Superformance Questions

[BlkGoldCobra]

Hi Everyone

I recently had built a superperformance 427 cobra. It has a prestige motorsports 427 motor with a borla 8 high stack and was assembled by Olthoff Racing.

I was driving it yesterday and as i was parking it i thought i smelled coolant but thought it was my imagination. I decided to open the hood today just to be sure and saw this. Any ideas?




Another thing, there are smith gauges in the car. Are they supposed to be back lit when the lights are on at night? Because they were not lit at all.

I have had some issues with the car. The fuel gauge didn’t work, either did the emergency brake, there were nasty chips in the one rim, and the car was having severe back firing/running rich issues when it was first delivered to me. I had it returned to Olthoff but am now having these other two issues listed above.

Im in the Eastern PA region, does anyone know of a good shop/someone close that could help me get the car sorted out if need be?

Thanks
Brian

[eschaider]

Yup, that looks like coolant.

I am certain you checked gauges for back lighting when you inspected the car prior to purchasing it. What did you discover?

While we are at it, what did Olthoff say about the non working e-brake, the nasty chips in the rim(s) and the backfiring / running rich issues when you brought them up prior to purchasing the car?

[BlkGoldCobra]

I had the car built by Olthoff. There was no inspecting the car prior to Olthoff shipping it.

It was delivered to me with all those initial issues. It took a lot of back and forth with basically me threatening legal action for them to take the car back and fix the initial issues. I made it very clear that the car needed to be returned to me free from operational issues.

When i first brought up the backfiring issue i was initially told it was just air getting sucked back into the side pipe and not to worry. The only reason i realized there was more of an issue was because i got in contact with the engine builder and saw how much fuel was being dumped into the engine by connecting my laptop to the ecu.

Olthoff fixed all the initial issues which i am grateful for. My main concern is ensuring the car is not running hot or overheating damaging the motor or blowing a head gasket.

Yesterday was the first time i attempted to drive the car at night so i was surprised when the gauges were not lit when the lights were turned on.

[BlkGoldCobra]

Im more concerned about why coolant burst out of the expansion tank? Everything seemed pretty secure. The car didn’t seem like it was running hot. The water gauge was reading 70-100 celsius from what i recall.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by BlkGoldCobra

Im more concerned about why coolant burst out of the expansion tank? Everything seemed pretty secure. The car didn’t seem like it was running hot. The water gauge was reading 70-100 celsius from what i recall.

Understandably so. Even if you overfill the tank it should have shot out through the hose, not all over the tank. The expansion tank will find its own level of coolant by spitting coolant out the hose. Try filling the tank up to about an inch and a half from the tank's floor and then let it get good and hot and see where it's coming from. It could just be a faulty cap. And yes, Smiths gauges are backlit.

[mrmustang]

When you got home, what was your water temperature reading? Perhaps your car is not set up with a thermostatically controlled fan switch, although I doubt that is the case, but you do have a manual override switch for it on the dash.
Now, with that said, if the car is a fresh build, sometimes it takes a while to burp all of the air from the cooling system. Over filling helps, but the first few rides, you will get coolant to overflow from the overflow tube, until a happy level is found. From the look of it, you may have inadvertently removed the coolant cap while the car and coolant was still hot. Don't feel bad, we have all done it at one time or another.


Backlit gauges might be on a separate switch on your dash, at the very least, with a 427 SC style dash, to the bottom right of your reverse speedometer you should have a dash pot rotary switch marked "panel". Turn clockwise to turn adjust the backlight on the gauges. Can't remember off the top of my head, as it has been 14 years since I owned my last SPF 427SC body style car, but if you still do not have backlighting on your gauges, you might want to check the toggle switch above it..Of course make certain your headlights are on and the car is running.



Finally, you had the laptop attached to the ECU, did you make any adjustments at all, timing perhaps?



Hope you find this helpful.


Bill S.

[BlkGoldCobra]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

When you got home, what was your water temperature reading? Perhaps your car is not set up with a thermostatically controlled fan switch, although I doubt that is the case, but you do have a manual override switch for it on the dash.
Now, with that said, if the car is a fresh build, sometimes it takes a while to burp all of the air from the cooling system. Over filling helps, but the first few rides, you will get coolant to overflow from the overflow tube, until a happy level is found. From the look of it, you may have inadvertently removed the coolant cap while the car and coolant was still hot. Don't feel bad, we have all done it at one time or another.


Backlit gauges might be on a separate switch on your dash, at the very least, with a 427 SC style dash, to the bottom right of your reverse speedometer you should have a dash pot rotary switch marked "panel". Turn clockwise to turn adjust the backlight on the gauges. Can't remember off the top of my head, as it has been 14 years since I owned my last SPF 427SC body style car, but if you still do not have backlighting on your gauges, you might want to check the toggle switch above it..Of course make certain your headlights are on and the car is running.



Finally, you had the laptop attached to the ECU, did you make any adjustments at all, timing perhaps?



Hope you find this helpful.


Bill S.

