Disappearing Coolant

[DrivingZiggy]

Yup. O-rings it was. I had my doubts about the new rings, but they worked. I can't believe it was that all along. And I double can't believe the dealership was gonna rook me for over 2 grand and not solve the problem.

[Rawze]

It is nice to see people take control of their problems and save themselves a couple thousand bucks.

thanks for following up on the thread. it helps everyone on here.

[DrivingZiggy]

Dang it! Still losing coolant.

I guess the first thing I will do is to check the bunk heater core. I guess it's possible that it commenced to leaking again. Or that my nephew was BSing me just to be done with the job. If no joy there, I will commence to tightening all of the hoses as suggested.

[Waterloo]

(04-05-2016 )DrivingZiggy Wrote:  Dang it! Still losing coolant.

I guess the first thing I will do is to check the bunk heater core. I guess it's possible that it commenced to leaking again. Or that my nephew was BSing me just to be done with the job. If no joy there, I will commence to tightening all of the hoses as suggested.

If you have an APU that runs off of the trucks coolant system, check inside there. Also inspect all hoses running back to the unit if you have one... It can be a real bear finding these leaks. My primary leaker were the hoses attaching to the radiator, I found I had to double clamp those to stop them from leaking. Also, check the heater lines. I have a ProStar, but I found leaks running off of the metal coolant pipes on the passenger side of the motor. There are rubber compression bushings that slide onto the OD of the metal pipe. These compression bushings get old and hard, causing a coolant leak. One runs back towards the back of the EGR Cooler, the other is right above the Turbo where my heater shut off valve is located. Now, I do not know if you have this metal plumbing on your Volvo, but you might. Worth a look. The rubber bushings are to be found where the metal pipe attaches at the motor. A large nut holds it on via compression.

I tried to find a photo of one, but had no luck...

[DrivingZiggy]

(04-05-2016 )Waterloo Wrote:  

(04-05-2016 )DrivingZiggy Wrote:  Dang it! Still losing coolant.

I guess the first thing I will do is to check the bunk heater core. I guess it's possible that it commenced to leaking again. Or that my nephew was BSing me just to be done with the job. If no joy there, I will commence to tightening all of the hoses as suggested.

If you have an APU that runs off of the trucks coolant system, check inside there. Also inspect all hoses running back to the unit if you have one... It can be a real bear finding these leaks. My primary leaker were the hoses attaching to the radiator, I found I had to double clamp those to stop them from leaking. Also, check the heater lines. I have a ProStar, but I found leaks running off of the metal coolant pipes on the passenger side of the motor. There are rubber compression bushings that slide onto the OD of the metal pipe. These compression bushings get old and hard, causing a coolant leak. One runs back towards the back of the EGR Cooler, the other is right above the Turbo where my heater shut off valve is located. Now, I do not know if you have this metal plumbing on your Volvo, but you might. Worth a look. The rubber bushings are to be found where the metal pipe attaches at the motor. A large nut holds it on via compression.

I tried to find a photo of one, but had no luck...

Yes, I do have the TriPac APU. I will check there for sure! Nephew is coming back to help. We will check all lines.

[Waterloo]

(04-06-2016 )DrivingZiggy Wrote:  

(04-05-2016 )Waterloo Wrote:  

(04-05-2016 )DrivingZiggy Wrote:  Dang it! Still losing coolant.

I guess the first thing I will do is to check the bunk heater core. I guess it's possible that it commenced to leaking again. Or that my nephew was BSing me just to be done with the job. If no joy there, I will commence to tightening all of the hoses as suggested.

If you have an APU that runs off of the trucks coolant system, check inside there. Also inspect all hoses running back to the unit if you have one... It can be a real bear finding these leaks. My primary leaker were the hoses attaching to the radiator, I found I had to double clamp those to stop them from leaking. Also, check the heater lines. I have a ProStar, but I found leaks running off of the metal coolant pipes on the passenger side of the motor. There are rubber compression bushings that slide onto the OD of the metal pipe. These compression bushings get old and hard, causing a coolant leak. One runs back towards the back of the EGR Cooler, the other is right above the Turbo where my heater shut off valve is located. Now, I do not know if you have this metal plumbing on your Volvo, but you might. Worth a look. The rubber bushings are to be found where the metal pipe attaches at the motor. A large nut holds it on via compression.

I tried to find a photo of one, but had no luck...

