No, I don't mean it's been repo'd by some burly tattooed dude with his own Fox TV show called Bus Repo Wars, but rather I think it's showing signs of divine intervention. After the last two days of very heavy rains here (yes, it does sometimes rain in Southern California), after each day of rain my coolant overflow bottle has completely filled up with rain water. This bottle is a gallon plastic container with a screw-on cap, through which a short length of hose connects up to the vent outlet on the radiator cap on my coolant surge tank. I've not driven the bus at all after my crappy new fan motor exploded two weeks ago, so how is my coolant overflow container filling with water after each rain storm? The coolant level in the surge tank hasn't changed at all, and I just tested it now and found it's still exactly the same strength as when I last tested it a month or two ago - this shows that rain water isn't getting inside my surge tank and diluting the coolant. Even with the wind blowing some drops of rain inside the engine room, there's no way that one gallon of it can get inside my sealed overflow container - the container's screw-on cap is in place, the tube fits tightly through the cap, and it's hose-clamped at the radiator cap's outlet. So, how is rain getting in?
Maybe my bus has a sort of reverse-stigmata, but instead of bleeding drops of blood it's absorbing water instead. Does this mean my bus is hydrophilic? Maybe I can sell this water to the infirm and weak, claiming it has magical healing powers - oh wait, I think others are already doing things like that . . . At the very least, couldn't I make my bus a site of pilgrimage, then penitants and devotees could make the long and arduous journey to Orange County to receive blessings from an automotive miracle. I could name my bus Our Lady Of The Perpetual Overflow, much nicer than just calling it The Mistress like now.
This will really irk me until I find out why it's happening. Anybody here had anything similar happen to their bus?
John
Hope none of that water is finding its way into the air cleaner inlets or combustion chambers - hydro lock?!
No on anything similar - you have me wondering...
Quote from: dtcerrato on January 23, 2017, 02:00:27 PM
Hope none of that water is finding its way into the air cleaner inlets or combustion chambers - hydro lock?!
No on anything similar - you have me wondering...
Good thinking, I'll bar the engine over tonight to make sure it's not hydrolocked. The air filter has a vacuator valve to drain out any rain that gets in, but at this stage I'm thinking anything's possible.
Thanks, John
do you have any buddy's that live near by and like to pull pranks ?
dave
As long as pea soap doesn't come out of the tail pipe...
Pea soup I meant. Maybe there is such a thing as pea soap who knows.
I do not know your setup. Is there an overflow drain hole in the radiator cap compartment? If so, maybe that is tied into or finds some access to the overflow tube that goes to the tank.
Put a camera in the area to monitor what's going on. If the rain is doing that it might going in other bad places as well. Maybe something got perforated when the motor blew.
Quote from: Lin on January 23, 2017, 05:07:15 PM
I do not know your setup. Is there an overflow drain hole in the radiator cap compartment? If so, maybe that is tied into or finds some access to the overflow tube that goes to the tank.
That was one of the first things I checked - nope, nothing there that would pass a gallon of rainwater. The mystery remains. And the engine barred over just fine, so no hydrolock either. Not even a drop of rain got into the air filter either!
Anyone here do discount exorcisms?
John
Quote from: DoubleEagle on January 23, 2017, 07:43:54 PM
Put a camera in the area to monitor what's going on. If the rain is doing that it might going in other bad places as well. Maybe something got perforated when the motor blew.
The next time it rains hard, I'm going to stand back there to see what's happening. The lengths us busnuts go to for fixing problems!
John
No need to wait till it rains. Put a sprinkler on your roof. Periodically check on it until the mystery water demands show up ;D
I agree with the previous poster that thought it was getting in the collection bottle via the hose going into the cap. There is simply no other way water can get in there. It only takes a tiny gap. Silicon the cap and hose when it is dry.
--Geoff
Or, you could put a thick tarp over the top roof line, spray it from every angle and see if it's dry.
If it fills up, could there be a hole above the plastic tank? If it's dry, call the priest. Either way, get some flex seal spray it and see what happens?
Pressure test the system and find where air is coming OUT.
Quote from: Jim Eh. on January 24, 2017, 08:26:35 PM
Pressure test the system and find where air is coming OUT.
Yes, that's worth a try. I did install a Schrader valve on my surge tank specifically so I could do this exact thing if needed, so maybe tomorrow I'll put about 10 PSI into the cooling system and see what happens. The fun never ends. And now that I want it to rain hard again to check everything, it's forecast to be dry for the next week. Woe is me.
Maybe I should have bought a bus with a Deutz air-cooled diesel instead?
John
The radiator cap is only 4 psi on a Detroit Diesel.
Quote from: Geoff on January 25, 2017, 06:34:10 AM
The radiator cap is only 4 psi on a Detroit Diesel.
OK, thanks for that. I thought that some caps were as high as 12 PSI. My cap has a 7 stamped on it, so I assumed that was its PSI.
Thanks, John
If it says 7 it is the wrong cap.
Check your oil is there any coolant in it?
Quote from: Dave5Cs on January 27, 2017, 08:30:31 PM
Check your oil is there any coolant in it?
Oil level is still exactly the same as before, no change there. Tomorrow I'll drain a little out to check it, just to be sure.
More rain is forecast for next week, maybe, so that will be my next chance to get to the bottom of this mystery.
John
Unless you seal the hose going into the collection jug you're not going to eliminate the most likely cause of the problem.
Quote from: Iceni John on January 27, 2017, 10:28:07 PM
Oil level is still exactly the same as before, no change there. Tomorrow I'll drain a little out to check it, just to be sure.
More rain is forecast for next week, maybe, so that will be my next chance to get to the bottom of this mystery.
John
What's strange is that this has never happened before, even during heavy rains here. I've had the same surge tank and overflow bottle for a while now - nothing's different there. It's started happening only after I've completely redone the entire cooling system last year, so that's why I'm thinking it may be related to my recent work, but what and why I have no clue.
I checked my radiator cap yesterday - it is a 4 PSI cap, so I'm OK. I originally thought it was 7 PSI because the number was so indistinct. Good, cross one thing off the list. Next weekend I'll pressurize the cooling system to 5 PSI and see if anything weird happens. I also checked my oil yesterday - it seems OK, no obvious coolant in it, and the engine still bars over easily with a 40" breaker bar (at least, as easily as it ever does).
If after this week's forecast rains I'm still no closer to solving this mystery, then I'll just silicone everything potentially leakable and hope for the best. By next weekend I should also have heard from the makers of my exploded hydraulic fan motor whether they will be nice enough to warranty it or not. If they do, great, and if they don't I've now come up with a workable Plan B to use a regular-rotation hydraulic motor of any make or model that will drive the fan by a pair of V-belts. This way I can use a readily-available standard motor to power my opposite-rotation fan without needing some overpriced custom-made motor. I'll also install a separate pressure relief valve on the high-pressure line to the motor "just in case", and a pressure gauge to know exactly what's happening. Always something to do, or in this case redo.
Isn't bus conversion fun?
John