Automotive Questions Like How To Choose a Tow Vehicle and More LIVE

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Now here is the Under the Hood Show podcast. This is Under the Hood. Welcome to the Under the Hood

Show. We are glad to have you with us. Russ Evans is here to answer your automotive questions.

Thanks for joining us under the hood. Shannon Nordstrom is here to do the same.

Welcome hoodies. Thanks for tuning in so we can help you tune up. I'm Chris Carter here to answer

your calls at 866-594-4150. 866-594-4150. Do you have anything? You tease something

on our Facebook page before we started but we do have calls. Yeah no no we're gonna have the owner

of the car that I mentioned on with us. And so we'll take care of our other calls first and then

we'll when he fits in we he fits in. If I would say this if you don't know what we're talking about

and you're squeamish. Don't go check it out. It's not that bad once you know what it is. I thought

look at it closer. Okay all right all right let's go first to Kent. Kent you're on the Under the

Hood Show. What can we do for you? Hey guys thanks for taking my call first time caller here. I've

got a 2017 Colorado with a 2.8 Duramax and a test drive. I haven't bought it yet and I'm just kind

of I really haven't had a diesel for 30 years. The last one I had was a 5.7 so you know how bad

that was but anyway my question is I test drove it. It does seem a little noisy and a little

badly. It's got 95,000 miles on it and then I test drove the same model in the V6 Colorado

2017 and I'm I got a camper that I pull and it's 2500 or it's 25 foot. It's only weighs 5,000 pounds.

I was really looking for a diesel for the fuel economy and the power but I'm really worried

about it. I've been reading some forums about you know the turbos and the timing belt that

goes bad and there's a lot of stuff with their emissions for the death and I'm just wanting

it in your opinion excuse me I'm just wanting in your opinion and if it's even worth messing with

a diesel for just a few more pounds payload or just stick with the V6. I bet. I've got thoughts

right away and Russ I'm looking at him he's got thoughts right away and I'm trying not to come

come on too hard here. I got none. But you say you got the camper weighs 5,000 pounds

is my first question is go to the camper and that's empty.

Right? Well it's 43 and 43 empty and I usually put about eight to a thousand pounds.

Okay so five thousand pounds total at a scale. What's the GVW with those two different

Colorado's with the diesel or the gas? Oh shoot that I didn't write down. They're real similar.

Are they they've got to be somewhere in the right in that 5,000 to 7,000 pound range probably?

Yeah yeah I would say so yep. I wouldn't do that. No that's him. The vehicle's too small for that

load. That's that's our my first opinion regardless of gas or diesel. Yep you are already I don't know

the exact numbers but you are already at max payload with your loaded unit and you really

should be and we give this rule of thumb and it's not just an under the hood show rule of thumb

you'll see it in a lot of places but 80% of your GVW is where you should max out at so it gives you

room for heavy wind, hills, you know the braking equivalency is a big challenge if you get into

a into a challenge. Sure. Because if you just imagine hooking a 25 foot camper up to that truck

it's not going to look right. It's just not enough truck when you can just look at it.

And so that's my first opinion. Trailer's going to move the truck around. If you get into a situation

you just don't have enough mass. Now I'll back up. The Colorado's of that generation are a very

very good truck. They sell a lot of them. They're very popular. The gas ones. The diesel itself

I would not buy the diesel as a positive for pulling or anything like that. I would buy the diesel

if you knew that you were looking for fuel economy and you were going to run that thing

up and down the road a lot like a big diesel because they do have challenges and when they

break it's getting very hard to find places to work on them. Even the dealers, some dealers

won't work on them if they're once they're out of warranty and they're they are so expensive to

fix. I mean incredibly expensive to fix and they have little things little nuances on them that

break that are not readily fixable. When the glow plugs go out and you need to replace them

and they get stuck in the head that's that's a big deal a really big deal and it gets very

expensive and they put these wet timing belts in these engines. Any engine with a wet timing belt

is not a good idea. A lot of people don't change the oils when they should. There's no additive

in there to prevent acid buildup and it eats away belts. The dealers thought this would be

the manufacturers thought this would be a good thing to put wet belts in vehicles.

