No coolant and completely unaware...

FlaatusGoat

born_again said:

What did the expert  mechanic friend  advise?

Replace the radiator, basically. Ones on order, now I just have the small problem of getting the van over to the garage. I get that I shouldn't drive it at all (even through keeping the expansion tank topped up?) and I do have RAC membership but I'm not sure if that includes towing from my drive way. Oh well.

Nobbie1967

FlaatusGoat said:

born_again said:

What did the expert  mechanic friend  advise?

Replace the radiator, basically. Ones on order, now I just have the small problem of getting the van over to the garage. I get that I shouldn't drive it at all (even through keeping the expansion tank topped up?) and I do have RAC membership but I'm not sure if that includes towing from my drive way. Oh well.

How far is the garage? If you start from cold, the thermostat won’t be directing coolant to the radiator. If it’s only a couple of miles you should be fine as long as there coolant in there. Put the heating on max to delay the opening of the thermostat and drive using very little throttle.

On-the-coast

Agree with Nobbie and his advice.
You seem very certain the Radiator is faulty... why not the waterpump or the hoses?
You've been given lots of conflicting advice so best to stick with what either your friend has said (if they are expert) or better still your local garage.

motorguy

Nobbie1967 said:

FlaatusGoat said:

born_again said:

What did the expert  mechanic friend  advise?

Replace the radiator, basically. Ones on order, now I just have the small problem of getting the van over to the garage. I get that I shouldn't drive it at all (even through keeping the expansion tank topped up?) and I do have RAC membership but I'm not sure if that includes towing from my drive way. Oh well.

How far is the garage? If you start from cold, the thermostat won’t be directing coolant to the radiator. If it’s only a couple of miles you should be fine as long as there coolant in there. Put the heating on max to delay the opening of the thermostat and drive using very little throttle.

I would concur with Nobby - would be fine to drive a mile or two from cold.

motorguy

FlaatusGoat said:

Had a minor melt down today (well, at least just I did and perhaps not the engine) Just by pure chance I gave a mechanic friend a lift to a petrol station and he did noticed a strong anti-freeze smell in the van (NV200/DCI1.5K) so we stopped and to my horror I saw some fumes coming from the engine bay. Not a single drop of coolant in the expansion tank. Nothing. I went white. This van has NO engine temperature gauge on the instrument cluster. I have no idea how long I've been driving on empty for.

So I sprinted into the forecourt shop and grabbed 1L of coolant concentrate, last bottle they had. Went in, filled it. Unfortunately it just wasn't enough to get back to the min level on the tank. So I re-filled the bottle with tap water (I know....but being an emergency)

Shortly after, we pressure tested. Radiator catastrophically dumping coolant. So, best case scenario is a new radiator. Worst case scenario cracked cylinder/blown gasket. Worth noting it has been a few days since I last drove the van, I'm not sure why the radiator suddenly blew a catastrophic leak (if it had developed why I was away?) The leak 'stops' or becomes quite minor when the filler cap is on. Take the cap off and it really spits it out. Also, water/coolant. How long have I reasonably got to flush before that water mix starts hurting my engine? Or, stupid question - has that already happened.

Any next steps here would be great. Bearing in mind I still need to drive the van to a garage to do the rad once they can fit me in. I'm also told radweld etc is a bad idea.

So chances are you've a busted radiator.  Could have been hit by a stone.

The vacuum effect on the system would slow the water release down if you've the radiator cap on.  I've seen that before.

If the engine is otherwise running fine i doubt theres been any damage.  Probably ok to drive a mile or two from cold but over and above that i'd be making provision for it to be trailered / towed to the mechanic.

For a "catastrophic" failure of the radiator, radweld wont do any good.

You might have got away with it ok.  Fingers crossed.    

Goudy

Diesels run high compression so if the head gasket goes, they tend to blow out.

Normally this means anything inside the engine, the oil and fuel is forced out into the coolant.
The coolant system can't cope as it's only designed to handle so much pressure, so you end up with a fountain of creamy brown diarrhoea looking sludge covering the engine bay.

As the cylinder/s can no longer compress the air properly to ignite fuel due to the head gasket, it'll run very badly, often with lots of white smoke that stings your eyes (unburnt fuel).

