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How hard is it to do coolant elbows?

dmahlikGT

dmahlikGT

New member
Let me give the rundown.The last couple of days ive noticed my coolant temp has been higher then usual.Usually it would stay midway between the second bold line and the 210 line if its been driven for a while during the hot day. But lately its blown past 210 and today its even crept near the 3rd bold line before the red zone. After driving for a while today i shut the car off, popped the hood and heard a hissing sound near the WP/ coolant elbow area. My coolant overflow tank was nearly empty its just been a crazy day.I tried my best to keep the temp down by driving a lil fast. Also for the past month at least, i have seen some coolant leaking out of the elbow on the alt. side.But thats after sitting overnite. So my guess is that the elbow is giving up and somehow im overheating. How hard is it to replace the 2 elbows? my mechanic gave me a price quote the other day saying it would be $140 but ill save what i can if its easy.Any help.:th_depressed:
 


IM in Hudson, what area are you from?

Changing the elbows is easy.
When installing the new elbows, make sure the inside of the bores where the o-rings seal is very clean, and that there is not too much pitting, if there is excess pitting, some RTV on the o-rings will help them seal and stay sealed.

My car is a 2000, I just unbolted alt. and set to the side, there are 3 bolts to the alt/
heater hose bracket, one is hidden underneath, gotta go by feal, leave the heater hoses attached (no need to disconnect them), set bracket to the side and hold with a piece of wire. Make sure to reinstal ALTernator bolts in thier original locations, IIRC, one is longer.
 
im in south florida budd lol. ok that sounds pretty easy might tackle this myself next day off. but what do i do to drain some coolant? i dont want a mess.
 
An easy way to drain the coolant is to take some about 1/2" clear vinyl hose, about 4-6 feet long, insert down into radiator gently as far as it will go. Make sure the other end is lower then the car as much as possible, and siphon it into empty jugs.
This is the method I use, it is much easier and alot less mess than the drain plug
on the radiator. Make sure you have two empty jugs ready and open becuase once
it starts flowing, you do not want to stop it untill your drained, you should get about 1.5-2 gallons.
 
Just an update it wasnt my coolant elbow it appeared i had air in my cooling system.I had forgot to try that at first but i searched the forums and found that could be a possibility as well. So i bled the system early this mornin took awhile but all was good. 3hrs later did it again for good measure and so far after 15min of driving and 5 min of idling no more overheating and temps are normal again. Gonna give it 24 hrs and check again.
 
didnt know you had to bleed the coolant system. wheres the link for how to. i have some higher temps and wondering if thats m problem too. i replaced my water pump and just filled the system back up and drove it.
 


Yeah its not that hard really. Locate your themrostat housing then that little nut on top is where you bleed the system from. Just use a 7mm socket and take it off.Start the car and wait for coolant to start pouring out from the lil hole then close it up.Done. Id do it twice just in case, hope this helps.
 
If you had to add coolant becuase there was air in the cooling system, that means it's leaking out somewhere
In your first post you stated you saw coolant leaking out, did you fix it or did it just stop on it own?
 
its kinda weird actually.I know for sure the main coolant elbow has a slight leak not too bad though. WP no leak, Tb no leak, UIM no leak although sometimes i see a drizzle of coolant on the rear of UIM where it meets LIM(Rear head area). No leaks on the ground.But yea i had to add a good amount of coolant to my overflow tank and it seems to go down faster then normal. Im hoping is not but its a possibilty it may be my LIM gasket going.? :confused:
 
i have a seepage problem too, it only leaks externally, i wanted to pull the bolt and use sealant on it and put it back, but im s/c and theres no way to get the bolt out, so maybe you can get your bolt out and add more life to it. being your n/a.
 


for me its my lim bolt, (i cant remove it with the blower on) where ever your bolt is it also may be bolted into a coolant passage, so if you remove that bolt,(the one you see leaking) if you can you could put some plumbers sealant on the bolt and bolt it back on.
 
Serious update: My problem has gone from questionable to an actual external leak. It turns out that my main coolant elbow is leaking badly, like it happened overnite or somethin. I went to my mechanic this mornin and tell him how im loosing coolant faster then usual. He checks around the wp and elbow area and you can smell some coolant. Now ive never seen any coolant on the ground but today we see my car just dripping away and its basically a puddle now. So tom he's gonna put it on the lift for me and see where exactly its coming from but im sure its my coolant elbow now. The whole passenger side axle/subframe area is where its leaking from. WTF... Im now forced to carry a gallon of coolant around with me just in case.
 
Why rely on a mechanic?

Fill the system and fire it up. Look for the leak.

The most common coolant elbow is easy to spot as it's visible.
The heater hose to alt bracket connections are easy if you wipe them with your. Those are o-rings as well.
The water pump is down lower and would pee out the bottom of it, get flung around by the belt and WP pulley to make a nice big wet motor.

A simple inspection can tell you where it's leaking from.
 
Yea you can see wetness around the coolant elbow, more then yesturday thats why i said its prob that. He mentioned it could be my wp though. i never looked towards the bottom of it but it could be. Ill try and get it on my ramps later and see. Its crazy but i expected it since its common on these cars, i just hope i can make it til tom or the end of this week as ill have more money.
 


All I have to say is Im very lazy when it comes to working on cars and I did them in about 2 hours along with getting upset half way through and doing plugs and wires then finishing the elbows. So if I can do it almost anyone could.
 
New update: I changed the coolant elbows, a part of the main one was really stuck inside the tension bracket but took sometime to get out. All was good, i didnt drain the cooling system i just went ahead and only some coolant poured out.But anyway after getting everything back together and added some more coolant, started it up.bled the system and took for a drive.No more leaks at least externally, but the temp is still high. What else could it be? I added a good amount of coolant just in case.Any ideas?
 
How old is your radiator cap? I had similar "higher" than normal operating temp problems after I replaced LIM, UIM, heater elbows, water pump, replaced temp sensor, cleaned out the TBI, replaced thermostat with stock 195, did a radiator flush/fill as well as purge the system and my temp would rise significantly way above the 210 mark and hover around 235. Fans inspected and ran and turned on when they are supposed to around 216 and high speed at 235ish. I was running out of ideas and was just gonna give up. I went through everything I did on the car in my head-- in case I left anything out/disconnected/unplugged-- then I happened to notice that the radiator cap was the OEM on the car (2000 Grand Prix 3.8 w/ 107K). I then decided to change it with a STANT(#11331) and so far temp will stay almost put at roughly 210-214! Try changing your radiator cap if not look into a malfunctioning radiator itself if you have ruled out everything else. Hope this helps.
 
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