White smoke out the exhaust, misfire on #5, coolant blowing out the expansion bottle. Opened it up and #5 had evidence of coolant.

Running with an open stat at 140*, there were no misfires and no white exhaust.

Cause its a hell of alot cheaper and easier to run a sealant and replace the radiator than replacing or top-hatting the engine.

Also, Irontite had some decent word of mouth.

 

A couple of thoughts.
White smoke out the exhaust, when warm is a head gasket, cracked head or block or worse yet a dropped sleeve.
You should never run, nor do they make a 140 degree t/stat for a D2, engine will run too cold and stay in open loop causing it to run to rich.

 

It feels like you arent carefully reading the linked thread or this one, as this stuff has been covered. But since I know you are only trying to help Ill answer them again...

Its not the head gaskets. The previous gaskets were installed upside down, but other than that were fine. If you look at the thread linked in the first post of this one, you will see #5 had evidence of coolant cleaning.

Engine does not have any tapping or clanking when warm.

I know they dont make one, I got a junkyard stat and bent the bar to make it permanently open. I ran it with the open stat for about an hour to see how bad of a crack I was dealing with. The cooling system did not pressurize and there were no misfires on the next startup, so I assume the crack was only porous at higher temps.

 

If you go with the in-line thermostat option, you can start with a 180 also. You could also find a 160 if needed to keep you rolling until funding allows more complex engine work. I think the in-line option might have an advantage in that no quantity of hot coolant is shunted back to the engine, it all goes thru the radiator.

A new medical condition, "Rover Optic Nerve Fatigue" has been "discovered" in owners with OBDII temperature monitoring.

 

Given the viscous fan is shot and the radiator is at least a little compromised, Im gonna see how a regular 180 stat does with a new radiator and fan clutch.

Haha, totally...one weekend with a touchy D2 is all the contagion one needs!

 

.....open loop

 

Ok, got the 180 thermostat and new Silla radiator in with the original fan. Due to a coolant bleed fountain mishap, I lost the bleed screw. Ill give a bump to the info that the BMW dealership has an exact replacement with o-ring for 4 bucks

Warmed it for about 15 min then drove to a golf course near by. All told it ran for 45 min or so. In 65* weather, it runs at about 195 at neighborhood speeds and 199-201 for stoplight idle. With the heater on it drops to the 180s.

No misfire codes. Looks pretty good so far for an engine that would quickly steam a cylinder throwing a misfire after every start.

I did a hot fan test when I got home. It spun about 1/3 to 1/2 the first few times, then would do full rotations after that.

How much more will a good fan drop the temps?

 

Would be noticed at idle and slow speeds, and as ambient ramps up (spring time is about gone where I am) it will make more of a difference. Plus the existing one will continue to get worse. So you burning the candle at both ends.

Heater on making big drops means heater is cooling more than the fan+radiator combination alone. So the clutch fan will be noticed when you repair it, it will keep temps lower of a wider range. It won't go below the mechanical limits of the thermostat. Clutch would be a 2000 Chevy Express 4.3 liter w/o AC.

 

how did you flush the block before installing the irontite or did you?

 

Sounds like this is the next step. I already got the clutch at autozone, but, since the '04 fan is once piece, I need to source a D1 or early D2 from the used guys.