They're not. I mean it's hard to change. I mean a lot of things are very difficult to do on those.

If you're going to buy a Colorado like this if you said hey I'm looking at a Colorado to

drive to work and to put my tools in the back and stuff like that you said I've got two choices.

A gas or diesel we'd say we're a raving fan of the gas engine. It's going to be great dependable

long lasting but that diesel no it's going to cost you a ton. We got that from a lot of

experience with customers that own those and they hate them. They're just well it's good one.

And then and on the other hand the V6 has proven to be quite dependable and it works fine but you

just they're not as fuel efficient as you think they should be when you look at the truck being

a mid-sized truck. Now on that diesel too if you had both these vehicles you're talking about fuel

economy empty cruising down the highway. Yeah that diesel gets a lot better miles per gallon but

when you hook the trailer behind both of them and you're trying to drag 4,000 pounds with either one

of them that diesel fuel economy is going to go right down into the toilet because you're putting

under a load and it's going to dump fuel in there to trade for power so it's going to make a big

big difference there. Same thing happens with an EcoBoost Ford they are incredible you know with

those V6s driving on the road empty they get great miles per gallon compared to a V8 but once you

load them the percentage drop off on a turbo V6 versus the V8 is completely different night and day.

Oh wow you lose a lot more and then you got the turbos to worry about too. Yeah yeah there's a lot

of expensive components but you know if I was going to buy a Ford truck and I wasn't going to haul

anything with it I'd get the EcoBoost for fuel economy and they got great power they're great

for every day but if I was going to tow I'd be getting a coyote engine because I don't want the

problem with the things. Or you have to make sure that you buy it with the tow package with the

heavy duty this heavy duty that that gives you a fight and chance. Correct right. Yep okay well

you've answered both my a bunch of my questions I was a little worried about that diesel myself and

then I haven't had one and I read all the forums of course you hear all the bad stuff and the timing

belt and yep I appreciate you guys' work and your knowledge and I just thank you and punch.

Thanks Kent thanks very much for the call. Yeah that is one thing when you go to the forums

people generally don't go on the forums and say it's been great I did no problems I've

got my old changes at regular times and everything's going great 140,000 miles no one does that.

They're in the minority. Right 866-594-4150 that's the number to reach us here at the

under the hood show. Let's talk to Dean you're on the under the hood show Dean what can we do for you?

Hey Chris how you doing? Good how are you Dean? Good all right let's fix your car. I got a question

yeah I'm at 23 F-150 the other day I got out that oh they call it a quick reference guide that

comes with the pickup and towards the back in there under essential information it was called

under refueling I'll read it to you it said add at least a half a tank of fuel when switching

between regular unleaded fuel or e85 and drive the vehicle immediately after refueling for at

least five miles to allow the vehicle to adapt and change in ethanol concentration and then it

says if you use e85 exclusively which I do we recommend filling the fuel tank with regular fuel

or regular unleaded gasoline at each scheduled oil change now what's the reason for the

that last part because I use you know e85 in it all the time I've never heard this before.

They want that system to adjust and compensate if it doesn't if you don't do that it's going to

gradually switch back and then it's going to have starting issues and all sorts of stuff it needs to

see the change and you have to put at least that half a tank in there or it won't adjust properly

we get them come in all the time that we've got to go and reset the alcohol content monitor in

with a scan tool in order for it to run properly because they're just running back that GMs are

horrible for it the newer ones are getting better but the that still have it the ones that do have

it I mean they cut it out there but yeah that we were resetting that monitor all the time

because they it's a poor design system the ones built in like the 03 era had a optical

sensor in the fuel and it would constantly read you could put three drops of ethanol in there

three drops of regular it didn't care it would know it was live on the fly they said well that

part's expensive let's just monitor the 02 sensors for a change immediately after a refuel

now if you don't drive it if you refill it and drive right around the corner of your house and

turn it off it doesn't monitor that and now the thing's running horrible you got taken to the

shop they got to reset it it's not it's not good it's not a real good system russ I'd have to say

that and Chris is sitting there thinking huh if you have to read that in your quick reference guide

and rely on maybe a salesman to tell you nobody's doing that no and Chris says who reads a

reference guy nobody's doing that now the fact that it's in the quick reference guide is a good

idea like it's it maybe a 40 chance that consumers see it but boy that that's something that you

wouldn't know unless you were that extra level like you are Dean the wagon farmer I think I

um yeah I'm glad you read that but huh interesting that was interesting to me yeah I've heard

