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+--- Thread: Tri-Pac not starting after coolant hose blowout... (/showthread.php?tid=1713)
Tri-Pac not starting after coolant hose blowout... - Waterloo - 04-26-2017
The other day I was up at the local truck stop, got the yellow idiot triangle on the dash... Low Coolant... Hose blew on my Tri-Pac... Long story, goes back to the head gasket debacle and in frame... The hose was weak and blew... Got the truck home, and put it all back together, new coolant lines and Thermostat.
Started the unit, it would only run for a few minutes... Water pump was whistling... I thought the worse... BUT! When you drain the coolant out of these units, you can get air pockets in the Yanmar motor/block of the Tri-Pac. I had a heat temp gun on the thermostat housing, it would hit 130* c in no time, like two minutes. I installed a 71 c thermostat... The TK manual says that air pockets can form after doing major surgery on these things... I drained the coolant at the petcock valve in the Tri-Pac unit, with the help of Logan, my 12 yo neighbor with the fantastic hearing... Every time we turned that petcock valve to drain the coolant, air would escape. I could not hear it, but Logan could. It took about an hour, run, shut down, cool, restart, around 5 times, and BINGO! The damn thing worked! it held temp, water pump whistling went away and the fan turned on. Just a heads up when things get ugly. Don't give up! Keep draining that air/coolant and see what happens... This is a first for me, as I have had this thing apart a few times, and never ran into this issue.
Like I told Logan, the 12 yo neighbor kid, the TK dealer would have raped me for a few hundred bucks to do what we did... Remember that, read the manual.
RE: Tri-Pac not starting after coolant hose blowout... - Rawze - 04-27-2017
Actually the correct procedure for working on coolant systems is to pull a vacuum on the system and fill it by the lower drain line. Just before it gets to the top of the coolant tank and into the vacuum pump, relieve it and let it purge all the dead spaces. Pull vacuum again and repeat purging it a couple times to be safe.
Result = no air trapped in the system whatsoever.
I do this when I work on trucks that comes over here. Works fantastic and no fuss about air in the system doing some damage later on.
Cheap-o harbor freight vacuum pump works great.
====
I have seen more that a few guys destroy engines, both car and truck alike over the years by not pulling a vacuum and purging the air from the coolant system. I even had a lawyer contact me once about this subject after someone's truck was destroyed by a shop that was lazy and only poured coolant into the coolant tank to fill it. Truck ran down the road about 10 miles just fine, then coolant temp went through the roof with no pre-warning for just a moment, then back down,.. but it was too late, engine was done for. - Lawyer showed me a statement from the Truck maker saying the coolant system should only even be filled by vacuum and from the bottom up.
RE: Tri-Pac not starting after coolant hose blowout... - Kid Rock - 04-27-2017
(04-27-2017 )Rawze Wrote: Actually the correct procedure for working on coolant systems is to pull a vacuum on the system and fill it by the lower drain line. Just before it gets to the top of the coolant tank and into the vacuum pump, relieve it and let it purge all the dead spaces. Pull vacuum again and repeat purging it a couple times to be safe.
Result = no air trapped in the system whatsoever.
I do this when I work on trucks that comes over here. Works fantastic and no fuss about air in the system doing some damage later on.
Cheap-o harbor freight vacuum pump works great.
====
I have seen more that a few guys destroy engines, both car and truck alike over the years by not pulling a vacuum and purging the air from the coolant system. I even had a lawyer contact me once about this subject after someone's truck was destroyed by a shop that was lazy and only poured coolant into the coolant tank to fill it. Truck ran down the road about 10 miles just fine, then coolant temp went through the roof with no pre-warning for just a moment, then back down,.. but it was too late, engine was done for. - Lawyer showed me a statement from the Truck maker saying the coolant system should only even be filled by vacuum and from the bottom up.
Which vacuum pump do you use Rawze? I see one for about $50 and one for about $150
RE: Tri-Pac not starting after coolant hose blowout... - stevesparts - 04-27-2017
There's one for a video to be made and show how it's done right..
Then we could show it to some of these idiot's that tell me "That's not how it get's done"
or the blank look on their face...uuuggggghhhh!!!!
RE: Tri-Pac not starting after coolant hose blowout... - Waterloo - 04-27-2017
I'm trying to think how I would pull a vacuum on the Tri-Pac? Pull it up front under the hood at the truck's coolant reservoir bottle? The TK manual had the instructions on purging the air, it was as I described using the petcock valve under the thermostat housing. Of course it sounded like a one shot deal prior to the initial start of the motor, but it took four or five tries to get this air out. Now I'm curious as to how to do this, as I know I will be doing this again in the future with my Tri-Pac. It seems to be the weak link in my truck's systems. She is a bit long in the tooth being 10 years old.
RE: Tri-Pac not starting after coolant hose blowout... - Rawze - 04-27-2017
(04-27-2017 )Waterloo Wrote: I'm trying to think how I would pull a vacuum on the Tri-Pac? Pull it up front under the hood at the truck's coolant reservoir bottle? The TK manual had the instructions on purging the air, it was as I described using the petcock valve under the thermostat housing. Of course it sounded like a one shot deal prior to the initial start of the motor, but it took four or five tries to get this air out. Now I'm curious as to how to do this, as I know I will be doing this again in the future with my Tri-Pac. It seems to be the weak link in my truck's systems. She is a bit long in the tooth being 10 years old.
Just think of what would happen if you only purge air at the tri-pack and air in the lines went back into the engine in the wrong place. - High risk if you ask me.
Pull vacuum for the whole truck coolant system if they are tied together.