Yes, I do have the TriPac APU. I will check there for sure! Nephew is coming back to help. We will check all lines.

Really inspect those metal heater/coolant lines. I am sure you have those on your Volvo and I bet they are set up the same way they are on my International with those rubber compression bushings. I found mine leaking in my driveway, I let her idle and had to use a flashlight with the one back behind the EGR cooler as the coolant was falling damn near on the manifold and burning off or blowing off going down the road.

Also, on your Tri-Pac, if it is a few years old, replace the two heater hoses inside the cabinet, they do get soft, trust me on that. They can be had here https://www.thermoenginesupply.com/apu-parts for $10.50 ea., vs the $55.00 ea. price at your Thermo-King dealer. The hoses this outfit sells are made by Carlisle, a reputable hose company! I bought a new radiator and fan from these guys too and they are top notch. The radiator was made in Canada at the same plant TK sources from. $155 vs $400, Denso Fan, $79 vs $300, this outfit is a no brainer in my book.

Also, inspect the hoses from your motor back to the Tri-Pac, they are a pain in the ass to replace, at least on my truck, but the piece of mind is well worth it.

Another thing to check, your Tri-Pac has a petcock valve right near your turn off switch on the right side of the interior of the cabinet. Check that too. One thing, if you did not know, if you ever need to drain your engine coolant, you can darn near drain the entire motor from your Tri-Pac. Just pull the rubber hose out from below that petcock valve and place it in a five gallon bucket. You will need four buckets if memory serves me right to drain all you can get out of the system. This is much easier than trying to find a large pan to place under the radiator. But, you will still need to drain the remaining gallon or two off at the radiator to completely empty the system.

[mkmac]

(03-27-2016 )DrivingZiggy Wrote:  Yeah, found the coolant leak. It's the sleeper heater core. Well, maybe just the o-rings. But I bought a new core. Surprisingly, it didn't come with o-rings. So we went to the nearest O'Reilly's and got a couple that fit. No good. So we put the old ones in. Still no good.

Now, the old ones looked like some kind of "step down" type of o-ring. So I then went to the dealership and got the "correct" o-rings and they look to be quite similar to the O'Reilly's ones, just maybe thicker. So the parts called a mechanic up front. He said that sometimes the clamp that holds the tubes into the core bend. So I also picked up one of those. Discussed the job with my nephew, and we're gonna try. Perhaps these new o-rings are a "crush" type? We'll see. We're gonna give it a shot at noon--a couple of hours away.

Oh, and the entire system really didn't look so bad. Really not all that much soot. A small amount of corrosion around the actuator which the dealership wouldn't sell me because it's part of the entire EGR valve and costs over $900. Cleaned everything anyhow and replaced sensors. Painted the intake, venturi, and sleeve while they were out. Scraped as much paint off of the bolts as we could, so they now are nice and shiny. I hope they don't rust!

So everything went back together nicely--you never know if it will when I'm working on something! And she cranked just fine with the new batteries. But I didn't run her for very long because of the leak. I hope the new o-rings are what we need.

In regards to your heater core you need the right one's from the dealer they are blue coated I believe the coating will come off with handling(only so you can't return used ones)they are not crushed they are round your old ones looked like that cause they are shot,your aluminium pipes are very thin they bend very easy.you may have to bend them slightly to get them to seat right.also try to seat the pipes in their holes the best you can, then put the plate back on the plate need a slight concave look to it. about 1/16 max this will insure proper pressure on the flange around the pipes. then watch as you tighten the screw that the flange will be flush with the heater core. you should only see a slight bit of the flange on the pipes when finished, and the o rings are metric O'Reilly's won't have them. your dealer must have the right or at least go to a bearing supply store..........

[DrivingZiggy]

Well, it appears that the leak at the bunk heater core was, indeed, fixed. There's no new coolant showing up there. So we went all over and tightened everything. Some of them were a bit loose.

Then I made my big mistake. I had picked up a new coolant filter and told my nephew to change it out. Little did I know that it would drain the entire system! We were not prepared for that to happen, so we lost all of it. Made 2 trips to the Peterbilt dealership to get coolant.

But we got everything done and still could find no leaks. Coolant is full and I won't know if it's actually fixed until I take it for a trip. And I'm going to VA this weekend/Monday, so it'll be after that before I get going. I'll be sure to give a full report.

[Erics diesel]

There is a valve right above the coolant filter to close it before you remove the filter so you don't loose it all