I am trying to find and cure a water coolant leak in a previa 97 petrol auto with no success so far.
Practical problem is, as there is no antifreeze left to colour the water, it is extremely difficult to see the water level in the expansion tank. At the moment adding more antifreeze is an expensive waste of time.
What could i use to colour the water to make it easier to see. How about food colouring? Or would that rot the rubber piping etc? Tks for any ideas.
If you go to vintage rallies etc, the stationary engine guys use a very concentrated dye in water that their engine pumps pointlessly round a circuit as long as the engine runs. I thought they used antifreeze, but this suggestion was apparently sacreligious. Said engine geezer then produced a test tube of the magic elixir of which two drops are enough to colour an entire reservoir or somesuch.
Don't ask me where to get it though.
Steve
Flourescine is the right stuff to use.
I found on a spacecruiser that the radiator was the culprit (leaking near the top) and hard to spot, also the bleed pipe from the top and the cap on the engine were suspect so I replaced them too. Best bet is just to pressurise the system and see where it falls out, if it only leaks when running then water pump may be the fault.
This is probably the stuff you are thinking of
That'll teach you not to buy a Proton...
Doesn't fluorescein need a UV light to work well? Or is the UV in daylight enough?
It shows in daylight well enough, it is better with a UV light, but quite acceptable without. If I were the OP I would just use some antifreeze in any case, it is pretty cheap, necessary and easily available, a fiver's worth and some searching will do it.
My Mum recently bought the correct antifreeze from Ford for her Ka and when I topped it up was surprised its white. How useless is that for seeing the level through the white expansion tank?
Mark
they must have changed then, the last ford anti freeze I bought was a sort of pink.
Reminds me of my youth. A handful of flourescine would colour the water of an entire reservoir or river, a gallon can of Tepol (concentrated detergent) also produced amusing results!
Julian.
Like dead fish for miles around?
years ago I went on a canal holiday through woverhampton and birmingham, the pollution was sometimes so bad that as you filled the locks the turbulence would create bubbles from all the detergent the factories were continually pumping in to the cuanal and you had the bizarre sight of a boat in a bubble bath.
Fountain pen ink?
Knowing Previas, the odds are that it's the cylinder head. It's a common issue.
Your best resource for this would be
in which case a simple test with a 'block test' kit will show it up.
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