Russ talk about that before yeah I also have a 2020 f350 with the 6-2 in it and I burn it

you know e85 not all the time too no indeed we doing the same thing with that all of them

all the ones that are all the trucks that are made to run e85 that weren't built in like 2002 to 2006

I think is when they ended that sensor uh yeah if it's 07 or newer that's the way the system's

designed to run is it something that we're unaware of or people are unaware of because

most people don't run e85 that's true most most people don't run e85 they run the e15 and that's

it they go for even if they do even if they do they don't run it like all the time all the time

yeah they usually they'll usually get it really low and then try to refuel it then once they put

a full tank e85 in like in the winter the fuel prices go up and they see that their mileage dropped

off for a minute then they get scared and go back the other way instead of just running like

e30 all the time does that help you out there Dean yeah thanks a lot that explains what the

reason he knows behind that I guess thanks very much for the call thanks for this was this we

gained more from this than you did yeah and I'm sure and one thing I will say that just popped

into my head as he mentioned the quick reference guide for years our kids have had a online business

selling owners manuals we take out of the cars well the kids are getting older and it's starting

to wrap down and my wife's doing a little bit and we're just but what just a trend that I noticed

is that a lot of these new vehicles are not having an owner's manual in them anymore they just have a

small reference guide it's like a quick reference guide and then everything else is online in the

the gooey interface of the dashboard you go there to find your owner's manual and so it's just not

a thing anymore and I we had a we had three 20 25 Silverados come in I was like hmm they were

dismantling them for parts and one of them two of them had the little skinny manual and one had a

big thick one like well that's interesting and I looked them up just to see and the one was a work

truck okay that didn't have the big display and so it must have been a lesser feature so it didn't

get that option set so then they get a full size owner's manual in there yet so just something to

think about something you got to go online on your on your car's dashboard to look stuff up and that's

probably better once people get trained that way to go look at the current yeah but yeah because

they can change it if something changes they got control the data that way 8 6 6 5 9 4 4 1 5 0 let's

talk to chris here on the end of the hood show chris what can we do for you hello yeah I have a

2014 dodge caravan with 148 miles and I'm having trouble with the power rear gate

but at first I have just one quick little story Shannon was talking about exploding trees last

week yeah in late November 1970 I was deer hunting in Minnesota and the temperature was about negative

40 degrees I kept hearing these gunshots around me but there were no hunters and it was exploding

popl trees yeah if there's my story if a tree explodes in the woods and only chris hears it

right yeah nobody else dumb enough to be out there in that cold and now 50 years later you

have a cover story you're like see I told you yeah yeah it paid off well anyway my with my gate

rear gate if you close it manually uh it uh and then you press the button back there

oh wait a minute I got this wrong if it's opened manually and then I go to try to shut it using

the close button in the rear it will not close nothing happens there's no chime

the uh totally integrated power module has a code U0201 lost communication with left rear

door that's a hard failure it resets immediately and all the fuses are good that's what I know

yeah you've got a communication issue causing it not to work if there's a communication code

it's not going to work because it can't talk to it the switch can't be seen nothing can be seen

back there so that is what has to be it's like your printer being offline right just not you're

going to have to find out what's what's causing that the first thing step is you reset everything

and see what happens you know but reset it with a scan or disconnect the battery hook it all back

up see what happens and if that doesn't do it then you've got to get it into a shop where they've

got to go through the whole system look at the communication network find out why is it any

likely culprits brush that you've seen wire that's chewed by a rodent all right um a failed module

