Antifreeze

[burn_your_money]

How important is antifreeze? the reason I am asking is because the steel pipe that all the cooling hoses connect to rusted off and I didn't feel like paying 2 arms and 3 legs at the dealership so I decided to rig up my own pipe. Sounds dangerous eh? Anyways what I did/will do is purchase some cooling rubber hose and some rubber Ts and connectors. The problem with the connectors are they are only rated for cold water, but I know of people who have used them for the hot water in their house. Anyways my question is, if in the event that my connections blow out on my and my car starts overheating, will there be any damage caused to my engine for the few minutes that my car is running without antifreeze?

[jettadude]

tell me where and what it is. i have a 1.8 im tearing apart, ill give it to you if you pay shipping.

[burn_your_money]

Sounds like a deal. It's the only metal part on the whoile cooling system. It connects to your heater core, then T's off to the resevoir then it goes down around the engine to the water pump. Chances are it is rusted out like mine was tho.

[jettadude]

well can you get a pic, or a diragram on where it is. becuase im at a loss here. is it inside the car, or in the engine bay?

[burn_your_money]

I can send you a piture of where it should be, it just when I took the picture I had already removed it. I don't have a digital camera so I can't go and take another. If you give me your email i will send it to you.

[jettadude]

djjobson@yahoo.com

[burn_your_money]

email sent

[jettadude]

ill start taking it out tomm.

[Mr_Diesel]

Well, if that doesnt work out, to answer the initial question like this.

Your car will overheat and die if you run it for even 60 seconds without coolant. You need to make sure that you are glancing down at your instrument cluster often in the event that you have to jimmy rig the coolant system. First of all, if you have an A2, there will be a red flashing light on the ins cluster that will........ flash if the coolant gets too low in the overflow resivior, so... you'll know right away if there is a major coolant leak... If that light starts blinking IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEDIATLY shut off the engine, and check to see if infact "all hell has broken loose" and if so, DO NOT start the engine and drive it home. WALK to a payphone and call a towtruck. The coupe I am working on met a fatefull death for this exact reason... The 1.8L 8V cannot be killed except by this:

1. No oil
2. No coolant

Period. Other than that, the 1.8L 8V is probably the most bulletproof design EVER.

[burn_your_money]

Thanks Mr Diesel. I think I'll return the stuff I bought and get a real part. I'd rather not risk blowing my engine to smitherines. Lately I have been going nuts collecting/asking for parts so if I asked you, please reply in an email because I have a 100% chance of finding it then, rather then lost in the forum. My email is raging_freestyler@hotmail.com
Thanks

[twig]

yo diesel. i've got some oil-looking stuff floating on the top of my antifreeze...could be oil. my dad said it could be sealant for some cracks in the rad or something. so...wtf?

[91wolf]

yo diesel. i've got some oil-looking stuff floating on the top of my antifreeze...could be oil. my dad said it could be sealant for some cracks in the rad or something. so...wtf?

did you mix the orange and green coolant?


and it doesn't take 60 seconds for your car to die.. that thing will drive til it gets to the max, which is usually about a few minutes, because you still have your fan to cool it.. Although water is the main cooling process on your motor.. You will break some sh*t if you keep driving after the light starts flashing...

[burn_your_money]

The fan will do about nothing, as it's main task is to cool the coolant in the rad, and since the rad will be full of air, which is not very dense it will not be effecient at cooling the car. I had a car (eagle premier) that would always overheat and it had coolant in it, and once it started overheating it took about 3 minutes of idling for it to overheat, with no coolant I could easily see this time **** reduced to under 60 seconds.

[Mortal_Wombat]

yeah
if you blow all the coolant outta your car its gonna over heat almost instantly lol
now lets say a blown headgasket that will take longer to over heat

[Mr_Diesel]

yo diesel. i've got some oil-looking stuff floating on the top of my antifreeze...could be oil. my dad said it could be sealant for some cracks in the rad or something. so...wtf?

If the coolant resivior is not black, but you see some of that rainbow looking crap on the top, then you are okay... That rainbow crap you see in puddles of water when oil or gasoline drips into the water? I guess that's normal on older cars... Just your normal everyday junk that gets into the coolant system. It will be pretty obvious if you have blowing a headgasket... The coolant resivior will (usually) be totally black, and the car will run hotter than usual.

[91wolf]

The fan will do about nothing, as it's main task is to cool the coolant in the rad, and since the rad will be full of air, which is not very dense it will not be effecient at cooling the car. I had a car (eagle premier) that would always overheat and it had coolant in it, and once it started overheating it took about 3 minutes of idling for it to overheat, with no coolant I could easily see this time **** reduced to under 60 seconds.

actually, in a mk2, the fan does a lot for cooling...

[burn_your_money]

Yeah normally it does but with no antifreeze in the system it isn't going to do much, if anything