91 740 wagon with standard 4 cyl red block and Bosh ignition system.

Wagon will spit antifreeze out of the coolent bottle, started as real intermittent.

I replaced cooling fan (old one was long dead)

Ran test under FAQ's many times with the NAPA solution as detailed below.

This test was always negative, even after storming up my 650 foot in elevation change from the lake to my house and immediately testing the reservoir air space.

No cloudy oil, even after 4,000 miles. Not a big loss of coolent, mostly through splash and sputter out of the cap. Running with the reservoir cap loose seemed to cut down on loses of coolent, but now it does it on cool days.

Replaced thermostate with a known good one.

Radiator is relatively new (2 years) and coolent is less the one year old.

Coolent temp guage is solid at the center of the guage, goes up normally and stays put.


Anybody with a similar issue, I hate to pull the head for no reason...... Never did it before, and car probably is not worth having a garage do it....

Oh, 175,000 miles relatively decent condition.

Thanks to the all knowing board peple.

Eric





FYI, this is the test I did.....

The second is a block test, also known as a combustion leak test, performed on the coolant in the radiator/expansion reservoir to determine if you have exhaust gases in your cooling system. A combustion test kit can be found on the web or at your local NAPA,Snap-On, or auto parts store. The part number is NAPA 700-1006 ($50) or Snap-On GDCT16 "Combustion Leak Tester ". The homemade version is in Special Tools. Exhaust gases in your cooling system can suggest a head gasket leak, a cracked block, or a warped head, etc. To do the test, add the blue detector fluid to the block-tester plastic container according to the directions, and place it onto the coolant reservoir. The squeeze bulb is squeezed repeatedly (Some block testers, have a tube that connects to a vacuum line instead of a squeeze bulb). Squeezing the bulb will draw air from the reservoir through the test fluid. Block tester fluid is normally blue. Exhaust gases in the cooling system will change the color of the fluid to yellow, indicating a combustion leak. If the fluid remains blue, exhaust gases were not present during the test. The vehicle should be started and at operating temperature before performing the test.
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1990 745 258k Rex, 1991 745 160k Bosch, (RIP 89 745 250k)