks like coolant was coming up through the radiator cap. I check over the overflow bottle and it's empty but there's coolant in the fascia. Looks like it threw up in there too. Cap was on tight, no leaks. The expansion tank was also empty.

I cleaned everything up, fill up both tanks, put in a new radiator cap, burped the cooling system and take it for spin. For the first several miles, all is well but the temps start to climb as I get on it again. Sure enough, temp gauge pegs at redline, I let off on the throttle and the temp climbs down a bit but still high. I smell coolant as well. I get home to check everything. The radiator cap is not leaking but the front fascia where the overflow bottle resides is leaking. Looks like it threw up in there again.

I removed the fascia and there are no signs of leaks with the coolant bottle or hoses to/from. Cap seems tight but it looks like it's burping through the side passage built into the plastic bottle. My guess it must be overflowing as the cooling system is pushing out air? This time, there was a little bit of coolant left in the bottle but below minimum. The expansion tank was half-full. However, my temp gauge was close to reline no matter what the RPM was.

I don't know why this started acting up today. No changes have been to the coolant system components. I did several pulls on the dyno Tues and had no issues with temps or coolant leaks. I was planning on replacing the radiator cap as it looked suspect and luckily Tator mailed me a new one last week.

I'll probably drain/refill the coolant tomorrow. Give the amount of coolant I lost today, there must be some air still trapped in the system. I'm wondering if I have one those suspect water pumps. The temp gauge/RPM behavior seems to fit what Tator told me of the faulty impeller symptoms would be.
 

Leslie

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wow Tony that's crazy.

I will be interested to see what others think.

I run a combination of distilled water (70%), coolant (about 30%) and 2 bottles of water wetter, will put more coolant in during the colder months.
 

dave6666

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2001 pump syndrome. Why I replaced my pump shortly after I bought my... um... 2001 GTS.

Without getting into some mechanical physics, it will be way more pronounced at higher rpm's. "Cruising," as you so described, orders of magnitude better connection between the shaft and the impeller.
 
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ViperTony

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Thanks for the replies. I confirmed with Chuck this morning that its the pump so I will be replacing the water pump. I might as well do the temp sensor and get the Roe silicone radiator hoses while I'm in there.
 
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ViperTony

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Well that just removed you from any DD staff position nominations...:D

Crud, I let the DD team down.

heck tony, ya might as well do the cam and heads too at this point......

No kidding. Sadly, my first thought when this started happening was "How can I spin this into some ported GG heads, cam and forged pistons with the wife?" :D
 

InjectTheVenom

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Crud, I let the DD team down.



No kidding. Sadly, my first thought when this started happening was "How can I spin this into some ported GG heads, cam and forged pistons with the wife?" :D

Does she know anything about cars or technical stuff in general?
 

dave6666

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The new replacement water pumps are one piece forged with the heads and pistons integral to the pump. They must be purchased as a single item, and as I just checked with Mopar stock, the only spec level in stock is the GG stage 2 package. Plain heads with cast pistons are on 3 year back order.

I think the wife will understand.
 
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ViperTony

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The new replacement water pumps are one piece forged with the heads and pistons integral to the pump. They must be purchased as a single item, and as I just checked with Mopar stock, the only spec level in stock is the GG stage 2 package. Plain heads with cast pistons are on 3 year back order.

I think the wife will understand.

I'm printing this and will walk it over to her in a few minutes. If you don't hear back from me anytime soon then it means she found a new place to install the water pump and I'm on my way to ER for extraction.
 

plumcrazy

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lol@tony

tony, i wouldn't lie to her, seriously. its impossible to do a water pump without greg good heads and a cam. its actually very dangerous. for your own good, make sure to tell her about the dangers....
 

Tom F&L GoR

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If it were a daily driver you could have said that you need heads, cam, etc, as preventative maintenance. You blew it.

Speaking of blowing it, the only other problem is one that is worse - head gasket. Under lots of load it would push exhaust into the coolant and blow it out of the system. Hope that's not it, although that would make the cam/head preventative maintenance story even better.
 

plumcrazy

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im just trying to make sure a friend doesnt get hurt, thats all.

id hate to see him install a water pump and have something bad happen cause he didnt have greg good go thru the heads, freshen them up and install a cam. im just watching out for his good well being.

im good like that !
 
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ViperTony

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It turns out that it was the water pump failed after all. Thank You Chuck Tator for all of your help and getting me replacement parts within two days. Chuck told me that it was the pump about 3 weeks ago when I told him my temps seemed 'off'. He also predicated my radiator cap was bad and that turned out to be true as well. Got the old pump off the Viper today and sure enough the impeller is hosed (no pun intended). I'm taking my time scraping off the old gasket material (always a pleasure) on the timing chain cover and will reinstall the new pump soon. If anyone is curious about this procedure, I'll post pics after I'm done.
 
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