those things can all cause that because if the switch or something wasn't working it would be

able to tell you that it's open or closed or but you just can't the modules still communicate

but the switch just you'd look at at the button you push the button and it would say on the module

data oh no button's being pushed you know it'll tell you when it's on or off

so with my scanner I should be able to uh check that input you should be able to see yeah you

should be able to see the gate it should say open or closed it should say release button is pushed

or not pushed if you can't see any of that you can't the data is not flowing so you got to find

out what the data problem is so the mad so the module's either lost power because of a wiring issue

right or the the module has a problem it's got that gate module back there if it's got a broken wire

where it runs through the the door jam back there that could do that could be a likely suspect a

place to look possibly for sure that help you out there yeah because it uh yeah it uh it will

when you help it down then it will shut the rest of the way and then the front button

where you open that rear gate you press that and the gate pops open but it does not lift up it just

stays down and then it just reshuts itself and I did uh tried the battery disconnect

deal I did that for a couple of times and might just be that motor back there too I mean it's all

part of the same second self-contained just not grabbing it eat that no just not not working

not reading like it's supposed to part of the module back there but it does work so does it work

ever well he said when he pushes it down but some of that could be built into the way the motor is

built to have like a self-assist right the type of thing grab once it starts yeah and that might not

be commanded by the module that might be commanded by his motion but is that my saying that right

right position yep it's got a position sensor in it so that could be something that's it's yeah

that could be completely unrelated that it actually works there and and the button push

that might be tripping the latch might be tripping the latch but not giving the correct

internal signals to to uh command the motor yeah right okay so there's a lot of possibilities

oh it gets gets tricky when it's like that yeah Chris thanks very much for the call in this case

are we what what's what's the problem here we made it too complicated or are we too soft

yeah we just you know what I mean just close it right I mean I mean it's nice to have a gate

that closes when you push the button I I like those but I can close it the opening feature is what I

like when you stick your foot under the bumper and it opens that's a good I have stuff in my arms

all the time when I use one we have that I hardly ever drive but I use that all the time and uh

the only bad thing about that is if you've got it in a garage and the keys are in the vehicle

and there's no room to open the doors you got to make sure you turn it off

inside oh okay because if you got a cat or dog that walks under the vehicle it'll open

right into the wall I saying it can happen I find myself at the store planning like I I got the

cart and I know I'm gonna carry everything out I I have to plan for how I'm gonna get the door

open if it's real cold out or something you know that's how you dented your door don't don't start

with me I don't I don't need that right now when you buy bricks the end of the hood show podcast

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when i got my first specialty car i called up my agent and had him put it under my regular

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tool or give them a call 1-800-603-3330 that's 1-800-603-3330 welcome back everybody it's time

to get back under the hood with a motor medics eight six six five nine four four one five oh

that's the number to reach us here at the under the hood show don't forget if you miss an episode

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friends over at berkeley one classics celebrating 50 years of collector car coverage you know you

love your car a whole lot and if it's a classic collectible you know one of those performance

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a good one to get into uti.edu let's go to vermont and talk to roy you're on the under the hood

show roy what can we do for you hey how's it going guys good good well thanks so much for

taking my call you know we've got exploding trees up here too um so i've called in a few times with

minor issues in the past but i finally got a real issue i need some help with um so i'll

try to give you the short version um my wife and i have like a bunch of cars but they're all standard

and i had to have a knee operation so i needed something automatic to get me through a couple

of months while i was recovering so i bought this o2 nissan x terra got the 3.3 liter v6 it's the

supercharged model um only has like 106 000 miles uh and the previous owner told me that i had a

new quote unquote a used engine installed with 70 k on the engine um and everything you know

the car it looked really good really clean uh you know everything seemed to be in order um so i

bought it and got it home and i you know needed some needed some work like i did all new front

brakes and you know i put some money into it and i did a motor flush and when i put in the the fresh

oil um i decided i would drain that back out after just like a few days of driving um just to do like

sort of a secondary flush um but with no actual motor flush in the engine any longer um and i

