Move car w/ NO coolant?

[ragtoplvr]

Used to demo derby

Could take up to 10 minutes for a new yorker 440 to seize after the radiator was punctured. After cooling, most would run again. Then we rebuilt and ran them like we stole them.

Some heads would crack. Your 30 seconds is nothing to worry about.

Most of the time the water pump seal was good after rebuild

Do they still have demo derbys?

Rod

 

[bunnspecial]

Twice in the time I've been driving, I've had catastrophic coolant losses while moving. The first was a plastic cooling hose junction "blowing up" for lack of a better term on the interstate, while the second a series of events that bent a fan blade that in turn gouged out the radiator at somewhat lower around town speeds.

In both cases, I drove probably more than 30 seconds after noticing the coolant loss to get to a safe stopping place and safely get the car stopped. The gouged radiator was driven ~100 feet off the truck and into my car port as it would have been nearly impossible to get the roll back closer and it needed to go up a hill that needs a half dozen people pushing a car to get it up(don't ask me how I know that...).

The one that went on the interstate was a newish and fairly high strung DOHC aluminum V8(Lincoln LS). It had 110K on it when that happened, and had 156K when I sold it a couple of years later. I last saw it around town a few months ago, and the new owner has put another 20K on it with nothing other than routine maintenance.

The gouged radiator was in my MG, which admittedly is an old sloppy cast iron OHV I-4. Still, though, it continues to run perfectly fine.

I wouldn't think twice about running a stone cold engine without coolant long enough to move it around my driveway. Running it up to temperature wouldn't be a great idea, but it's not going to hurt anything in the amount of time that takes.

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted by SavagePatch
Originally Posted by oldhp
Correct me if I'm wrong but the water pump does not use coolant to lubricate itself. It is a sealed bearing. Right???


Dunno, always thought the coolant lubricated as well.

nope ! The bearings are sealed.

 

[CT8]

As usual bob is the mostly miss information guy.

 

[SavagePatch]

I played it safe and left the car as is for the night and went down to a dealer this morning and got a new plug. Used an Easy-Out on the portion of the broken plug still in the drain hole.

Thanks for the advice and info. Learned something new.

1)Bearings are NOT lubricated by coolant.

2)Seals ARE lubricated by coolant.

 

[CT8]

2)Seals ARE lubricated by coolant.



[/quote]
Not really .they are a sealed bearing I when working have rebuilt many water pumps. What then lubricates the pulley side of the sealed bearing? Air and dirt?