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i'm going to wait and see if it doesn't seal on its own over time. its only seeping. cleaned it up last night and its only barely showing signs of seeping again. another spot of seeping is the plug i put in the water pump heater outlet. the freeze plug and plug are both brass and should interact and seal on their own eventually. and the top of the water pump leaks a bit too. where the backign plate meets the pump body. i have tightened the bolts, but still had some seeping this morning. if it is anything like the coolant BMW uses (blue stuff) it will cake up and seal up the leak on its own. if that doesn't work out i'll drain i and fix the leaks. the drain cock is moved to the driver's side of the radiator and i have used those wide jugs to save fluid....i did it on the 55 and poured it right back in, but luckily on the 55 the drain plug is facing the front of the car and nothing is there to splash around or contaminate the fluid as it drains. i don't have the grill and bumper on yet...so i just walk up and turn the drain cock.

the reason for the evans is that the system is not pressurized and i didn't want to worry about boiling out and making a mess everywhere. the evans coolant has a much higher boiling point then 212. even with the motor good and hot and running, i can take the radiator cap off with no ill effects.

Am curious about the Evans too. Read thru the FAQ and wonder about a couple of things.

It says using the coolant may raise the normal operating temp but doesn't say by how much. Did you have a chance to see what the previous temp was running before the rebuild in order to have a comparison? Also says it is hygroscopic and can collect moisture in use but should not be an issue with a normal sealing pressure cap. Since you said your cap only has a paper gasket and we know it seems to allow the fluid to burp out quite well is not being airtight likely to be a problem?

At several times the cost of antifreeze, I can see why you don't want to lose any. That stuff is expensive. It does say you can use stop leak with the product so that may be something to think about if the leaks do not readily seal.

i have no previous temp reading before the rebuild. it would peg the needle at 212 and i know it was hotter then that i'm sure. but it is staying at 185-190 sitting in the garage idling with no airflow. so i'm good with that. i'll see what i get when driving.

i put a new seal on the cap made from rubber. it isn't perfect but it has to be better then the paper. I'm not sure about the moisture retention, but i do know that it is marketed for this application and Jay Leno uses it in his older cars. (supposedly)

I thought i read to not add anything with it, i guess they mean rust inhibitors and not just stop leak. but even to that point...i dont want any of that crud in my new radiator. i'd rather drain and fix the leaks.

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Under normal conditions Packards (and others) with non-pressurized cooling systems and cap with just a paper gasket should not throw coolant from the neck and cap unless they boil over, have a restricted radiator, blown headgasket or other malady, or are over-filled. Any normal gradual rise in coolant level from volumetric thermal expansion of the coolant should be relieved thru the overflow pipe. Note there is a tendency of folks who have lived only with modern pressure systems to over-fill their radiators - an inch above the top of the core when cold is all that's required. 50+ thousand miles in my '34, never seen a single drop of coolant come out from under the cap.

since i tightened the head studs i haven't had anything coming out of the cap. the fill level is about 1 inch below the filler. it has a bleed over tube inside as you can see in the photos and videos. it runs out of the top tank and down the side of the passenger's side to a hole in the frame and drips to the ground perfectly.

problems that occur from overheating as you listed are what i wanted to avoid by using the Evans. if it performs as it says...the gauge will show me overheating and i wont have a mess all over the car to clean.

If the overflow tube is correctly routed there will never be a mess "all over the car". As you stated, the tube runs down the side of that radiator and drips to the ground. Thus there is no way for overflow to go anywhere else.
Too much drama in the explanation.

i'm talking about boiling out of the cap...the tube can't handle it all.


anyways...lets move on. i'm being too progressive i feel.

Quote:
Hank,
Happened to me twice yesterday when doing the latest post in my blog, very frustrating.

Howard,

You are right, i went back and looked at the packets that came with bottles of Evans. you can put stop leak in it.

if it doesn't stop on its own, i may try a small dab of this.barsleaks.com/product/powder-radiator-stop-leak-conditioner/

i'm not ready to go there yet. i'm a bit concerned it will muck up the Gano filter. the bar's leak says it will fit through a 24 gauge mesh....i'm pretty sure the Gano is larger then that. 24 is pretty dang small...small enough you wouldn't feel it if i pocked you with a 24 Gauge needle (healthcare related)

the seeping seemed to slow some. i heat cycled again last night. and tightened bolts again.

here is a pic of the seeping. you can see the cresent moon shape of the fluid sitting in the groove at the bottom of the freeze plug. yellowish color. takes about 2 days and it will finally run down the side of the block. very slow, which is why i'm hoping it fixes itself.

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I hope your core plugs stop weeping but I wonder. I used brass plugs just once and after a few days they all began to weep coolant. Had to yank them all and replaced with OEM steel type - never a problem again.

For small leaks like that I've had considerable success with the AC/Delco stop-leak tablets, I believe the active ingredient is ginger root.