noticed quite a bit of uh of of sparkles in the oil um you know gold uh bronze colored sparkles and

like you know a significant amount so i changed the oil again and drove it for like another

little bit and drained it out of you know a third time and and still sparkles so

my question is um i've driven it about 300 miles since then and there's no knocking uh it seems to

be running pretty well but i've never seen anything like that amount of you know metal material come

my oil before um and i'm wondering what you think i should do uh i did investigate um

sort of briefly with my local mechanic uh just like sort of hey what would a what would a reman

or a used engine cost to install if i needed that and he he quoted me like uh just over $10,000

for a used engine with a three year warranty so that's sort of out of the question for a $5,000 car

you couldn't just go with like a 2019 Corolla?

yeah i i wish i had yeah i really wish i had i you know my my plan this whole time was just

the you know i put five grand into this and then recover for my surgery and then i figured i could

probably get almost that out of it when i sold it um but of course now i can't you know i can't in

good conscience sell the car the way it is you know well if you can't sell it drive it drive it

for a year and if it still runs just as good then i'd say you can sell it in good conscience

it may be that that engine had a bunch of stuff from so if it's a reman and it had

was it reman or used they said that it was reman i think it was i'm pretty no i think it was

sorry i may i may have misspoke i think it was a used engine that they put in um it sure yeah

he told me it was a used engine and it sure looks like a used engine i don't even know if they make

a reman for that that's all i was saying so if they said it was a reman you've got metal filings

that are going to be in the engine that would have to come out but if it's a used engine it may

be that it's got if you've got a lot of sludge in the engine it will collect anything metal that's

in there it'll just kind of stick to the inside and when you wash it out it's common for us when

we take one apart and we're cleaning off valve cover there's going to be stuff in there that

doesn't come out so with your regular oil changes now the next time you change it oh watch and if

you have less metal in there and the next time you have even and there's nothing in there you

know air bubbles too will look shiny and sparkly but um it's very possible that um it'll stop it's

it just cleaned up a whole bunch of stuff so you you've got some stuff coming out of there that

is the engine making any extra noise or oil pressure oddities or anything like that um there's no

oil you know the oil pressure the like the low oil light hasn't come on um and the engine sounds

good for the most part it does it does have a little bit of a rough idle that uh sort of

i wouldn't i wouldn't maybe intermittent isn't the right word but it'll sort of rough idle for like

10 seconds and then the idle will come up for 10 seconds and then it'll rough idle for 10 seconds

and um you know i sort of assume that's more of a uh you know computer control issue or a sensor

issue than an actual internal engine issue but other than that um other than that it runs you

know it runs well maybe you're running a little bit rich it smells like um but you know i'm very

limited right now i just had a meniscus surgery so i'm super limited as to what i can actually do

and you know it's like negative five degrees so give it give it a couple weeks right now yeah

but i i really if it's not noisy and your oil pressure isn't way low when it gets warmed up

i wouldn't be as alarmed as you are right now i think that uh like russ said if you run it a

and get it cleaned out you might want to try a an oil system cleaner uh as your next oil change

did you say you did that or not i can't remember yeah i did do that i'd actually did i actually i

didn't say but i actually did that twice before i put in you know straight oil yeah you you might be

breaking some stuff loose and maybe when you don't know why the first engine failed do you by chance

why they put a different engine in did anybody say why they did that i don't know i tried to find out

my assumption was because the car has 105 000 miles and the timing belt interval is 105 000 miles

i assumed that it was a timing belt okay but i don't know yeah because if it happened to had a

a failure and a bearing or something there could have been some things left in cooler lines if

somebody didn't didn't do a proper flush there could have been some you know things that were left behind

that are now coming out and if they didn't do extra damage going through the system

it just made you just get needs to get flushed out system that's a total theory okay yeah

because engine oil cooler lines we've we run into this lot they will hold debris

the coolers and the external coolers of an engine that are go through a radiator in a lot of vehicles

uh it's it's probably shows itself the worst in transmissions

but in engines we see the same problem we used to have it with the vortex that people would buy

