timing belt/coolant questions

[greenquark]

Hi there,

A while ago I had an oil leak around the distributor o ring. Someone pointed out to check the heater hoses around that area because they must have been compromised. Yesterday, I replaced the "U - shape" hose and indeed was really really in bad shape. Here my question.

I replaced the timing belt at 106 000 miles. I am running around 170 000 miles now. I already have the kit for timing belt/water pump/tensioners . Should I wait to interval of 90 000 miles between replacement or should I do it now?

Since I replaced the hose,some coolant ran off. my other question is : During summer Does it hurt to run the cooling system with water only (either distilled or deionized ) until I do the timing belt replacement ( probably next week if someone here advises me to do so) . On the contrary , I will flush and replace the coolant system with the honda blue stuff.

Thanks in advance

[Raf99]

You can wait to do the timing belt, etc. No harm here if you wait or do it now.
You can run water in the cooling system as long as it does not freeze. If you are already running mixed coolant in the system I would just go buy a jug and top it up. When you do the timing belt you'll have coolant left over to use.

[H311RA151N]

The o-ring isn't the only part in that area which can fail and cause an oil leak. In case you are not already aware, there is a shaft seal down inside the distributor that you cannot see unless you look down inside of it with the cap removed. If you have an oil leak on that side of the engine it can only be three things. Valve cover, that o-ring your talking about and the internal distributor shaft seal. You may know this already and if so I apologize. It's just most of the time when the o-ring is bad so is the seal. And people wonder why they still have an oil leak after replacing the o-ring.

It doesn't take much of an oil leak to saturate a rubber hose. Oil makes rubber hoses soft which isn't good. The U shaped hose your referring to would have to be the bypass hose.

Your 26,000 miles away from the service interval. Kinda your call although I would recommend getting things in order to tackle it before long. I typically like to change mine at about 70,000 but that's just my preference.

It's not a good idea to run straight or near straight water in a coolant system. Aside from heat transfer antifreeze has many other properties that make the correct antifreeze to water ratio a necessity. Only exemption I can think of would be at the drag strip where they require you to run straight water with no antifreeze or additives. But that's in regards the condition of the track in the event of a hose busting or other mechanical failures that would spew coolant on the pavement.

Corrosion prevention, increased heat transfer ability over straight water and foaming prevention are just a few examples of why you need antifreeze in your coolant system.

I have also witnessed on a couple occasions where someone fills their coolant system with straight water in the spring or summer months then forgets about doing so in the winter. Which busts the block when the water inside freezes.

The blue type II coolant has a longer life. I have read that it has a 10 year life span compared to green which has a life span of approximately 5 years. I don't find type II necessary. I need a timing belt and water pump change every 5 years at the very most so I'm left draining the coolant system anyhow. 18,000 miles a year in 5 years your at 90,000 miles.

[greenquark]

Thanks H311RA151N for the input. I also replaced that o-ring inside the distributor. The instructions I followed are on this forum. Great help!


Thanks Raf for the input.

I still Have some blue stuff from honda. But I was thinking which way was "better" to used what I have left and top it up with distilled water or use distilled water until next week.

I will replace timing belt next week. Better today, than tomorrow .

Speaking of coolant. I was flushing the radiator I noticed minute traces of oil. I swept my pinkie around the radiator hole and this is what I got. Kind of residue , it feels like oil.

What could it be? Is it normal? I replaced the radiator like 10 years ago.

[H311RA151N]

Anytime.


You can top it off with water. That's not an issue. I've got a mystery leak myself. I switch off between topping the radiator with water (bottled) and topping it with straight antifreeze. Just in attempt to keep the ratio as close to correct as possible while losing & adding coolant. They have testers at auto parts stores for this as well. 50/50 or Prestone 50/50 at least, protects down to -34*F.

That black stuff is likely just minerals. Where I live is the land of the dead for water heaters. Water here is so hard you need a couple different filters on your house just to filter out all the calcium and lime. If you put tap water in a humidifier when the tank needs refilled again your left with that black chalk like stuff (which are minerals) on the heating element cover and some black particles floating around in what little water remains. All water has some kind of minerals in it.

Someone likely put non-distilled/purified water in your radiator at one time. Actually in doing so (if one left out antifreeze) you would be distilling water with your engine. That black chalk like stuff is the contaminants from water like minerals and metals which form when water comes in direct contact with a really hot surface or is boiled (distlled).

Actually were getting back into a characteristic of antifreeze and why it's necessary. It helps prevent scale build up and furring of the minerals that are found in water. It's able to do so unless the water is highly diluted with these impurities. In this sense antifreeze is like a cleaner for your coolant system. It just doesn't do the cleaning. It's presence keeps the system from getting gunked up in the first place.

If it were oil it would be about the color of a dirty pair of once white socks (or similar to the color of a vanilla milkshake) and be a thick liquid that doesn't have the tendency to run like oil. Coolant and oil make a sticky white sludge like mixture.