The Houston 04 SE

[78F350]

'All day' isn't so long anymore.
Back to the radiator. The JB Weld repair looks good. I used “KwikWeld”, not for a permanent fix, but good enough for a few days. The radiator is pretty easy to install. The hardest part is getting the hoses in place and clamped. It can be hard to reach with the radiator in place, so I just put one bolt part way in while I got everything set. To tighten the lower hose, I put my head underneath and looked up. Perfect position to have the radiator fall off the one loose bolt and smack me in the face. I'd have a black eye, or worse, but fortunately I was wearing safety glasses. With the radiator installed, I topped the car off with distilled water, then noticed a slight leak from the radiator on the other side. No big deal, just a slow drip. Woody (https://www.facebook.com/Woodys-Parts-LLC-866155110110548/posts?) is sending me a good used replacement and a spare.

With coolant, I could finally run the engine enough to warm it up and burn some of the moisture out of the engine. It started easily and ran smooth. Lots of white smoke as it warmed up. About 10 minutes in, the Low Oil Pressure light came on. Not good. These engines die catastrophically without good oil flow. I shut it down immediately and hoped for the best.

Time for an oil change. The oil that came out still had a lot more moisture in it than I expected. It was a milky caramel color rather than translucent maple syrup I had hoped it would be. At least the filter looked good. I refilled with about 9 quarts of cheap synthetic, had a cup of coffee and thought about what to do next.
Video:
https://youtu.be/9zIiqB1FHmc