Nothing funny about a cracked cilinder liner. Fact is that this happens, even with our Ferrari engines.
You mean that the cooling system is set under extra pressure due to mixture being pumped through a cracked liner into the cooling system? But the excess pressure wouid leave the system again through the cooling reservoir cap I would think...
indeed. the more presure you put on the outside of the cylinder liner, the tighter the gap in the crack. presure from the inside, combustion, will open the gap and push air into the cooling system.
Tow truck picked the car this afternoon. Will keep this thread posted when I know what the problem is.
Please do. As it now varies from "no problem at all" to a possible cracked liner... I hope it turns out to be a minor problem...
This year I've lost my mother and my grandfather both thanks to cancer...anything that can be fixed with money is a minor problem. The specialist is going to take pictures so I'll post them when I have them. If it ends up being something really big, well... sh** happens, it will get fixed sooner or later. I think that kind of thinking is the only way of living the experience with these cars without getting badly frustrated.
Sorry to hear about the trouble especially with your big track day coming up. That sucks! Keep us posted.
Of course I am guessing but I say something simple. My car leaks about 1 oz of coolant everytime I trailer i back to canada or down to the states. In 3 years since coolant change have not added coolant allways is good. I am thinking a loose hose clamp?. It leaks by drivers feet so not by engine. Anyway good luck and looking forword to the solution.
I doubt many of the things people have suggested. When the car was hot, did it push any fluid out the overflow hose on the header tank? If the pressure was substantial, this would have happened. This would happen with cylinder pressure entering the cooling system. Steps to take, 1. ensure the system is bled properly, let it warm up to temperature and monitor to see if overflowing from header tank. If not, take for small drive and monitor. If still no leaks, go grab a beer and relax 2. If an issue is evident, start with thermostat (its easy and cheap) 3. If problem exists, test pressure in cooling system with pressure tester. start with engine cold and repeat with warm engine. If it holds pressure, switch attention to water pump 4. Look into the oil/water heat exchanger 4. If your reading this step, grab a tub of lube as its not going to be good
Time to go to the first post: The cooloing system holds pressure, no external or internal leaks. Typical signs of a failed head gasket (not a crack in the head or liner as this would allow coolant flow into one of the cylinders when the engine is stopped, i.e. no pressure holding) If the engine is run with the cap open, the coolant at no pressure will easily boil when the engine is stopped due to heat soak, aided by the hot gass bubbles that were being continuously pushed into the coolant. It looks very much to me a (small) cylinder head gasket failure. Some try solving small gasket leaks by re-torquing the heads but I would not go for that.
Sorry to hear about your losses and I'm sure it was very frustrating for this to happen right on your big trip. Keep us updated and hopefully it's nothing major.
The way i read it was.. <next day car sat for 24hr untouched opened the cap and water flowed out>.I would think that after 24hr the water would of cooled down.
The implication is that a head gasket leak is pressurizing when the cylinder pressure is high but that once the cylinder pressure drops the gasket reseals preventing the cooling system from venting back into the cylinder. I.e. like a check valve as I said in post #3. Thus, trapped air at pressure which expels coolant when the cap is removed. The problem I have with that is since there is no mention of coolant loss out the overflow when the cap in on, such a head gasket leak would have to be limited to pressurizing the cooling system only to a pressure still below that of the cap relief pressure. So there are a lot of caveats. The assumed gasket leak is sufficient to push air into the cooling system where it remains trapped and then expands and forces coolant out when the cap is removed, but the leak is not sufficient to raise the system pressure such that coolant is forced out the overflow when the cap is on. Giver that the max cylinder pressure can be as high as 800 or 900 psi when running and the cap relief pressure is about 15 psi, there would have to be a pressure drop (loss) of more than at least 785 psi (800-15) across the leakage path.
Yuuups Thats what happens with the Durmax Diesels its called "hard hose" Not only that it seals and keeps pressure overnight from the gasket acting like the check valve if you pressure test the cooling system that check valve closes and the test passes. It will also do the same thing dropping coolant into the oil HG are a strange thingy ma jig for sure
Precisely. Such small gasket leaks usually slowly push the coolant out pass the pressure cap (when the car is driven a bit harder, not at idle), more or less depending on how fast the created gas bubbles can find their way up to the expansion tank (as allowed by the cooling system design) and how high is the coolant level. Anyhow, you will have a mass of coolant full of gas "springs" which do not lose all of their tension during engine cool down. It looks like, in the case of the 348 engine, the gas bubbles conveniently accumulate somewhere down in the engine probably forming a trapped large pocket under pressure (air lock) which then pushes the coolant above it when the cap is removed. If only a 1 mm gas bubble is created at just one cylinder, you will have, at say 5,000 rpm, 2,500 such bubbles in a minute, 25,000 in 10 min. etc. I am currently solving similar problem on my recently purchased Daimler Super V8 (supercharged). If driven gently, it would go for up to about 70 km before "low coolant" light comes on (would lose about a litre and a half). When removing the heads, I found that most of the head bolts (especially around the middle of the head) were way below the proper torque and three bolts in the middle of one of the heads were completely lose (the PO installed new gaskets but stripped many of the threads in the block). Perfect check valve - the combustion pressure flexes the head up and some gas escapes into the cooling system. With no combustion, the head is sufficiently clamped down to prevent coolant flow into the cylinders.
I don't have the answer but, w/o presenting the math, for coolant to be ejected like a volcano when the cap is removed after 24 hours, assuming everything is cold and the system was correctly filled, would require at more that 1 L of air trapped in the engine or other locations besides the expansion tank.
When I said that the coolant volcanoed it wasn't after 24h. It was with the car idling at operating temperature, coolant cap removed and it did it just the moment I shut the engine off. The specialist received the car yesterday so I'll post any updates I get. He's very busy, lots of Maseratis and ferraris for service right now so I don't know when he'll start working with my 355.
I guess I should not have used the word 'Volcanoes". The point remains the same. If properly filled you need to get the equitant of about 1L of air at atmospheric pressure trapped elsewhere in the cooling system before the coolant level in the expansion tank will rise to the level where it overflows when the cap is removed if everything is cold.
The mechanic is still dealing with it, he has a warehouse full of ferraris and Maseratis for service so it will take time, that's why I didn't update. This case seems to be some kind of poltergeist, the mechanic has been using the car and has driven it a total of 120 miles and nothing of what happened to me is happening to him. To this date he has performed a chemical test to see if there where exhaust gasses in the coolant and the result was negative. No excessive pressure in the system, no leaks no nothing. Compression and leak down ok... no water/oil mix anywhere to be found... in fact he told me that of all the f355s he's driven mine is top 5 in performing/well taken care of. Right now we've agreed that being such a costly repair it's better to not do anything until the exact cause is pin pointed out and use the car as always until the issue reappears. Meanwhile they will respray the entire car and replace the front windshield which is delaminating badly. Will keep updated.
I read most of this thread ...... even if there is nothing wrong with engine seals or gaskets ..... the two small hoses at the top of the coolant filler tank are notorious for internal swelling. They swell to the point of zero or near zero flow. These hoses help keep air in the expansion tank where it belongs. If these hoses are hoses are OE they should be replaced.