a used engine we'd have a great run an engine with 40 000 miles you know just a nice clean

engine and somebody calls but gosh we drove this thing for about 50 miles and now the rods are not

okay like did you put new oil cooler lines on it no oh gosh why should i do that what was wrong

with your old engine well it was knocking in the bottom well you just dumped all your metal

filings right into the crank journals it's the first dump out of there and so you got that's why

these cooler flushes and things are so important you let's let's be optimistic that you might have

some debris you just need to get cleaned out of there and and then if it slows down and quits

and it's still running good and oil pressure is good i'd say let not your heart be troubled

for what for the value of the vehicle and what it is i think you're fine

well that that would be excellent i'd really love that because i actually you know i plan

was to sell it but i actually really like it you know it's super clean it's everything works well

it's bright yellow and it's uh it's fun to drive so i'd really love to keep it at this point but i

just you know i was getting kind of a little bit worried about all those metal shavings so sure

but yeah i'm optimism is the only thing i've really got right now

i'll go with that roi thanks very much for the call good luck eight six six five nine four

four one five oh now let's talk about uh your facebook post because we have a guest on the

phone there shannon yeah we've got mike on the phone i i actually talked to him last night on the

phone i got a a referral from the president of the sue falls corvette club mark mike hardy

and i don't go to their page all the time but their algorithm on facebook apparently thought i

needed to see this because it came up on my feed because i was doing a little bit of scrolling

before i went to bed and the picture caught my attention so i got the picture now directly from

mike and uh he's currently in tucson arizona and if you do not go to our facebook page go there

under the hood show and look at the picture and it'll catch your attention for sure if it doesn't

catch your attention you're not interesting you're not interested in much of anything right i would

say so yeah okay so mike um when i what first of all welcome to the end of the hood show thanks for

calling what are we seeing in that picture oh yeah what are we seeing when when you lifted up the

hood this is a 2016 corvette stingray is what just to kind of get to the quick on that um just a nice

stingray not the zero six or anything but a beautiful car and what are we seeing that you found

when you opened the hood uh well first of all i'm not in tucson i'm in cold canyone arizona right

now okay i had that wrong we're we're snow we're we're yeah that's right we're snow birds so we

come down in the wintertime and i live in wyoming chardon wyoming in the summertime so uh when i'm

when we're in wyoming i leave the corvette down here and uh put it up on jack stands and cover it

the battery tender on it's in a garage and uh never had any problem before but anyway

what you're seeing under there are pods from the the mesquite trees down here the the pack rats

love to eat them evidently because there's a bunch of them in there well and you know what i did

pods were i did a little bit of crack research on pack rats because i did not know until this

post in our communication that a pack rat was a real thing oh i thought it was always a a reference

and every reference goes back to something real a family member yeah right yeah and so it was

interesting to me that that pack rat i think is the right term they built their midden right

there underneath the hood of your car and these pack rats they're they will the wood rats is another

name for them okay i'm just i'm being smart yeah i just read this the big big wood rats in texas

are nasty and they will actually they're they are true pack rats because they can be carrying

something to bring to their midden their nests and if they see something better along the way

they'll drop it and and in lieu of picking up something better to take with them and so apparently

they think so apparently they liked uh those tree seeds but they also liked insulation yeah they're

and uh what else did you find it oh yeah oh they had cactus in there uh we've got what to call

jump enjoya around here and they're really stickery and they had a bunch of those in there too so by

the time i got a lot that cleaned out i had a lot of stickers in my hands so listen to this this car

was on jack stands this car was yeah it was covered in a in a in a temperature controlled garage

you and i talked about this how did they get how did they get in there

well we got a it's also my wife's laundry room out there and um the dryer vent was out the wall

well it has a flapper on the outside you know and i didn't think anything of it but it was plastic

and they chewed through that plastic and once they got through the plastic flap and they got into

the hose it goes into the dryer and you know there's their wire wound but they chewed around all

wires and then they could just push right through so they had a clear path getting in and out of the

garage we could smell it or better let's get in there corvettes are great places to hang out

