Foaming Coolant
This inquiry is for my friend Dave.
Dave has an 1967 A-H 3000. Lately, the coolant has been foaming up. He'll
go for a ride, warm the engine up, and then open the radiator cap... and out
comes a bucketful of foam! Just like soapsuds.
Even though the temperature gauge shows no overheating, Dave is worried.
He doesn't think that this foam can pump very well, and he wonders what could
be causing it. He has taken the car to three mechanics, and two of them have
verified that there is no exhaust in the foam, using a sniffing tool.
Supposedly, this rules out a leaking head gasket.
Dave did a compression test the other day, and found that two adjacent
cylinders were a bit low: 150 PSI as opposed to 160-165 for all the other
ones. Squirting oil into those cylinders brought the pressure right back up.
If there was a leaking head gasket, would oil "seal the leak" like it does with
rings?
He has also checked all the hose clamps, and tightened all the connections.
Everything checks out ( Dave keeps a *clean* engine compartment. ) And he has
verified that the water pump doesn't leak.
Anybody got any ideas? My friend is desperate! He's even called Click &
Clack, the tappet brothers.
- Jerry
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