Hi folks,

Thanks again for all the great advice on how to get my car apart and put it back together.

In my earlier posts, I had thought I had a transmission cooler leak, since my reservoir was really nasty, with opaque brown goo in it, and my hoses were oily and funky.

Well, I set up to change my radiator, and drained my engine block (after a lot of struggling and skinned knuckles). The coolant was ok-looking! In the pan underneath the car, I was seeing pretty healthy-looking green + orange (looks like the two kinds has been mixed at some point) iridescent liquid.

It drained really, really slow, even though I took the reservoir cap off. Weird thing, though - the reservoir never dropped. I drained the radiator, and the reservoir tank was still full.

What the heck?

I removed the reservoir hose at the radiator, and nothing came out. I looked inside the hose (carefully, since I thought something might JUMP out), and some brown stuff like mud was sitting in there. I removed the reservoir, poured it out, and removed the other end of the hose. Impacted brown gunk! Stretching the entire length of the hose!!! Turns out this is a 20-year-old Volvo OEM hose. Looked wonderful from the outside.

Any ideas what this was, guys? In the documentation I got from the previous owner, the transmission was replaced twice at the dealership - once in '99, and then in '00. The original was broken by a leaking radiator - but the Volvo guys didn't catch the leak the first time, so the second transmission was broken the same way. I figure a years-long transmission leak could have made some major gunk deposits in the cooling system. I think the hoses are from 2000, too, when the radiator was replaced (with a Blackstone, by the way).

When I took the transmission cooler lines off, the discharge was nice and reddish. I guess the problem was never my radiator, but I'm glad I changed it - I figure a lot of that brown mud is in my radiator, too.

Thanks for reading!

Ari

Run "coolant flush" through th tranny oil cooler - my AT rebuild guy gives me one can with hoses every time he rebuilds a tranny for me -he says it's cheap insurance, and I have yet to trouble him with a bring-back.
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1990 244DL@168k aka 'Vicki', daily driver; 1994 854 ti+ @126k, being reconstructed as rally car; 1997 Chevy Tahoe LT @160k, boat hauler/family wagon; wifemobile 1995 FROD Exploder Edgy Bowel Edition @137k; small fleet of 98-01 Crown Vics (taxis); etc...

How's the heater working? You may also want to flush it out. It's probably full on gunk too.

The heater smells a bit like coolant, but it never mists the windshield or anything. It's pretty hot, and I like it. I'll replace the heater hoses later (along with the heater valve), since their clips are really rusty and the hoses look funky. But I gotta get my car rolling today, so after my thermostat's gasket sealer has gone the requisite 24 hours (from 3:30 yesterday), I'm filling her up and seeing if I have any leaks.

Ari

After filling and running the engine, you may have to Burp the system.

If teh car runs and starts to over heat, Grab the Upper hose and squeeze it hard...Pump it actually. That will get the air bubble out. Your temp gauge should go down to normal and that Upper hose should get nice and hot.

My guess is that the Dealer never thought to clean out that hose. I probably wouldn't have though of it either considering it's a fairly big hose.

The one Auto transmission car I have, I ran a separate Trani cooler,avoiding the Radiator all together.

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'75 Jeep CJ5 345Hp ChevyPwrd, two motorcycles, '85 Pickup: The '89 Volvo is the newest vehicle I own. it wasn't Volvos safety , it was Longevity that sold me http://home.no.net/ebrox/Tony's%20cars.htm

Yet more proof that radiator failures are wasting lots of Volvo trannys. I hope I saved mine (and you yours).

My guess is that it was stuff that was there before and never got cleaned out.
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George Downs, Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!