As you've lost the coolant, you probably won't get the creamy brown sludge, but if the head gasket is gone you'd still get the poor running.

If you've refilled the coolant as best you can and it fires up and runs ok, you should be ok. 
If it erupts into the coolant when it runs and heats up, then yes the head/head gasket is a problem.

Before trying to drive it anywhere, try filling it up with water, see if it'll run cleanly and if it does, run it up to temp as best you can.
Yes there's a leak in the rad, but with it sat on the road/drive keep topping the coolant system up and see what happens to the water/coolant as it heats up, see if it erupts as described above.
This might save you getting stuck out on the road trying to nursing it to the garage.

As for driving it to the garage, it depends on how far and how big the leak is.
The thermostat will only open when the coolant reaches around 88c or so, that means the rad will be bypassed until then. Anything you can do to keep the temp under that as long as possible will help, like using the heater and switching off the engine when stopped.

I have in the past when I radiator leaked badly and I had to shift a car a fairly long way, used couple of feet of 2in solid pipe and some hose to completely bypass the rad and connect the top hose with the bottom.
It's not ideal of course and you need some care.
I cranked the heater up full and used that to bleed some heat out, then took it very gently with a few cooling stops.
Luckily the car had a proper temp gauge to monitor.

Mildly_Miffed

Goudy said:

The thermostat will only open when the coolant reaches around 88c or so, that means the rad will be bypassed until then. Anything you can do to keep the temp under that as long as possible will help, like using the heater and switching off the engine when stopped.

Woah up... The feed TO the rad is cut off by the closed 'stat, but the return FROM the rad is permanently open. It's just that relatively little coolant flows that way with the normal direction of flow in a closed system

But if that rad is leaking badly, then all the coolant is going to be taking the opportunity to explore the rest of the world via that return, even before it's got up to temperature.

Goudy

Mildly_Miffed said:

Goudy said:

The thermostat will only open when the coolant reaches around 88c or so, that means the rad will be bypassed until then. Anything you can do to keep the temp under that as long as possible will help, like using the heater and switching off the engine when stopped.

Woah up... The feed TO the rad is cut off by the closed 'stat, but the return FROM the rad is permanently open. It's just that relatively little coolant flows that way with the normal direction of flow in a closed system

But if that rad is leaking badly, then all the coolant is going to be taking the opportunity to explore the rest of the world via that return, even before it's got up to temperature.

Yes that's right.

The water pump will be moving the water around the block with the thermostat closed, it's going to generally take the path of least resistance.

If it's a big hole, then yes that's the path it will try to follow but you need to remember the pump is designed to pull coolant from the loser hose when the thermostat is open and the rad circuit is complete.
With is thermostat closed, the coolant in the block is free so it'll be spinning that around and around and not putting too much effort on that bottom hose, either way.
It's why the lower hose doesn't collapse or pop with the thermostat closed. There's no real "free" path back from the pump to the rad via the lower hose.

But like I wrote, running it up while parked up and topping it up as it warms will give you an idea of it the HG has gone and how much coolant it's losing. 
I suspect they'll really notice the leak once the thermostat opens. 

lisyloo

FlaatusGoat said:

Is it still not a good idea to drive to the garage even if I keep an eye on the expansion tank and top up/check the level on the way? Getting it recovered isn't going to be cheap!

Presume that means you didn't bother with breakdown cover then?
Just checking in case you forgot you had it.

It may be too delayed by now, but have you considered a mobile mechanic?

FlaatusGoat

lisyloo said:

FlaatusGoat said:

Is it still not a good idea to drive to the garage even if I keep an eye on the expansion tank and top up/check the level on the way? Getting it recovered isn't going to be cheap!

Presume that means you didn't bother with breakdown cover then?
Just checking in case you forgot you had it.

It may be too delayed by now, but have you considered a mobile mechanic?

It's in the driveway thankfully, and no I only have road side assist sadly so didn't pursue that route. I have a new radiator ready to go in thankfully. Hopefully my mechanic friend can install it here in situ. I'll try getting the engine up to temperature here in the drive in the meantime and see what happens with the coolant. Very helpful much appreciated. Fingers crossed on the head gasket/cylinder