My 71 350-2 cooling system stays under pressure for as long as a week after ive shut the engine off. It used to send out a puff of white smoke on cold starts, but now that its warmer, it doesnt seem to do it anymore and the coolent level hasnt gone down that I can tell. Could this be a head gasket problem? I know i have a thermostat problem (or lack of a thermostat) becuase the engine rarely rises over 150 degrees.. Any ideas for why its under pressure all the time? Is it a major problem?
what are u using for a radiator cap ? is it correct for the year (71) ? how old is the rad cap ? they do wear out . u need a 180 , at least , thermostat to make the engine operate efficiently . be sure the hose from the rad to the overflow is freeflowing & that there is no crap in the overflow neck off the rad filler spout . if u had a head gasket problem , u could conceivably be losing coolant , but u state that there is no loss .
Im not sure how old or if its the correct cap, but it "looks" to be in good shape and holds pressure pretty well. I havent checked the hoses for any crud that may be blocking them up though. Also, it seems it is losing small amounts of coolent somewhere around the thermostat housing, guess i'll start my search there, maybe just replace all the hoses.
Yea the cap should be the culprit. Was in my 72 Riv. No pressure. Its not likey that the hoses be blocked but if it's easy than you can check.
I have noticed that a leak neer the thermastat could mean that the the thermastat is faulty. Start pokin around you will find the problem.
... k I havnt done anything to it yet, but now it seems its pressureizing itself on its own.... Last time i ran it was saturday and i relieved the pressure by opening the cap up tuesday, and today, wednesday, it was pressurized again.... Maybe expanding vapors? Edit: my oil smells an awful lot like gasoline from when the engine was running so rich before the new plugs and carb tuning, so im gonna try changing the old oil out and see if that fixes it.
Like someone said there is a good chance you need head gaskets. I would check that before I changed the oil.
a leaking thermostat housing does not indicate a bad thermostat . it means that the housing gasket is not sealing sufficiently . u may need to file/resurface the housing before installing a new gasket . i had to flat file my housing and i also added gasket sealer on both sides of the gasket before installation .
