Major Coolant Loss

[steamship]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Sean, I'm trying to make sense of this, but I'm missing something....
Where exactly is this? and how big - diameter and length? And what is it's role in the cooling system?

And as for getting it out, was it a Clic-R tool you needed?

The previous photos are the underside of the pipe.

The end you see (with the holes) connects to a rubber hose that attaches to the top of the radiator. It then runs down the left side of the engine, does a 90 degree turn and connects to another rubber pipe at the back of the engine. The pipe is L-shaped, measuring about 46cm x 17cm x 3cm diameter. Looking at the pipe from just below each barcode in the background, the pipe is triangular in shape. I've flipped this image of the entire pipe so that it looks the same way it would sit in the engine bay.

The other attachment is the type of pliers I needed. I just know them as hose pipe pliers, but I got a set which includes a pair of the Clic-R ones.

[HPsauce]

Originally Posted by steamship

The other attachment is the type of pliers I needed. I just know them as hose pipe pliers

Ah, for those horrible spring band things!
If I encounter those I tend to try and replace them with jubilee clips.

[Ronin]

isnt that pite stainnless? how dod it rust?

[MikkiJayne]

Its chromed then painted mild steel. Not sure why they chromed it tbh - it makes no sense when it is then painted black afterwards. Possibly they were trying to reject heat from the exhaust manifold and then decided it looked rubbish so painted it.

Rust on steel cooling parts is usually caused by a constant leak (ie the oil cooler pipe) which then gets topped up with plain water, or, ironically, the coolant being too old and losing its anti-corrosive properties. The latter is quite rare on D2s because they have usually been in bits for something well before the coolant goes bad

[steamship]

Originally Posted by HPsauce

Ah, for those horrible spring band things!
If I encounter those I tend to try and replace them with jubilee clips.

Quite understandable as I don't like them either, but because of where it was I didn't have much choice. After removing the intake pipe to the throttle body, a rubber pipe coming from the SAI and unbolting and pushing aside several shrouded cables, I could just about touch the clip with my fingertips, and I don't have fat fingers.

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Rust on steel cooling parts is usually caused by a constant leak which then gets topped up with plain water, or, ironically, the coolant being too old and losing its anti-corrosive properties

"ay, there's the rub" ...and MJ has once again hit the nail on the head. I think it's what they refer to as karma. A combination of little events resulting in disaster.

1. (For those with a good memory) Knowing about an insignificant leak from the radiator so small you can only see a tiny bit of steam coming from the top corner after a long run and not getting around to fitting a new one (which I have sitting here).
2. Topping it up once in a blue moon with said 'plain water' because my garage is a locked shipping container and water is easier to get hold of.
3. Underestimating just how cold it's been these last couple of weeks. I've been living in this house in NI on and off for 50 years and have never seen it so cold (-6 at 9am on the day in question).

We live and learn from our mistakes!

[steamship]

Good new and bad news.

The good news is that I got the refurbished pipe from MJ yesterday, and fitted it today. You can see from the photo a comparison of old and new. Fitted everything back together again, no spares parts left over so started filling it with antifreeze and water...

Now the bad news. There's another leak from the front of the engine, but I think I'll need to take the entire front off to see where it's coming from. Hoping it's something simple like the water pump gasket or water pump, but fearing the worst. Not a very good photo, but it's taken from the top of the right bank, looking down towards the centre

[MikkiJayne]

Damn. Thats not a good place to have a leak.

Lmk if you need to borrow the timing tools to take the belt off.