well you know the picture and the go ahead the problem with them is you know you can clean stuff

out but they like to chew on the wires yeah they didn't do they didn't just make a nest

this is an insurance claim no they didn't just yeah this is insurance claim yes i did

yeah they didn't get inside the car they got under the hood and then underneath the car correct

that's correct yeah they didn't get in the car bar the cabin of the car they didn't get in there

if they would have i think it would have been totaled it would have been most likely

i'd most likely would have been totaled because they'd been that there's so much unknown because

they just can't see everything and so yeah was there any odor associated with it

no not much not much at all and so i don't understand well there was some but but uh

once you got all the pods and everything cleaned out but that pretty much went away

the pods and the nests there was like there was two nests in there and all those tree pods

if you if you if you if you have yourself a pack rat problem this is like another level

boost the amount of material that they bring in but they still are doing damage do you think new

hampshire uh under oil coatings uh and also you would work for pack rats well i i've got it i've

got it sealed up now they'll never get back in that garage again so i i put screen over the

the dryer vents they can't get in there anymore i wish i'd have done it beforehand but that's

what i want to know i want when you oh i mean when you put bars on it like a jail the first

moment you saw it and your brain was able to put together what was going on what no what was the

thought uh just about cried i yeah i can imagine because we've had you know we've had evidence of

mice in our garage and i freaked out immediately and i don't have a car story the only thing that

could be worse chris is if this wasn't a newer corvette but something that he had restored

and customized himself and spent so much time putting together and then it's not like the

insurance company can come take care of it for you right even even berkeley won classics you're

talking about okay i got it insured for 200 000 because it's some super specialty corvette

and then they do that you're like but it doesn't get my car right and that can that can be the same

for the newer ones as well but mike we appreciate you coming on and kind of yeah give us i got i got

your part number i got your part number i haven't had a chance to look you have had meetings this

morning before the show but i'll uh i'll get somebody to dig into that part number and see

if we can find one they got one part that they haven't been able to get new and uh so they're

not able to drive the car right now so i'm gonna i'm gonna have somebody see if they can help them

out and find a good quality used part uh for that so yeah i would think there should be something

out there somewhere like that i've done all the checking i can and i've got a little automation

here to chivalry dealership and uh they can't find it either they everything's back order back

order so so there mike thanks very much for joining us on the show that it's a good lesson

there too because the car was buttoned up got it all taken care of and still go to under the hood

show on uh facebook or instagram then you'll see that picture we're talking about with

associated with this story thanks mike 866-594-41 5 0 that's the number to reach us here at the

end of the hood show let's go to oklahoma and talk to mike you're on the end of the hood show mike

what can we do for you yeah hey guys i appreciate the show i really do so uh yeah i've got something

going on mike it's my son's 1997 k-2500 basically the truck was given to him his first vehicle's

drive we're skeptical 57 in it about 236 000 miles on it i just happened to about a week

we could go so it was all the bad weather coming on i opened the the radiator cap and boy howdy i've

got black gooey something's bad in the radiator so i assume it's it's all the truck hadn't been

running bad there was no signs of engine light no uh you know stutter and in the or missing any you

know the driving any issues there no white smoke out the back i'm kind of looking for a plan of

action i haven't touched it since then obviously this bad weather so i'm really kind of going around

in my mind what to do i uh my thought was to replace the radiator you know flush it out

and kind of kind of go that route i've been through the truck left and right i could talk for five

minutes i'm well i've been to it's kind of been my project on the side probably ended up being my

truck after he moves on right son's a father truck everything i didn't do in high school

on mechanics in the early 80s right but anyway i just kind of watch your thoughts on that what what

really should i do i'm really concerned about because i changed the heater core i mean i went

through the radiator flushed it out new hoses thermostat back in february of 2024 and again

i just happened to stumble on this thing and i'm kind of i'm kind of had a decision and i probably

will do something with the engine i just didn't want to do it right now um so like i said it's

just sitting there and i'm looking for a plan of action what what kind of should i do if i get a new