Bill thanks for your reply. I honestly don’t remember what it was reading last night. It was definitely under 100. I do have an override switch on the dash and the fans do go on when i turn them on. I didn’t remove the coolant cap last night, i did that today when everything was completely cold. All that coolant on the tank was from last night. Prior to today i never touched the cap on the expansion tank.

The car has about 650 miles on it now.

Ill check the panel switch to see if that does anything. Thanks for that I wasn’t aware of that. - this worked, thanks for the headsup on this. Great!!

I didn’t touch the tune. That was handled by olthoff and prestige when the car was returned to them. I was instructed by prestige on how to connect my laptop so that the owner of prestige could see how the engine was performing on the initial install. The backfiring/running rich issue has been resolved when the car was returned from what i can tell.

[BlkGoldCobra]

Originally Posted by patrickt

Understandably so. Even if you overfill the tank it should have shot out through the hose, not all over the tank. The expansion tank will find its own level of coolant by spitting coolant out the hose. Try filling the tank up to about an inch and a half from the tank's floor and then let it get good and hot and see where it's coming from. It could just be a faulty cap. And yes, Smiths gauges are backlit.

Thanks ill try this. Does it matter what type of coolant i put in? Any suggestions?

[Blas]

If you contact me off line I can give you some guidance.
Blas

[sunman]

What’s up with the discoloration and crud on the tank sealing lip?
How’s the cap rubber look?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by BlkGoldCobra

Thanks ill try this. Does it matter what type of coolant i put in? Any suggestions?

That's a good question. Not every coolant is compatible with every other coolant and I don't know what's in your car. To be on the safe side, until you get to the bottom of the problem, just use distilled water -- whatever coolant you're using it's compatible with water.

[Gaz64]

Greens and Blues are compatible.
Reds and Oranges are the other group.

Do not mix from one group to the other, ie: red with green.

[BlkGoldCobra]

Originally Posted by sunman

What’s up with the discoloration and crud on the tank sealing lip?
How’s the cap rubber look?

Here is an image of the underside of the cap. Looks pretty normal to me.
Could the tank of been too full and that caused it to spew out the top?

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by BlkGoldCobra

Could the tank of been too full and that caused it to spew out the top?Attachment 39736

Possibly, but it should be squirting out your hose not from out around the cap. When I flush my coolant I always fill my expansion tank up about two or more inches and then on the first ride it fills up my catch bottle. My catch bottle is nothing fancy but that's how your coolant system finds its right level.

[IMG][/IMG]

[sunman]

I suggest you look closer at the cap rubber seal
It looks like it is compressed at contact area and maybe cracked
Maybe it’s just the photo but
Put On A New Cap First

[cycleguy55]

Originally Posted by sunman

I suggest you look closer at the cap rubber seal
It looks like it is compressed at contact area and maybe cracked
Maybe it’s just the photo but
Put On A New Cap First

Agreed. When I zoom in on that image it appears the lower seal is in rough shape and unlikely to properly seal against the expansion tank.

The bigger problem and the likely culprit of the coolant leak, however, is the upper seal. Look closely at the bottom part of it in the photo - it looks like it's torn and may have even folded over a bit when previously installed. That won't seal and will allow expanding coolant to leak. If that seal isn't leaking all the extra coolant should flow out the hose, not past the seal and over the expansion tank.

[Mark IV]

Originally Posted by cycleguy55

Agreed. When I zoom in on that image it appears the lower seal is in rough shape and unlikely to properly seal against the expansion tank.

The bigger problem and the likely culprit of the coolant leak, however, is the upper seal. Look closely at the bottom part of it in the photo - it looks like it's torn and may have even folded over a bit when previously installed. That won't seal and will allow expanding coolant to leak. If that seal isn't leaking all the extra coolant should flow out the hose, not past the seal and over the expansion tank.

Also, I suggest having a new cap pressure tested. We found 25% of a certain brand 13# caps we tested were actually between 8-11 pounds.

[BlkGoldCobra]

It currently has green colored coolant in it. I got the prestone universal coolant to add since it said it was safe for all colors, but just want to be sure that will be okay to add.

[cycleguy55]

Originally Posted by BlkGoldCobra

Here is an image of the underside of the cap. Looks pretty normal to me.
Could the tank of been too full and that caused it to spew out the top?Attachment 39736

Yes, the coolant level could have been too high and spewed out when it expanded. It's called an 'expansion tank' for good reason. As noted by patrickt, the coolant will find it's own 'proper level' - and unless it was in an overheated state when it spewed, it may already be at that proper level.

Coolant is visible in the photos, but I can't really tell at what level. Unless it's significantly below the halfway point in the expansion tank I'd leave it alone.

If you need to add more, Prestone Universal s/b okay, IMO.

[saki302]

The expansion tank shouldn't be more than about half full.

I'd swap the 'radiator' cap- it's probably just the seal, and a cheap fix.

On mine, I did have a pinhole leak at the bottom of that neck- I fixed it by getting a new tank. But it wasn't barfing huge amounts of coolant like yours.

For the lights- no idea.. check the fuse box. There's also a rheostat knob to adjust light brightness, maybe yours is turned all the way down?

-Dave