Hi Everyone, The situation with my leaking header tank is getting worse. A trail of coolant on my street as I return home every night. Not good. The removal seems pretty straight forward. Disconnect a few hoses and remove the tank. But I have a few questions about draining the system. 1. How much coolant does the system hold? I was thinking of catching it all in a container but what size do I need? 2. Best point of drainage is under the radiator? I searched for this and only found a post back in 2009. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/206-246/252671-am-i-running-hot-am-i-king-neurosis.html jselevan outlined how to bleed the system and touched on drainage. He mentions the drain plug on the bottom of the radiator. But then he also mentions bleed valves on either side of the engine block. Is it sufficient to only drain from the radiator if my goal is to remove the header tank? Will draining from the radiator remove enough coolant to allow me to "cleanly" remove the header tank? Will I need to run the engine a bit to remove coolant in the block as advised by jselevan? 3. Never having seen a bleed valve, might someone have a pic? Thanks for any assistance, Manny
if you just need to take out the coolant water tank, just keep the water in the system, draining isn`t necessary.... just empty the tank with hose....
you put a little hose in, suck in and put the other end o the hose below coolant tank level. when the tank is empty it can easily be taken out without dropping any coolant fluid I just did a few week ago, took me 10 minutes.... you repair the coolant tank and just put it back in...
I'm not 100% clear on your questions, but here goes: If you're just removing the header tank for repair throw a big towel or catch pan under the lower hose connection, loosen and let it drain into that, expect half a gallon. You'll probably have the right wheel off or rear trunk firewall access panel so you could wipe the spill down with rags. Remove teh two mounting bolts and pull out. If you're doing a complete flush I like to remove the lower radiator hose and open the header tank fill to vent. Reattach, fill with 100% distilled water, heat cycle and inspect the color. If there is any color in the water then do it again (lather, rinse, repeat). This eliminates the need to access the block drain plugs. When you are satisfied the cooling system is clear, empty one last time, fill with two bottles of NAPA H2O pump lube #13 and 50/50 coolant/distilled water. A note on drain plugs; two in the block and one on the radiator stem, they barely need to be finger tight to seal. Many times PO have tightened them so hard that they're damaged when you try to remove them. Going for the radiator hose avoids these and has a higher flow.
Matthias and Scott, I feel confident about the process. I have a liquivac that should be perfect for the job. I love the "10 minute" part. Those are the timeframes that I like. Thank you very much. Manny
Manny Remember not to overfill the tank when you have finished that 10 min job. You need to leave at least 2" from the filler cap for expansion of water when it gets hot. tony
Matthias, your "10 minutes" equals my 45 minutes and counting! My liquidvac worked like a charm. Then came removing the hoses. The hose under the cap came off with a bit of work. But the other 2... The smaller of the 2 was eventually removed by using a plumber's wrench. The big one at the bottom is still on at this point in time as I haven't been able to get much action with my plumber's wrench due to the lack of space. I thought maybe if I remove the bolts, I can move the tank around to give me more space to the bottom hose. How do you get to the nut securing the bolts? Luckily, the bolt on the passenger side wasn't completely tight. So I was able to hold the nut with my fingers while removing the bolt. But the other one... It was more securely attached so my fingers couldn't prevent the nut from turning with the bolt. I finally used a flat head screwdriver to wedge against the nut. Now with the tank loose, I still don't have much room to get at the bottom hose. But time ran out. I'll get to it tomorrow. But what's the secret to those nuts and bolts? I'm worried about putting them back. How do I secure it? What tool do you guys use?
I am able to get a wrench in to hold the nuts as I undo / tighten the bolt. Yes, getting the big hose off can be a challenge. I usually try pushing it ON further just to try to break the adhesion between the rubber and paint/metal, then pull it off by twisting it as I pull. Last ditch method is to cut the hose (without cutting the metal underneath it) and replace the hose.
Jim, I'm leaning toward "last ditch". But I'm going to see if I can get better access from under the tank. Maybe through the wheel well? As for the nuts and bolts, are you using an open end wrench? Good to know there is a way to do this.
Manny, In your rear trunk, can you remove the firewall panel? They were originally attached with rivets but over the years many have been drilled out and sheet metal screws substituted making them quick and easy to gain access. It took about 20 mins to access 05984's starter when it failed nearby. Alternatively, you can remove the complete cross bar that the header tank mounts on. From each rear wheel well, you'll need to remove each of the two wire tied 19mm bolts. In fact, if you just loosen these bolts then you can rotate the bar the header tank is on about 20 degrees. This will allow you to access the rear of the mounting nuts. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Manny: WD 40 on bolts and nuts is always a good help. In old nuts, open or close wrenchs of the Metrinch type are the best. They works on the nut "wall" not in the angle. Regards, Alvaro
SUCCESS!!! Coolant tank has been extracted from the car!!! It took removing the passenger rear wheel and panel. And a plumber's wrench to finally pull that bottom hose off of the tank. Thanks for all the advice everyone. I'll put them to good use when I put the tank back in. Hopefully, it will be easier than taking it out. M
Here's a pic from the radiator shop. They said I have 2 options. The simple one is just solder the area. Or open the tank and repair from inside and re-assemble. Of course the second option is more costly. I didn't know the tank splits in two. Which would you guys recommend? Image Unavailable, Please Login
At the FCA 2015 Meet I stopped by GTO Engineering in the Mercado. They have acquired FIM Forcellini and are the source for these now. Check their prices, it might be cheaper to just buy a new one FIM 246 Dino Header Tank | GTO Engineering FIM Radiators | GTO Engineering "FIM Radiators GTO Engineering recently acquired all the original tooling and Ferrari drawings for the classic Ferrari radiators made by FIM Forcellini Radiatori. As such we are now able to remake radiators to identical original specifications. The radiator drawings we have range for 1946 to 1986 for both Ferrari road and competition cars. There are simply too many variants to list, so please enquire for a specific radiator for your car."
Rob, I'm leaning toward this option. But I just wanted to understand the process. I'm going to speak with them in person tomorrow. Thanks for your input. Synchro, that's great to know. Thanks.
Apparently the lubricant is a special water soluble one. Recall the reson you flush is to remove rust and contaminants. a pic is worth.... Image Unavailable, Please Login
How is that supposed to work? I am curious when you have sealed bearings and a mechanical seal.!! Why would you want to lube a impeller!!
