foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

[crashing_sux]

I just checked my coolant today and found it low so I added some. As I was filling it would do the usual fill up, then drain back down, fill up, then back down. Once it finally stopped draining down I decided to start it up to make sure everything was cirulated in case there was room to fill it more and noticed that while the level dropped when the engine started it got very foamy and was bubbling, not big bubbles though, mostly foamy.

I've always thought this meant a blown head gasket but am wondering if there are any other causes I should look into? FWIW, I'm running vortec's and cometics.

 

[69gtojeff]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

If the foam goes away, your level was so low that the water pump was cavitating or mixing air with the coolant (2 different things, but both can cause foam). "Real" mechanics are supposed to have a sniffer that reads abnormaly high levels of CO from the radiator fill neck when the bubbles are the result of a wasted head gasket.

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

As I was adding water I noticed what looked like smoke/exhaust coming out of the radiator, but I figured it was just steam from water going into a hot radiator. Now I'm wondering. Guess I could take it to a real mechanic and they could check it out easily enough.

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

It's definitely holding pressure, don't know if that means anything though. I just let it cool off for half an hour, then went to open the radiator cap and as soon as I started lifting the little lever on the cap I could hear it pushing coolant into the overflow.

 

[100in6]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

have you overheater the motor recently? it could be a head gasket or a cracked head. foam i'm not sure about. could be just from a low level and the pump put air in the system. if it just bubbles it could be a head or gasket. there is a product that says it will fill a crack in an iron head now. never used it but they say it sometimes works. might try adding a can and see what happens.

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

Tough to tell if I've overheated it, as my temp guage doesn't work. I just have a green wire with no connector on it. I actually need to figure out what connector goes on there this weekend so I can hook it up. I haven't run it hard at all, but seeing as I was low on coolant today it's possible it got hot.

Come to think of it, this happened when I first filled the radiator up, I told myself I need to check into it and forgot all about it. I have 500 miles on it now. Anyone know what the name is of the stuff that claims to fill a crack in heads?

 

[bezerk]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

just put a headgasket tester on there, to see if it holds pressure.
happen to see the same thing on a Syclone i was working on..thought it was a blown headgasket, (bubbles and steam)...put the system under pressure, no leak or whatsoever.

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

What's a headgasket tester? Will it identify block or head cracks as well? People have mentioned pressurizing the coolant system, is it to a very high pressure? I allready know it will hold some pressure as half an hour after shutting the truck off I could still hear pressure releasing when I flipped the pressure release lever on the cap.

 

[SeattleSy#1255]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

What's a headgasket tester? Will it identify block or head cracks as well? People have mentioned pressurizing the coolant system, is it to a very high pressure? I allready know it will hold some pressure as half an hour after shutting the truck off I could still hear pressure releasing when I flipped the pressure release lever on the cap.

If you cracked your heads, i'm going to crack yours! :redx:

 

[bezerk]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

it's a pump, which you put on the radiator cap. and manually put around 10 psi on the rad.
look back in a hour or so, and see if you still have around 10psi of pressure

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

I'm taking it to the builder tomorrow, he said he'll check it out with a c02 sniffer. Could be nothing, but I'm trying to be very careful at this point as I'm not the world's luckiest person.

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

They found CO2 in the radiator, definitely something up. Tom (the engine builder) said he hasn't seen a set of cometics blow and since I haven't run any boost through it he thinks it's probably a cracked head. Gave me a bottle of the Moroso ceramic engine seal to put in the radiator, we'll see tomorrow if it does the trick or not. I hope so, hate to pull the head, and can't really afford it right now either.

 

[QUICK STORM]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

how that sealer work out?

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

No bubbles in the radiator today. I'm curious if it'll hold.

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

No luck, held for a few days and then gave up. I'm using coolant slower now, but still losing some. Oh well, I would have never trusted it if it had worked, always wondering when it would give up on me. I'll just pull the heads this weekend and hopefully have it back on the road in a week or two and finally have some confidence in it.

 

[93ty475]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

No luck, held for a few days and then gave up. I'm using coolant slower now, but still losing some. Oh well, I would have never trusted it if it had worked, always wondering when it would give up on me. I'll just pull the heads this weekend and hopefully have it back on the road in a week or two and finally have some confidence in it.

who did your vortecs? maybe it's a problem with the conversion itself?

 

[bezerk]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

who did your vortecs? maybe it's a problem with the conversion itself?

you should block of the cooling ports on the heads..after you took of the lowerintake..

buy an coolingsystem tester, and pressurize the system..a snifer test won't work, cause you can't start up the engine..

and see if you have a leak.

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

The vortecs have been on the truck for a long time (couple of years I believe) and never had any issues in the past like this so I don't think there is any problem with the conversion.

I have had the system pressurized, as well as a sniffer test. There is a radiator leak (that seams to have sealed up) as well as high levels of c02 in the radiator. The mechanic said he believes the leak caused the truck to overheat and crack the head. Seems plausible to me, and I don't want to replace the radiator until heads are done so I don't blow the radiator again. I'm also considering an 8lb cap instead of a 16, in case the cap is holding so much pressure the radiator can't take it. Still not sure on the cap, need to research it a bit.

 

[SeattleSy#1255]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

The vortecs have been on the truck for a long time (couple of years I believe) and never had any issues in the past like this so I don't think there is any problem with the conversion.

I have had the system pressurized, as well as a sniffer test. There is a radiator leak (that seams to have sealed up) as well as high levels of c02 in the radiator. The mechanic said he believes the leak caused the truck to overheat and crack the head. Seems plausible to me, and I don't want to replace the radiator until heads are done so I don't blow the radiator again. I'm also considering an 8lb cap instead of a 16, in case the cap is holding so much pressure the radiator can't take it. Still not sure on the cap, need to research it a bit.

when you say they were on the truck for a few years, i'm confused as i thought you just had the motor done? so you are going to pull the heads then i'm assuming?

 

[crashing_sux]

Re: foamy bubbles in my coolant, should I worry?

I just had the motor rebuilt, but it wasn't an upgrade of any sort. I bought it with a good parts spec, it just developed rod knock so I had it rebuilt, no changes made to the parts except I went with Total Seal rings and Comp Cams Pro Magnum rockers. So what I meant was that this wasn't a new vortec conversion.

The heads come off next weekend.