[DML] Radiator Story

["Rick Heile" <rick.heile@xxxxxx>]

A few weeks ago I posted asking how to be sure I fully filled the 
coolant in the car. I have a 150 mile round trip to work and it seems 
that when I get back home I was down a quart. Maybe there was an air 
bubble in the system somewhere and I wanted to get it out.

Well that was not the problem. Before I bought this Delorean it sat 
for untold years in a barn. I knew this was the case when I purchased 
it and did all of the normal things that have been discussed here 
before I even started it. I flushed the coolant system twice before 
event road testing it. 

The first year on the road saw some issues other than the cooling 
system. To all of you this would be normal kinks getting worked out. 
It was this year when I noticed the drop in coolant after I flushed 
it before driving it this season.

On one of the 98+ degree days here in MA the state police decided to 
create a road block to check each cars license and registration. I 
sat still for over an hour. By the time I got moving again I noticed 
that my temp gauge was starting to climb even though the fans were on.

Now I started to see a bit of steam coming out of the back. After 
saying a few choice words I pulled over and let it cool. At the next 
exit was a gas station so I started it back up and drove it in.

I pulled around to the service entrance and a whole bunch of people 
came out to see because when I stopped and shut the car off I was in 
a full cloud of steam. They were all saying that I had just come back 
from the future.

I was not in too good a mood but dealt with the on lookers. After 
letting it cool for two hours I filled the coolant back up and took 
it directly to my mechanic. He determined that the radiator was not 
working correctly. 

When I bought the car I did check to see if it had the original 
radiator. It did not, it had a brass radiator. Well after pulling the 
radiator we tore it apart. It was more than 60% clogged with a gummy 
goo. My mechanic said that when coolant sits for a long time it 
breaks down into a gummy residue and since the capillaries of the 
radiator are so tiny they all get trapped in there. Once stuck, 
flushing will not help.

The reason I was down a quart after every trip was that a bit of the 
coolant was boiling off each day. 

This is just some information to the group, that if you find a low 
mileage Delorean do not think that that is a gem. These cars need to 
be driven to stay healthy.

Rick
3290




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