Disappearing Coolant

[DrivingZiggy]

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.