frantically relaxing
Senior Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2011
- Messages
- 699
Re: Buying a boat... Water trial from hell
As for passing this up to get a "better" boat-- You just never know. You may pass up a possible bad engine and end up with a complete melon (a lemon that's not even spelled right!
)
In my youth, I was working graveyard at Denny's one night when it got really really cold. At 6 am I went out and started my trusty '67 Coronet R/T's 440 and went back in for 15 minutes while it warmed up. Unbeknownst to me, the lower radiator hose was frozen solid. When I came out, I hear all this hissing and wheezing, steam is pouring from the hood, the gauge said "cold" and the inside was still ice cold. When I shut off the key to see what was happening, the thing was so hot it wouldn't shut off! It wasn't dieseling either, it was just plain RUNNING. It eventually started dropping cylinders and died, took over a minute.
I have NO idea how hot that bugger was, but it was 2 hours in 10? weather before I could change the lower radiator hose and <ahem> add some antifreeze.
Afterwards it was like nothing ever happened. It acted exactly as it did before, no extra leaks, no smells, no noises, no nothing.
Engines can take a lot of abuse...
To a point...
Flip side story-- My BIL a few years back was driving his '84 Bronco up a hill when IT started overheating. He took it a bit too far before getting pulled over- The number 2 piston in the 351 hung in the cylinder, which caused the con rod to push a hole thru it, and on the return stroke the rod tore thru the cylinder wall, and sometime after that with no clear path to follow, the rod went out the side of the block. All within a second or two. That's what happens when the get REALLY hot!
Just more commentary to confuse ya!
As for passing this up to get a "better" boat-- You just never know. You may pass up a possible bad engine and end up with a complete melon (a lemon that's not even spelled right!
)In my youth, I was working graveyard at Denny's one night when it got really really cold. At 6 am I went out and started my trusty '67 Coronet R/T's 440 and went back in for 15 minutes while it warmed up. Unbeknownst to me, the lower radiator hose was frozen solid. When I came out, I hear all this hissing and wheezing, steam is pouring from the hood, the gauge said "cold" and the inside was still ice cold. When I shut off the key to see what was happening, the thing was so hot it wouldn't shut off! It wasn't dieseling either, it was just plain RUNNING. It eventually started dropping cylinders and died, took over a minute.
I have NO idea how hot that bugger was, but it was 2 hours in 10? weather before I could change the lower radiator hose and <ahem> add some antifreeze.
Afterwards it was like nothing ever happened. It acted exactly as it did before, no extra leaks, no smells, no noises, no nothing.
Engines can take a lot of abuse...
To a point...
Flip side story-- My BIL a few years back was driving his '84 Bronco up a hill when IT started overheating. He took it a bit too far before getting pulled over- The number 2 piston in the 351 hung in the cylinder, which caused the con rod to push a hole thru it, and on the return stroke the rod tore thru the cylinder wall, and sometime after that with no clear path to follow, the rod went out the side of the block. All within a second or two. That's what happens when the get REALLY hot!
Just more commentary to confuse ya!
