JHZR2
Staff member
Literally writing this from the side of the interstate waiting on AAA.
Was driving my 1991 MB 350SD, 65-70 mph, heard a clang, felt like it bumped on my tire. Watched gauges and mirror, saw something was kicked up. Looked at gauges and saw temperatures rising.
Turned on heat as fast as I could, looking for a safe stopping place, pulled over and shut off. Not sure how far I went in that time, a few tenths?
Pulled over to find that the fan had come off, blade hit radiator, total coolant loss.
Ugh.
I think the fan just fell down in there, but the right pulley, and smacked the radiator.
Stupid Chinese fan clutch. Bought it based upon photos on rock auto. Stupid me. Thought it was reboxed OEM. Stupid me. Installed it anyway. Still stupid me. Realized it didn’t cycle (there’s a thread on that). Stupid again. Kept the car consistently cool. Beautiful cold AC.
But somehow the bolt backed out. It’s not broken. Notionally the water pump is ok.
I can’t spin the bearing in the fan clutch though. I think it seized and caused the bolt to back out.
The good-ish news is that I never saw the needle go over 100C. I shut it down before then. I pulled load relatively quickly when checking things, and was at highway speed so I guess there was some ram air.
I waited about 20 mins, turned the key to on, the gauge temperature reading is below 80C. I cranked the engine and it started perfect and idled beautifully and as usual for the 5-10s I let it.
Mercedes has an “upgraded” 11 fin plastic fan and matching OE clutch. So I’ll get that. No idea about radiators… project will probably be on hold until sept.
Questions:
1) what’s the chance that I destroyed my engine losing all coolant at highway speed? It is an iron/aluminum engine unfortunately.
2) what’s the chance that my head gasket was weakened or affected by this even though the engine runs?
3) if I need to maneuver the car where it’s parked, is this an issue to run for maybe 10-15s at a time if I let it cool in between?
4) If I want to wait for cooler weather to replace the radiator and fan, should I be concerned about corrosion in the system? Obviously all coolant is gone more or less. It had JD Cool Gard in it.
5) can I get this radiator repaired? Or the plastic top transferred to another?
Im most bummed because I doubt I’ll find a nice OE radiator like this again. Ugh.
Thanks for any insights….
Was driving my 1991 MB 350SD, 65-70 mph, heard a clang, felt like it bumped on my tire. Watched gauges and mirror, saw something was kicked up. Looked at gauges and saw temperatures rising.
Turned on heat as fast as I could, looking for a safe stopping place, pulled over and shut off. Not sure how far I went in that time, a few tenths?
Pulled over to find that the fan had come off, blade hit radiator, total coolant loss.
Ugh.
I think the fan just fell down in there, but the right pulley, and smacked the radiator.
Stupid Chinese fan clutch. Bought it based upon photos on rock auto. Stupid me. Thought it was reboxed OEM. Stupid me. Installed it anyway. Still stupid me. Realized it didn’t cycle (there’s a thread on that). Stupid again. Kept the car consistently cool. Beautiful cold AC.
But somehow the bolt backed out. It’s not broken. Notionally the water pump is ok.
I can’t spin the bearing in the fan clutch though. I think it seized and caused the bolt to back out.
The good-ish news is that I never saw the needle go over 100C. I shut it down before then. I pulled load relatively quickly when checking things, and was at highway speed so I guess there was some ram air.
I waited about 20 mins, turned the key to on, the gauge temperature reading is below 80C. I cranked the engine and it started perfect and idled beautifully and as usual for the 5-10s I let it.
Mercedes has an “upgraded” 11 fin plastic fan and matching OE clutch. So I’ll get that. No idea about radiators… project will probably be on hold until sept.
Questions:
1) what’s the chance that I destroyed my engine losing all coolant at highway speed? It is an iron/aluminum engine unfortunately.
2) what’s the chance that my head gasket was weakened or affected by this even though the engine runs?
3) if I need to maneuver the car where it’s parked, is this an issue to run for maybe 10-15s at a time if I let it cool in between?
4) If I want to wait for cooler weather to replace the radiator and fan, should I be concerned about corrosion in the system? Obviously all coolant is gone more or less. It had JD Cool Gard in it.
5) can I get this radiator repaired? Or the plastic top transferred to another?
Im most bummed because I doubt I’ll find a nice OE radiator like this again. Ugh.
Thanks for any insights….