radiator and go that route because i maybe the the old cooler is is you know the plastic tank is

cracked but well what's what's your thoughts what what kind of what should i do i mean i think it's

well more than likely the radiator's got a broken cooler inside of it it's really common we see that

enough that that's usually what it is is compared to a head gasket leaking oil in there if it's not

overheating or anything yeah so yeah put a radiator in and you got to try to flush it out but you're

only going to get so much of it out of there it's going to have oil forever i mean even if you know

when we have one coming it's got oil and coolant mixed like that and we put a remanufactured engine

in it with a new radiator and new hoses on it and then we wash out the heater core really good

the heater core is the last thing left and even with a tiny little bit of oil in it we'll still get

some oil in the cooling system and then they get all nervous and say well there's there's oil in there

what are what am i going to do it's still got oil it's like no everything's brand new except for

your heater core and you didn't want to spend another 1500 do that so we flushed it out you're

going to get some residue it's going to keep the water pump lubricated deal with it but more than

likely it's that radiator now the only other thing you can do to find out for sure what's going on

with that you take the radiator out you get yourself a pressure gauge you can get fittings

and adapters but you can go to a home improvement store and get a pressure gauge for water for your

garden hose hook it up with a t and tap it into the oil cooler line on the radiator and then plug

the other one up with a black brass plug turn on the water and and leave it and it'll pressurize

most house water systems in a city or about 60 to 80 pounds and that's fine because it's oil pressure

and just wait and if water from that cooler now and oil starts coming out the radiator

somewhere else where it's only supposed to have coolant you know that cooler was bad

but if you're going to go through all that you might as well just throw a radiator and

flush it out and see what happens more than likely it's it's bad you could try putting some air in it

and hold it under water and see if air bubbles out where it shouldn't but we see so many of

those it's usually right at the fitting where the cooler bolts into the plastic on the end of the

tanks it cracks around there where it's soldered and and then leaks it's a it's a common problem

with the with that k series truck it just happens the k and c with an oil cooler or the

tranny cooler lines on either side of it kind of hoping you'd say that right i was kind of hoping

you'd say that's kind of giving me more um you know direction to go to in that but as far as

flushing the engine out because i mean i could take the hose off where thermostats out and

put some water down that or even take it out i could isolate the heater core right you take out

take the heater hoses off wash that out really good take the take the bottom hose off the engine

off the water pump the top hose off take thermostat out pour water in both directions try to get it

cleaned out as best you can there's no product really that you can put in there to really help

to break up oil you can with rust they have an elite rust but not petroleum products and wash

it out really good and then when you're done though you've got to put the right mixture of

antifreeze in it you're gonna have a lot of water in that block and unless you can get the block plugs

out the the bolts that drain it which is really rare on those in a truck still um you could try

but if you can't get them out if you've got a block heater in one side you could pull that out

and you could drain it there or knock out two of the frost plugs and put a block heater in both

sides just to plug the holes later because you can't won't be able to pound a plug in but wash it

out really good but what we would suggest is when you put it back together since you know you've

got some water in the block use a straight antifreeze our partner at peak has pre-mix but they also

have a straight coolant you'll want to get the straight coolant to put in there and then as you

top it off check the percentage and and to make sure you have no raw water in the block to freeze

and is this this truck radiator an affordable radiator yeah they're not too bad probably a

hundred bucks yeah mike thanks very much for the call good luck that's going to do it for the

under the hood show until next time you can find us at under the hood show dot com thanks for listening

to the under the hood show with russ evans this is shannon orts from thanking you for tuning into

the north's under the hood show have a great day and remember ptla the opinions heard on this program

based on the many years of experience of russ and shannon are offered for entertainment value only

and as a guide to your repair needs no claim to repair or cause is given or implied always

consult with your own certified technician and follow all safety procedures before attempting

any repair to be a part of the show call 866-594-4150 find out more by visiting under the hood show

dot com under the hood is produced by prairie house productions all content is the property of

Nordstrom's automotive incorporated and may not be used without our permission copyright Nordstrom's

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